I’ve never really enjoyed getting my car fixed. Even in America, there’s that awful feeling that the mechanic could so easily take advantage of my lack of knowledge – “That’s right, sir, your second carburetor needs a new truss rod and parts alone will cost $300…” So this week I got to have the super-fun experience of trying that in another culture.
Fortunately, things are not too different here, but it does add to the insecurity quite a bit when you have no grid at all for what things should cost, things are called by different names, and laws are different. It seems like there’s more of a propensity for people to use a mechanic they know, who often just works out of his house, rather than a big business like Midas or something. There are tire (spelled tyre, of course) shops and body shops, etc., but they’re mostly specialized shops. As with most things here, it’s who you know that counts.
That’s what friends are for, though. I think I found a pretty good mechanic on the recommendation of one of the Night Light guys. Fortunately, once you find someone you trust you can just stick with him. So there’s one more problem sorted.
It’s been a while since we last posted, so I thought I’d throw out a few interesting nuggets:
Most Interesting Person: Yesterday I met an older gentleman named Neil who is world renowned for training rescue and caedavor dogs. He lives right outside Newcastle in the mountains.
God Is Too Good To Us Yet Again: We continue to have these moments where stuff we didn’t even think to pray about drops in our laps. Like when I went to get a mobile phone and they were all out of the model we wanted, but it just so happened that when the kid went back to the stock room they “must have got a new shipment or something” and there was the one we wanted. Or when we were given a piano, delivered to our door for free by a man we’d never met (friend of a friend). What’s up with that? We didn’t even pray for a piano because it seemed to far out there.
Best Food Surprise: Last time we were here we were really dissappointed at the pizza, so we were all geared up for years of sub-par sauce and cardboard crust. But it turns out the little pizza parlor in Newcastle has pretty good Italian-style pizza for only a few pounds. Yes!
Forgotten Pet Peave: People in Europe generally don’t use sheets! They tend to have a fitted sheet under you and just a duvet (thick blanket) over you. For some reason, this bothers me to no end. I can’t quite sleep right – like I just feel naked and can’t get comfortable. Guess that’s my OCD side coming out… (To be fair, we did have a sheet at Campbell and Kristi’s, but not at the new place, which was a simple remedy after the first night)
Tonight we’ll hopefully get to go to the pub and hear some good traditional music. Looking forward to that, for sure.
Mark
