Galaxy Part Two.

As I went to bed that night, I knew my life wouldn’t be the same for the immediate future. I wasn’t sure how I’d be the next day. I’d been in car accidents before, I the innocent party each time, in one of the accidents I had, I had very bad whiplash, four days after the event. I had woken up on the forth day and was unable to move at all! It was scary as I was pregnant at the time. In another accident I suffered very bad back ache periodically, when it came it was SO intense it was seconds long but awful, this lasted for well over a year after the accident.  

I woke up the following day and I felt like I’d been in a car accident! I ached from head to toe, some parts ached more than others. I told my brothers via texts and they replied, “I’m glad you are OK but you need to get yourself checked out at the hospital or doctors,” I thought that was a bit extreme, the hospital so I went to the doctors. He asked me some questions and checked me over I had to lift this and that and he said, “You have sprained some muscles, I will give you painkillers for it,” I asked, “Please can it be in liquid form, as I have difficulty swallowing tablets,” He did this for me. It was good to get out of the doctors as the wait had been in the waiting room three and a half hours! I was stiff when they eventually called me in! I didn’t have an appointment so I had to wait. While I waited, I watched the other patients who waited too, most didn’t look ill, two clearly did! The one a smartly dressed looking lady, sounded like she had pneumonia, I was hoping she wouldn’t come and sit next to me, she didn’t.

When I came home, I looked at my calendar, I looked to find the date that I’d taken out my car insurance and was more than puzzled when I couldn’t find any evidence of having any car insurance! I wasn’t worried, for I remember, clearly doing it on line with Amiee. So, I looked at my emails and bingo! I then also remembered I’d asked the sales assistant, “Can I have the info in the post?” Her reply was, “To keep costs down nothing is sent in the post, it is all on line,” So, that explained everything, why there was no phone number in my mobile and nothing on the calendar…. But in hindsight, I should have put the Insurance Company name and the date I’d set up the insurance on my calendar.

I had to look at the small print to find a phone number, I just don’t like doing things on line, especially something SO important as the info I was about to talk about. I rang the number and wasn’t sure what to expect, I had Christian’s details that he’d given me, and I noticed he didn’t include his insurance details that was the only thing he didn’t include when he typed his name and other details into my mobile, would the lack of that make a difference I wondered.

I said to the sales assistant, “I was in a car accident yesterday,” She was fantastic! She took over and she said to me at the start, “It is his fault, you will not even lose your excess, he will pay that,” She went on, “We will arrange for you today to get your courtesy car,” I asked, “Please can I have a small car?” My reason for asking for a small car, was my confidence was knocked, and there would be a small possibility I would have a mini! She said, “You will have to have a car in similar size to yours.” The make and model of the car was delivered to my home a few hours later, I’d not heard of this model before and when I Googled it, it was valued at £35,000! Gulp! My colleagues at work loved it! One in particular he showed me the plug near the back seat, a real plug! I couldn’t actually find the cigarette lighter, to plug my Tom, Tom in, it actually had four all over the car, at first even he couldn’t find it, as it wasn’t in the usual place, so he Googled it and showed me where they were. The boot that opened with a wave of my foot and closed the same way. No key to start, camera’s front and back when reversing, the only thing I didn’t like about the car was, it had no hand break! It was a button that clicked off and on! I remember one day I got up and the car was covered in frost! I got my de-icer, from the hall and did think to myself, I hope the de-icer don’t drip off from the car window onto the body of the car itself, and ruin it. When I got in the car, I remembered, I’d seen a button that looked like it could have been a defrost button, so I pressed it, I don’t usually press anything in case I do the wrong thing and don’t know how to fix it, but to my amazement and astonishment within six seconds or less the window cleared of all frost! It was like magic, I didn’t know any car had a device that could remove frost and ice so fast! So, I didn’t need my de-icer at all. At first when I had the car, I would put the heated seats on for me and for Paul, it was pointed out to me from Joe at work who was the most impressed with the car, that, “All the seats in the car had fully heated, (Bum and back) seats that can be heated individually, and also cooled with air conditioning. At first, I’d put in £10 diesel, but I noticed it drank the diesel, I quickly didn’t use any heated seats when I realized that. But even then, by the time the car went back a month later, I’d put in £100 which was £10 each time. If I’d known from the start that it would have amounted to that amount, I’d have kept all the receipts and given them to Christian’s Insurance Company. But it didn’t dawn on me to do that until I’d spent £70 and by then it was too late, as I’d thrown all the other receipts away.      

My lovely, leather, seated, galaxy, felt like it was from the Flintstones era! I could almost see my legs moving underneath. This car was high tech, it was to me, out of the world. I never dreamt, that cars like this existed, it was just so far out! My Kids of course loved it, Paul who hates all changed hated it.

The day after the accident, over the phone I was put through to another sales assistant in the insurance department, he asked me to, “Describe the damage done to (my beloved) Galaxy.” I told him all the things that were now broke or missing, he said, “Your car is a write off.” I was stunned, and said, “How can it be a write off, there’s only a few things wrong with it?” His reply was, “It is far too old to repair, it would cost too much.” I said, “OK, my Husband will be devastated.” I told my Husband the bad news.

Unbeknown to me, Paul had spoken to both our neighbours either side of us, when he’d gotten the bad news, and they both said the same thing to him. “When the Insurance Company offer you your money, let them know, you want to accept less so that you can keep your car and get it done up and when it’s done up, it will be classed a category D, there are different categories.” I was horrified, I said to Paul, “I am not doing that, I am not repairing the car, it is a write off.” I have no love connection to any car I have had, I have a car to do a purpose for me, I don’t fall in love with it, but Paul, although he doesn’t drive, falls in love with it and would rather repair and keep for a long time. And now I’d driven such a lovely courtesy car, there was no way I was redoing/patching the Galaxy up. I said, to Paul, “Would you like us with the money we get from the Insurance Company to buy a Category D car?” He replied, “No.” I said, “So, no more talk of different categories and keeping the Galaxy.” I didn’t realize though, that he wasn’t convinced, until a few days later, he said, to me, “I spoke to our butchers, and told him about the different categories, he said, to me, ‘I thought the same thing as you, and when I decided to keep my car, as it looked OK, I took it out for a drive and there was lots of liquid coming from it, so I took it to my garage and he told me about all the unseen damage that was found underneath, I decided not to repair it, but to keep it scrapped,’ you need to listen to your Wife and just forget repairing it, let it go and let it be scrapped, so that‘s what I’m happy with now.”

I’d never heard of such stuff as category D cars, it’s sad to think people are driving around in cars, on our streets that have been written off, and patched up with or without their knowledge. If a car seems too good to be true for the price that you pay, it probably is.

So, then there was the question that everyone was asking me, “Whiplash, and claiming all that money.”