" Make Sure Your Car Is Washed & Clean ! "

Words & their effect !

We are splashing out on an extra car insurance and our kind Insurance Agent especially came to our house to see us. Thinking back, he did park his pin-neat car behind our car at some point. Anyway, we talked, negotiated and got it done.

Except for this terse email message from him : Your car needs to be inspected independently, and make sure when you have it inspected, that it is washed & cleaned...

Well, at first I thought that our car was rather dirty. Then ( oh, the power of the written word ) the usual thought process started its course. Couldn't he have put it a bit nicer. Surely he couldn't assume that our car is always dirty ? Never mind, that he is spot on in his assessment. Look, we are always ferrying plants, wood, old stuff and other things around. They do leave an imprint !

Yet, I admit, that I was a bit insulted by this command. But regardless, we took our chariot to the garage for cleaning. To be more specific, to a self-service one...These " car wash cubicles " are very challenging and difficult for anyone who has never used or even seen one - yes, us !

You have a vacuum station: put in 1 Euro and get a minute of vacuum time. A different station is for the wash-cycle. Again you pay by the minute. Have you ever tried to lather your car in 30 seconds and use the other 30 seconds for the rinse cycle ? We should have filmed it for YouTube, because the two of us doing a one-minute sprint in and out of our car, was too funny for words.

So, yesterday we took the car do be assessed by the A.A.A. While we were walking with the assessor to our car, he also asked us: " You did wash your car, didn't you ? " My goodness, a conspiracy of clean car fanatics...

He must have seen my face drop, because he elaborated and told me: " You know, just the outside of the car needs to be clean, so that I can inspect it for any scratches or dents. I am not even worried about the inside. "

After a second to digest this bit of welcome news, I started to laugh. Talk about a misunderstanding...anyway, at least our car is looking spic & span !

Biggi