Sell, please sell!

I'm putting a lot of effort into trying to get the car in an almost fit state to sell. Actually, it will never be in a decent state, it has been so horribly abused and neglected, disgusting. I think back to the car I had to sell in Auckland. My Toyota was spotless inside, clean, tidy and didn't need to be spring cleaned.

What I've got now needs fumigating and stripping and recarpeting and shampooing but that's not an option for me. The carpet in the back is rotting from dampness. Of course I never saw any of that in the dark.

It just goes to show what can happen when you are so far out of your comfort and knowledge zone and especially when you cannot communicate in the local lingo- how vulnerable you can be, how non-assertive and passive. I certainly made a mistake buying it, trusting its owner. Too big, too expensive, too shabby.

The women in the office have been great sports checking out prices on the internet, popping a wee ad on there for my car, taking photos. I've been washing the damn thing in the snow. Why?

Because I have to do it when there is time, when my colleague has time to be at home (I clean it at her place) and the fact that we had a truly serious dump of snow this week was an inconvenience. It wasn't really fun even though I'm laughing at the absurdity in the photos.

It's not possible to wash the exterior with water in these conditions because water would freeze. The snow was free and a bit crunchy in texture so it worked OK though my hands and feet became VERY painful from the cold. I also had to wash the inside of the car- water in a bowl for that.

Today I went around to my colleague's place again to do the car vacuuming and polish all the interior plastic, after walking for a bit to find a petrol station. That's the only place I could get to to buy some cleaner. Without a car (ha) it's difficult to get around to do anything or buy anything so i must walk or not do it.

What do I mean, no car? I can't face driving the Station Wagon. Having had an 'upset' with it at night in the countryside and left with huge (for me) bills and shock I have NO interest in driving it. A smaller car would enable me to get my confidence back and I would be happier with a clean and tidy car. Something I could take pleasure in, instead of looking at my car with regret and distaste.

Eventually I will be able to put this mistake behind me but at the moment I'm in the middle of it and in the red financially. Getting paid monthly is hard when something major goes wrong. I need to sell it to get back into the black.

It's a shame to go into Christmas like this but I fear it may be some time before I have the sort of Christmas with friends and family I would like-in France. Though, having said that, I have decided to join Pascal in Brittany for a few days. It will be a lot more enjoyable spending the festive season with him and his son Axel and it looks like I will meet his Mum this time. It will be good to be with nice people and have my days warm instead of huddling over my little heater on my own. I'm interested to see what happens in a typical French family Christmas time.

I will then come back to Cafeolait, get my domestic chores done and consider whether I will go into Paris for New year's Eve; I hear they have fireworks- maybe if I can stay awake long enough it might be fun to take my camera and do that.

Next week we are supposed to have our staff Christmas lunch but the meteo service suggests more snow and it's possible we might have to cancel it, to be safe. Darn. Will keep you posted.

Photos are pretty obvious- the crazy Kiwi cleaning her car in a snowstorm.