The incident of the runaway car.....
on Hells Bells Hits Cambodia (Cambodia), 11/Oct/2010 15:55, 34 days ago
So I didn't think I would have too much to write about before I actually arrived in Cambodia but thanks to the curious case of the silver corsa I do!It was a normal cool October evening in Sunderland. I was visiting some friends for a catch up and to babysit their children while they went out. I took my parents lovely little corsa, which I have managed to drive for years and never cause so much as a scratch on, and parked it outside my friends house on a SLIGHT incline. I checked the handbrake was on properly and went inside. After 35 minutes of catching up my friends went out. The kids and I waved at them through the window as they walked past the lovely little corsa (which hadn't moved an inch) and got in their own car and left. The next 35 minutes were spent playing caterpillars, finishing our tea and picking a DVD to watch before bed time. Then there was a knock at the door.I answered to reveal a woman who asked if I owned a silver/blue corsa.'Yes' I answered perplexed as I looked behind her to see it was gone.'Where is it?' I demanded, slightly panicked.'Over there next to the police van'. Pause. 'It crashed into a wall. You've obviously not put the hand brake on properly' (cue judgmental look from woman), 'It actually crashed into an old lady's garden wall. She got quite a shock'.'Well I can't leave the house, I don't live here, I'm babysitting. The kids are only 2 and 5'. The woman looked at the kids and seemed to soften a bit.'Well I'll tell the police woman to come over to you. Stay there'.I then had phonecalls with my parents who the police had already contacted so were on their way over. When they arrived Mum came and watched the kids so I could go to the scene of the crime. Dad was already there and the old woman had her son there, so they were all swapping insurance details. The car had rolled back onto the main road, somehow done a very wide, 180 degree turn and then bounced off the garden wall, totally demolishing it and wrecking the back of the car.I went inside the house to apologise to the old lady.'I'm so sorry. I had put the hand brake on properly, but I am very sorry'.Old lady, slightly shaking, replies; 'It's O.K. I mean I did get an awful shock. And I am 86. And I have just had a spinal operation. But it's fine.''I'm so, so sorry.''I thought the house was coming down. Then I looked out the window and saw the car. I was very confused when I saw there was no one in it'.Thankfully my parents have been very nice about it considering I just wrecked the car. Everyone assures me that it wasn't my fault, - after all, if I hadn't put the handbrake on properly it wouldn't have remained stationary for 35 minutes before my friends left. All the same, everyone has also explained how I'm very lucky the car didn't stay on the main road and cause a major accident.So we are a household with one car for my last few days in England, which has got me out of going to the gym, therefore there's been no point in sticking to my diet, so I have been eating whatever I like, assuring myself that I'll sweat a few pounds off when I'm in the 35 degree heat of Cambodia.