Tag Archives: car

A very Lucky Day for the Love Family

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A very Lucky day for the Love family
03 Dec

On Wednesdays Benno goes to swimming lessons and we go to town for the weekly shop – animal feed, essentials and fruit for the 3 foot fruit bat! Normally we are running late, but last week we were even early, despite Tinkerbell having escaped from her starvation paddock and spending time putting her back where she belonged.

We have two new Swedish wwoofers and they were in the car with Ben and I too. We were all set for our big sojourn in the city. A little sleepy but fine. About 25klms after we got off the dirt and onto the highway there was a bang and that unmistakeable noise of a flat tire. The car swerved violently and skidded and I managed to steer it down in the grass gutter and along the side of the rock wall for about 20 metres before the car was spat out onto the highway and the impetus flipped it onto the passenger side. We traversed the highway on our side for approximately 50 metres at a 45 degree angle and ended up trapped by the guard rail on the opposite side of the road.

Ben was crying and saying ‘I don’t like it, I don’t like it, make it stop’. I kept repeating like a mantra ‘It’s OK, it’s OK, we’ll be ok’. Like a prayer.

I turned the car off and turned around to look at him and talk to him and try and reassure him. We were all suspended by our seatbelts. I spotted the sunroof, so trepidatiously I turned the car back on and flipped the switch which slid the sunroof all the way back. A man was there and he reached in and got Ben out. Next was Lovisa in the front passenger seat. Then Elin in the back. Finally me. With my right foot glued to the brake and hands clenched on the steering wheel, it took a minute to work out how to extricate myself without falling on my head.

Everyone was fine. The girls and Ben were crying and I immediately started removing everything from the car. I don’t know why except that I always seem to need to be doing especially when my heart is racing and adrenalin coursing through my system. I think I thought that the police would be there immediately and we would be taken away, or the car would explode or something. I may not have a TV but clearly in my life I have seen too many movies who paint a very different picture of reality!

I still feel guilty that I didn’t just grab onto Ben and hold him until we had to be prised apart. The tyre was still intact, no blowout, but the tread had sheared off the tyre just like a retread. It wasn’t a retread though, I’ve never put retreads on any car I’ve owned.

We were so lucky. Lucky that nothing was coming the other way. Lucky we didn’t have someone up our arse. Lucky that the guard rail, which only started 3 metres before, was there to save us. Lucky that there were people to help us. Lucky that people stopped to slow down traffic and keep us safe as we sat on the side of the road for an hour waiting for the police and a lift away from the scene. Lucky that neither of the passenger windows or the windscreen smashed. Lucky that the car was so strong and didn’t crush or crumple. Lucky that we had the sunscreen so we could get out so easily. Lucky, so lucky to be alive.

There was another story on the road that day and thanks to any number of angels looking out for us, and protecting us, and our lives were saved.

Suddenly everything and everyone is beautiful and I realise just how precious this life, this body, is. And I can’t even express the fear and horror of what could have happened to Ben.

Suffice it to say that I am changed by that split second on the road that day. By what might have been. By what is. I was derailed and I am picking myself up, dusting myself off, saying a sad goodbye to my beautiful car and my previous way of being and walking into my future with a different attitude. Living in the present. Phew!

Arthur, King of Avalon

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08 Sep

Well that Mad Cow FINALLY had her baby!  Her udders were so swollen she could barely walk so Ged had a big chat to her when he fed her on Saturday night and said ‘that’s enough, Paddy, you’ve got to have that baby now.’  And when he woke up yesterday morning she was standing apart from the rest and looking a little strained so he went out to give her a hand.  Apparently the nose and hooves were out but Paddy was heaving so he got his hands in there and eased the head, neck and shoulders out.  The rest came out with just one push.  (Good that he is getting lots of practise!)  And we have a little bull for the farm.  Arthur, King of Avalon.  He’s VERY cute and cuddly with the longest, spikiest lashes you have ever seen.

