Last night someone stole our car. It was an old car, 22 years old. The paint was weathered, the radio didn't work and if you wanted to stay cool in summer you would wind down the windows. Oh, that's right you couldn't do that either as the window handles had fallen off.
My fondness for this car was its history. We reduced the size of our car when we thought we would not be having more children. Within four weeks of going into debt to purchase our brand new SMALL car, we were to find out we were expecting twins. We made many trips to Sydney for pre natal tests in this car. To this day the smell of a new car reminds me of this time. We drove to the hospital on the morning of the twins birth in our lovely car, the anticipation and excitement we felt by far underestimated how much our life was about to change. A week later we drove home with trepidation and two precious little people in the back seat. Three small bodies huddled lovingly together in the back seat of that car for many a kilometre and many a year.
The laser has taken us to places far, far away over the years. It drove the grand prix circuit on the Gold Coast on our first big holiday with the twins. During our 18 months in Melbourne it made many trips back to Wollongong to relieve the home sickness of family members. I don't think a GPS was needed, it drove on auto pilot.
The lasers camping expeditions are legendary. Having no trailer we had to squeeze all our camping gear into its petite interior. It seemed to be a bottomless pit. Nicknamed "The Tardis" for its appearance of being small on the outside and huge on the inside, every oriface was filled with camping gear. I travelled with my knees digging into my chin, food at my feet on more than one occasion.. When we arrived at our camp site and opened the doors, every item in the car jumped out and sprung into place.
The laser turned over 300,000km on the clock recently with the same engine it was born with. It is a shame the same could not be said of its exterior. Between my driving ( "I had a tumour") and Tims inexperience, nearly all exterior panels had been replaced at some stage of its long life. It held no grudges and never complained, I could drive around for days with the petrol gauge on empty and would never run out of petrol. It loved us just as we loved it.
Maybe I romanticise this little red car, but there is no doubt in my mind that this car had a heart. We bought two of our babies home from hospital in it. Those babies grew up and learnt to drive in it and subsequently went for their driving tests, comfortable in the seat of an old friend. In recent years it has hit a deer, lost its bumper bar doing 100km an hour on the freeway and run up the back of a Camry. It is now time for it to rest.
It is fitting that "The Tardis" went out with a bang. Written off after being used as a getaway car in a robbery. R.I.P oh red one. You will be missed, and always remember: Red cars go Faster...........
