The best laid plans...

So I finished my day's work and waved Helena and Theresa off. Then at half-past nine, they phoned to say, "HELP!"

There they were, driving peacefully towards home, when a sizeable rock detached itself from the side of the cutting and leapt towards them, screaming "Banzai!" It bounced on the other side of the road and rolled to a halt just half a metre in front of the bumper.

Of course, Theresa jammed on the anchors. Of course, she couldn't stop in time, and it went crunch.

So I phoned the insurance who arranged the breakdown lorry. Rather than go home to the middle of nowhere, car-less, I suggested that they come here. We have a perfectly good guest room, and they´d be close to the workshop and hire car firm.

So I excavated the guest bed. Eventually they got to Santa Cruz with the breakdown lorry, and I fetched them home and fed them. We got to bed at 1 am.

This morning we got to the workshop just as they were unloading the poor van. It looked fine from outside, and the mechanics were wondering what the fuss was about.

Then Theresa opened the bonnet, and they all went, "Ooo. Nasty."

Of course they can't give a sensible estimate until they've taken it to bits to see how much internal damage there is. They did say that we should talk to the insurance firm about getting the town hall to pay for the car repair.

Obviously I was going to be very late for work. Ah well, I could sort that out later. So we phoned up the insurance people, and they say we need to go to the local police in Barlovento to complain officially.

Barlovento is an hour's drive away. On the other hand, it's could easily be worth 1,000€ to my friends, so we're going, and they´ll babysit later so I can make up the hours at work.

Buggerlit millennium shrimp!