Cashcow and Spawtage

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellow,

Caro was not happy. 

For one thing, she took her defensive driving test this morning and she got just seven out of ten. It's still a pass but it's not a "Caro pass".

"I'm not used to not passing things with one hundred per cent," she growled.

And anyway, it sounds like her tester was kind of an @rsehole. He and Caro's driving instructor have history. And he let it influence his opinion.

Apparently Caro has been taught "the wrong words" to describe potential hazards even though she was correctly identifying potential hazards. Consequently Caro had to think what words to use when identifying potential hazards. And as a result, the tester said her reactions were "too slow".

@rsehole.

But anyway, she was in a bad mood when she got home. And then. AND THEN. Someone bought her Sportage. 

This was one that Craigy had found for her in Porirua. And the second one which had been bought out from under Caro. 

"F*CK!! F*CK!!!" she spat. 

"It's pronounced 'Spawt-age'," said Manda in her Massachusetts accent when Caro told her. "Not Sport-aaahhj, but Spawt-age'."

Jefe and Manda offered to help. They took us to Porirua, theoretically to look at the Spawt-age. Now it was gone, Caro tried out a Qashqai and a Juke instead. 

"What's that?" asked Jefe. "The Quash-co? The Quai-Gon? The Cash-cow?"

We liked the Qashqai a lot. Jefe drove it first and said it was like driving "on rails". Then he made Caro drive it. In traffic. 

"I'm sh*tting myself," said Caro.

"You gotta drive in traffic," he insisted.

"You are SUCH a dad," she replied.

So Caro preferred the Qashqai to the Juke but felt it was too big for her. She wasn't sure how she would feel driving on smaller roads with it. All the same, she was heading in that direction when...

SOME EFFER BOUGHT IT AHEAD OF HER

"Oh my GOD!" snapped Caro.

Jefe was also shopping around. "I like the Mazdas," he said. "I had one back in Florida, my son had one..." 

He decided to test drive a CX-3. "You should try it," he told Caro. 

And it turns out that it was PERFECT. The size and safety she wanted, but not so big as to make her nervous. 

"You're buying MY car?" spluttered Jefe. "I come here and help out and SHE buys MY car..."

He didn't mind really. He and Manda were having a lovely day. Jefe loves helping Caro and Manda would do anything for her too. We took them for dinner afterward to thank them for helping us out so much and Caro called Shenée and Craig to thank them too. 

We'll take them to dinner another time. 

We got home after a long day, exhausted. 

But Caro was happy.

S.