Lessons

I survived the crash. The optimist in me would like to think that it happened for a good reason. Maybe I'm not meant to drive the car the next few weeks. Who knows? Something much worse might happen if I drove around.

Alex, of course, insists that there's a lesson to be learnt here. He's right, of course. I have no excuse for what happened. I was careless and a little absent-minded when the car slid down and crashed through the garage door. Here's what we've learnt following the accident.

Lesson 1: Always check the gear status! I obviously forgot to put the gear in reverse when I wanted to back the car up a bit. It was still in drive mode. So the minute I released the brake, it went forward.

Lesson 2: Ask the right questions when dealing with tradesmen. We made some calls to garage door specialists to come to the house and give us a quote to fix the garage. We forgot to ask if the measure and quote was done free and was charged AUD110 just for one guy to come and have a look! If possible, call up the guys who provide free quotes.

Lesson 3: Check with the insurance agent what really is covered. Apparently we can claim for the damage done to the garage door too. It's now considered a third party claim. Luckily Alex had the good sense to bombard his insurance agents with all kinds of questions.

Lesson 4: Don't buy a big powerful car for the wife who can't drive properly! I doubt Alex will see the sense of this, though. He insists I should be grateful for having such a nice car. Indeed it is a nice car, probably too nice for a clueless driver like me. An old bomb with automatic gear will do just fine. At least I won't be under such pressure driving it. You listening, Alex??

Meantime, it's back to the buses ...