Random reminder

Press, 3 February 1986, Page 21

Random reminder

STRATEGICAL VICTORY Handy things, cars. Think of all the myriad activities we perform in them - travelling, shopping, sleeping, eating, drinking, reading, making love, watching drive-in cinema, talking, singing, even giving birth to babies when things get a little disorganised. . . Well, this Christchurch woman had done all those things, except the last, when she hit on another brilliant use for her car. She had to. She lived in a pleasant hillside house down a driveway, good view, good access. It was all very private and peaceful, until the section beyond her was sold and the owner commenced building operations. Of course she was ready for a little inconvenience, so when the trucks and concrete-mixer started rumbling past her house, raising clouds of dust and breaking up the surface of the drive, she wasn’t too distressed. And her new neighbour was a very pleasant sort. He popped in to show her the plans and have a drink from time to time, and said that of course he would fix up the driveway, as soon as the heavy drucks were no longer needed.

That’ll be nice, she thought, and tried to keep smiling when heavy rain scoured out the rapidly-deteriorating drive and brought lots of messy clay down to block up her drains.

__ When it had all gone on a little too Tong, and she had stopped smiling, she had a firm word or two to her prospective neighbour. Of course, of course, he quite understood, he said, but really nine months is not very long for a large twostorey house, and the builders were holding him up . . . etc etc. Well, you know how these things go. And somehow he made her fell guilty about complaining. Weird. There were a few more firm words spoken, a couple of letters written to the local council — all with nil results. There was no more popping in for gin and tonics, no friendly waves, a pretty frosty scene all round. She was starting to wake up in the middle of the night and worry.

Then one evening, just back from a reviving ski holiday, she had this great idea, this beautifully simple but effective idea. She backed her car of the car-port and parked it across his entrance, and when he arrived later to check up on the builders’ work for the day, knocked on her door to say, Hi, could she move her car, she just said no. When the drive was fixed she would move the car, and not before. Perhaps it was a good thing she had decided to shift to another house long before the building started, because the relationship was definitely strained after that. The driveway? Oh yes, that was fine. Men started sealing it next day.