Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. We have been very blessed with my nephews car as he is on his mission. It's a sporty little Subaru with lots of grunt. We all had to adjust to right hand steering and driving on the left side of the road, also it is a manual stick shift which of course you change with your left hand.
It has the usual remote that locks/unlocks the doors and arms/disarms the alarm. It also has this feature where if you don't put the key in the ignition within 30 seconds the alarm resets itself and the car won't start until you click the disarm button on the remote again. If you keep trying to start the car, the alarm will go off. Kinda useful I guess to further stop someone from stealing/hotwiring your car.
So now onto my story for the day. Peter and I drove to the local shopping center where we went to a book store to look at books. Then he left to cross the road to the train station to catch a train into Wellington city and then on to catch a plane.
I go out to the parking lot, click the remote to unlock the car and get inside and sit down. I put my bags and packages down. I take longer than 30 seconds so the car beeps and the alarm resets. No big deal, I just reach for the remote to click it again. Problem is the remote is no longer on my key chain. What??! It has somehow fallen off. Searching....., searching....., under seats, down beside seats, outside the car, in my pockets, in my bags. Nowhere. Panic!! Can't start the car,... stranded in parking lot, ....panic! I probably wouldn't be a good contestant in the Amazing Race. I would be one of those women that lose it and melt down in the middle of India. I need to share my panic with someone else. I walk over to the railway station to find hubby. Luckily he is still there. He very patiently comes back with me to help me look for stupid, disappearing remote. 30 minutes later, still no remote. Ask store owners if a remote had been handed in - no. Pretty much tear apart inside of car. Nothing. (Well actually, did find various candy bar wrappers, some scratched CD's, a bouncy ball, but nothing that will help us start the car). Finally decide to make use of our AA membership ( like AAA but of course with one less "A") AA guy comes 10 minutes later, he too searches throughout car, under car, beside car, (probably thinking what sort of moron loses their remote between clicking unlock and getting into the car). Finally he decides to try and remove the alarm and rewire it, by-passing the system. The alarm keeps going off as he works on it. Draw many looks from passers-by, ...smile, ....try not to look shifty or suspicious, ....hope they notice guy in official type AA uniform and don't call police.
The remote still has not re-materialised, and will end up being one of those unsolved mysteries of the universe.
So now we are driving a semi hotwired car until we get a replacement remote. Happy day!
2 comments:
Jacquie, I felt like I was right there with you and starting to panic myself. You're a good story teller! Perhaps the remote is with all those missing socks from the dryer.
That is a pretty funny story and one that would most likely happen to me. I love reading your entries because I only hear them in you voice with the accent and it makes it so much better! (not that an american accent is boring). Maybe one day you'll find that darn remote in the wash or in a shoe or something!
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