What a week it has been. 2 cars and 1 mountain later, things could’ve been much much worse. First lets start with the positives.

Table Mountain

You take things for granted when you live close to them, and Table Mountain is one of them. I’ve lived in the Helderberg area most of my life, and going up Table Mountain has always been one of those “I’ll do it one day”, but you never actually do, do you? So Sunday my girlfriend and I took a trip up the World famous mountain. It really is awesome from up top there. I don’t think I heard one South African voice while up the mountain, but if for every 7 tourists I saw and heard, 1 job is created, I didn’t mind that much that these foreigners were walking on “our” mountain. :-)

I took some photo’s which you can view over at my Flickr account.

Now for the 2 cars.

Firstly, my girlfriend’s Toyota Conquest decided it was time to break its timing belt. This in turn bent the pistons in the engine. R7000 later it was repaired, but what’s worse is that for the next 1000km, we cannot drive the car more than 70km/h. So that means I’m driving the car to work in Somerset West, and my girlfriend is driving my car to Canal Walk.

Secondly, on Tuesday, while on her way home on the N1, she drove my car into the back of a bakkie in rush-hour traffic. :-(. So my car is now sitting at the panel beaters in Montague Gardens going through the motions of quote, claim, assessor, repair, wait, wait and wait. Luckily there is no engine damage, just bumper, bonnet and radiator damage. But my Corsa GSi - which has aircon that I wish I had driving in Cape Town’s heatwave at the moment, is one sick puppy.

One thing I am thankful for is that these experiences could of been much worse. I really have an awesome insurance broker who has helped me get everything sorted. So if you looking for a broker that comes with a really good reference, I’d highly recommend Pieter.

The thing is, it’s not about the money that I’m worried about, it’s the schlep. Having to organise the towing, quotes, repairs, phone calls etc, is so time consuming, not to mention stressful. The old saying of “throw money at it to get it to go away” doesn’t hold true. And don’t get me started on those tow truck vultures. They don’t get their nickname for nothing you know.