Mind the bouquet

Hn and I took Ae to collect her new car this morning; a Mazda 3. By coincidence today's Sydney Morning Herald carried a report comparing five brands of car in a particular price range and which concluded that the Mazda 3 represented the best overall value. Ae's vehicle was in the customer car park on gleaming display as we pulled in. It looked to me to be a darker, greyer, colour than the generally silver colour I thought Ae had ordered last weekend but I said nothing. If I was correct then neither Ae nor Hn noticed although both commented about the colour and neither appeared concerned.

The pleasant and unassuming salesman to whom we had warmed last weekend, a contradiction of the car salesman stereotype, ran Ae and Hn through the car's features. As usual with a new car it all seemed very whizz bang and technical. Cars have progressed considerably in the five years since I purchased mine and I couldn't help but think that I was driving a chariot in comparison with this 21st century marvel.

Ae is still recovering from an operation to repair tendons in her shoulder which is preventing her from driving at the moment so the intention was for Hn to drive the new car home with me following in my chariot. Having signed for the car Ae made a last minute decision to accompany me rather than Hn believing she would be too nervous a passenger in the new car. It seemed a sensible enough plan but I started to have doubts as we followed Hn in the new car. Ae unleashed her nervousness on me with a non-stop commentary on what was happening ahead of us.

'Oh no, she's driven through a puddle!' 'Look she's too near to the edge of the lane!' 'I told her not to take this route!' On and on this increasingly aggravating commentary continued. I was a nervous wreck by the time we reached Ae's home, whilst Hn, having a driven an unfamiliar and pristine new vehicle through poor weather and road conditions, was as relaxed as a hippy on a high.

I felt like hen pecked Richard from 'Keeping Up Appearances' being alerted to the traffic menace of cows and trees in roadside fields by his nervous nelly wife, Hyacinth.

Richard and Hyacinth