So we wasted quite a lot of time oohing and aahing over him yesterday and making sure that he was on the udder and sucking properly – Ged had to help him get on the teat and work it all out.
Last week was pretty quiet – we had grey skies, wind and rain for Wednesday and Thursday and I took to my bed with a mean old cold.  I can’t work out whether I am exhausted and it’s finally caught up with me and now I am the incredible sleeping giant, or whether I am just trying to bank some sleep for the future . . . probably a bit of both!  It seems strange that after months of not sleeping properly, now that the head is engaged and all the books say I should be weeing more frequently and more uncomfortable at night etc, I am sleeping like a log!  Typical, contrary me!
Friday we had torrential rain and we both had plans to be in Port Macquarie.  Even though the rivers and creeks were rising we made the call to get in and get out as quickly as possible.  Ged was selling his car, so that couldn’t be put off, and I had to pick up the sander etc but the conditions were terrible so we really were running around!  We finally left Port Macquarie just after 4 and the closer we got to home, the less likely it seemed we would get in.  Every creek and causeway was flooded and we were in Ged’s new van which hasn’t had the suspension raised yet so we weren’t taking any chances . . . Sure enough, we got to Tom’s Creek and didn’t like the look of it.  Ged waded across to gauge the depth and flow and remove a lot of branches from the bridge (he was securely tied on to the car to do this – don’t try this at home!) and it was a foot deep and whereas that would have been fine in the Pajero or the Hilux we had just sold, no good for the Delica.  We need to toughen it up first!
So we decided to walk home and come back for the car in the morning (5kms).  We put on whatever waterproofs we had (Mel, you will be pleased to hear that the only hat Ged had in the car was his UK flat cap and since we have now discovered that it suits him, it has become a firm favourite, getting lots of wear this weekend!) and then were lucky enough to see a hitherto unmet neighbour on her way home and she drove us all the way to the Flying Fox.  Thank God, I was not looking forward to getting my feet wet and cold and then the long march home, especially when I was only just recovering from a cold.  The lovely Chris Latimore came and picked Ged up on Saturday morning and took him back to the car, so we are well served with kind and compassionate neighbours out here in the country!
Ged was sick on Saturday with some sort of horrible tummy bug so I dosed him all day with homeopathics and reiki, knowing he just needed a rest – he has been working really hard both during the week and at the weekends, so his body finally forced him to take it easy.  Thankfully he was better on Sunday though – lots to do!!!  He sanded back the floor in the baby’s room which is now looking and feeling lovely and I have got two coats of Tung Oil down so far.  In a couple of days we will have it all ready for the little man and then he can move in!

Wheels, Wine and a Ring

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05 Nov

Thanks for all your worried emails re my wobbly wheels!  It turned out that the bone-rattling rides over the roads around here have been loosening the nuts on my bolts and THAT’S why the wheel fell off!  Actually, on consecutive runs over the next few days I found first the nut, then the washer, then the bolt at various stages on the farm road!

So it wasn’t too expensive, and I got my car back on Monday (phew!) and got back into the daily grind of winding up to the office in Comboyne.  It’s been raining for a week now.  So my grass is growing and so are the weeds!  Phoenix has learned to chase the cows away from the water troughs on command, because they love to drink all the horses’ water rather than sliding down the bank to the river and then trying to clamber back up the greasy slopes.  George has been very quiet because the lady who looks after Marcia has been away so he has been at home with her.

Ged finally wined and dined me on Friday.  We are sampling local restaurants so we can recommend fine dining for the folks when they are here in March.  We went to a little BYO restaurant called Fusion 7 with a bottle of Australian Sparkling I had been recommended to try for the wedding.  One sip and I was grimacing as the sugary sweet bubbles tasted like alcoholic lemonade to me – gross!  Back to the drawing board on something cheaper than the Widow for the wedding guests!  But the food was FANTASTIC.  Truly excellent food in this tiny little restaurant in Port Macquarie of all places.  Very pleased with that.  Ged had to drink most of the bottle, but even he couldn’t stomach too much of it!  Needless to say, I drove home!

We put the deposit down on the ring so it’s a work in progress now – 12 pink diamonds in a platinum channel setting – practical for my hard working life, pink diamonds because they are rare and exclusively Australian and platinum because it lasts and hopefully so will we!

We spent the weekend at a succession of parties with Ged’s family.  I was the entertainment as far as I can work out!  The fiancee was wheeled out in front of an enormous number of rellies (haven’t they heard of condoms???!!) at first brother Denis’s 34th Birthday Party on Saturday night, and then dad Denis’s (I know, I know, WHY do people name their children after the father?) 70th on Sunday.  I liked his sister very much, and ditto the next brother up.  I didn’t think much of the eldest but then as Ged used to work for him I know too many tales out of school!   Now I know how intimidating all the out-laws must find OUR family!! And right now I have sworn off a McCarthy Christmas (where can I run, where can I hide??) but who knows, I may mellow as the merryness of the season melts my hardened heart . . . !