Hakuna Matata
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| 1. |
We said goodbye to our friends in Nantes and headed down the west coast.
It was meant to be a quiet holiday in the pine forests south of Bordeaux,
with the bonus of long golden beaches nearby. If we had known what was in
store for us down south, we would have accepted our friends' invitation
to spend the week with them.
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| 2. |
When we arrived at the cottage, the blue skies of the north had changed
to cloud and drizzle. It rained all night, and continued the next day, so
the day after we decided to visit a town further down the coast. But when
we pulled into the seafront car park, the car broke down. The man from the
Green Flag breakdown service, with trailer, responded to our phone call
after two hours. We didn't need the trailer but did need a new battery,
which, fortunately, he had. We then had to follow him to his garage, an
hour away, to pay by credit card.
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| 3. |
The following day the skies cleared and we visited the beach, returning
after an enjoyable two hours to find the car had been broken into, the video
camera stolen and the windscreen smashed. It was going to take two days
and cost at least £200 to get it fixed. As our ferry was in three
days, we decided to hire a car. That was when we discovered the credit card
had been left at the garage where we bought the battery.
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| 4. |
In the morning, in the rain, we cycled 12 miles to the next village to
collect the hire car. We then drove two hours to the first garage to collect
the credit card, then back to the cottage to take the washing in out of
the rain. A car pulled up, its passengers suspiciously eyeing our cottage.
It turned out to be the next occupants, who had arrived a day earlier than
expected. We didn't feel we could send them to a hotel, so we re-arranged
the cottage to accommodate an extra couple and two (separate) elderly parents.
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| 5. |
Finally, having taken the hire car back and collected our own, we left,
driving for seven hours in scorching heat to our friends' in the north,
where the weather had been glorious for the whole week. During all that
time our daughter would let us play only two cassettes, one of which was
The Lion King soundtrack. From it we learned the very valuable philosophy
of "Hakuna Matata" – that is, "no worries", or "when
bad things happen there is nothing you can do about it!" |
