And then a car crashed into the back of mine…

On Wednesday evening, on the way home from work, I was deciding that when in traffic it’s a good idea to have a flash or expensive car as the one that is behind you. I had glanced into my rear view mirror a couple of times and saw there was a Mercedes behind me.

Yes, I thought to myself, an excellent car to follow me in heavy traffic. That driver obviously understood that their car cost more money than most, so they’d be particularly careful with it. Keeping following distances and speeds under control.

And as I slowed to a stop behind traffic backed up on the motorway I glanced once again at the Mercedes behind me - quite a long way behind me, in fact - and the driver didn’t stop. She drove right into the back of my little Mini.

At least I had enough distance and managed to throw on my anchors enough to miss being shunted into the van in front of me. Thank goodness for the mere inches that saved me from a crumpled front as well as a mashed up rear-end.

My bumper took most of the damage. Thank goodness the lights and hatch all seem to have escaped damage. But the underlying structure of the bumper was pushed hard against my back wheels rendering the car underivable and Stu from Papakura Towing had to come and rescue me from the side of the motorway.

It’s the bloody inconvenience of the thing

It’s Christmas time. December is the WORST time to get anything like car panel work done. My Insurance company told me to get on the phone and ring a list of their preferred suppliers and try and book my car in, even before they’d made an assessment. They said this time of year, speed is everything if you want your car fixed before Christmas.

Before Christmas.

Supplier after supplier said “Yeh, we can do that by end of January” and one even said “We can’t even look at it until February”.

I sat there staring at my phone after talking to the up-tenth panel beater realising I would be alone, in Auckland, all Christmas and into 2019 without a car. All my lovely ideas of my holidays with days of going to the Art Gallery, or out for brunches around town, or sketching at next week’s Urban Sketching MeetUp fluttering out the window.

And worst of all, at the moment, no way to get to my early-morning gym appointments! I missed three last week because of this prang.

Plus I daren’t even think how I’m going to get 200 jars, tubs of lemon curd, berry compot and caramel sauce down to Taranaki for the Great Panna Cotta Project on Wednesday!!

One step at a time

So with a deep breath, I take one step at a time.

I kept phoning panel beaters in the Auckland area until I found two who said yes, we could fix your car by Christmas if it’s only the bumper. One said “for an extra $500” and the other said “because we’re open 7 days” so I went with the later.

Now I’m waiting for the assessment from the Insurance Company which is due Monday or Tuesday. If it’s just the bumper, Stu will transport the Mini over to the panel beater. If it’s more? well we’ll wait for the assessment before deciding what to worry about next.

Greg has kindly arranged a loan car to use for work from his business partner so I can take his truck to Taranaki on Wednesday to enable the The Great Panna Cotta Project to keep rolling.

That kind gesture also means I can go to the final BoxFit class of the year, and go see my Nutritionist as scheduled too.

After three days of moping about the gym and, frankly, turning to bread and sugar for comfort, I am back on track. I can’t go to the gym for my scheduled appointments but I can pick up free workouts from youtube.com:

• #28daysofsweat (YouTube)

• Jump Rope Dudes (YouTube)

Sustainability

I was shocked - though I shouldn’t have been because: Michelle - about how unprepared I was for losing access to my vehicle. I hadn’t factored that into my plans for fitness or for the Panna Cotta Project (post coming about that soon).

Transportation is such a basic risk, I completely overlooked it.

Building workouts to do outside the gym and without equipment or groups into my routine will be a priority in the New Year. I want to be able to switch out what I’m doing to add flexibility into my routine.

I have cancelled a couple of classes in the last few weeks due to work commitments. It would have been better to have been able to swap them out instead of cancel them out. I’m learning that it’s all part of building movement into my life style and, as I’ve learned, not putting all my fitness eggs in one gym bag.