Have you ever had one of those 'deja-vu' moments, where you feel you've been here before? Just like in the movie 'Ground Hog Day', where weatherman Bill Murray finds himself repeating the same day over and over again, you find yourself making the same mistake and repeating that same 'old' situation.
This happened to me last night, when I took my friends from the UK with my family to our local eating place at Echo Beach. It had been raining solidly for two days in Bali and was the typical, tropical, torrential rain that turns dry volcanic sand into sludgy mud. It did occur to me as I was driving towards the so-called 'car park' whether I should park somewhere different to the last time when we got 'stuck in the mud'. I managed to brush off this feeling of uncertainty and convince myself, "It will be alright. It's me driving this time and not my husband."
There were eight of us, three adults and five children in my seven seater toyota 'toy' car, so we were fairly heavy and jam packed at the back end. We looked rather like one of those buses in India, where you get people squeezed on board, their faces up against the windows, and their bodies contorted in funny positions to fit in. It was dark and I only had the light from my headlights to direct me. I decided to avoid the spot where my husband got stuck the last time, as that would be stupid of me to do exactly the same thing. I also decided to reverse, so we were all ready for when we left. There was no overhead lighting to guide me and my car seemed to be lacking a reversing light, so I had to trust my judgement or more accurately my luck.
"Everybody out," I shouted, "I'm sure we'll be fine if there's not too much weight in the car."
I carefully revved the engine, hoping that the gentle acceleration would simply lift the car out of the mud. No such luck. The car was as stuck as a fly in a Venus Flytrap.
"Shall I have a go Janet?" suggested Chris, my friend's husband, "I've done this many times in the snow this year in the UK!" he exclaimed.
Chris gently revved the engine. He tried to drive forward but nothing happened, so he attempted to reverse the car out of the mud but still nothing happened. After about ten minutes of gentle persuasion Chris gave up.
"I can't believe we paid for this car park to get stuck in the mud! And there's nobody around to help." Chris grumbled as though this would never happen in the UK. Within two seconds of him saying this, a security guard magically appeared and offered to jump in the driving seat. I remembered vividly how the security guard on the previous occasion, revved the engine so hard that puffs of smoke billowed into the air, burning rubber smells hit our senses and the car got further wedged into the mud. I knowingly declined his kind offer.
"I'll call the car hire company to tow us out again." I declared. Having been through this 'sticky' predicament before, I knew exactly what to do.
As there was nothing else to do but wait, we locked the car and went for our dinner at the Beach House. While we were eating, I received a text telling me that Moses from the car hire company was on his way to help us.
"Will he part the mud for us?" My friend, Fiona, chuckled.
"With a name like Moses, I'm sure he'll sort us out," I laughed.
Moses called me on my mobile phone. I couldn't understand a word he was saying. I started speaking in one of those stacatto, robotic voices.
"You in car park now?" I shouted as if he was deaf.
I couldn't understand what his response was, the line was all muffled, like he was calling from under the sea. I optimistically hoped he had said 'yes'.
"Ah good. I go car park NOW," I replied with heavy emphasis on the NOW.
Chris volunteered to join me. We walked to the car park but nobody was there. A local Balinese man plodded his way towards us on his little motorbike. I hoped he wasn't Moses, as this little guy certainly would have to part the mud to make any difference. Luckily he didn't stop.
"I think he must have said he's on his way. Let's go back and finish off our dinner." I suggested to Chris.
Thirty minutes later, I received a text saying, "I come." I assumed that Moses was in the car park and walked towards the car. There was a group of six young Balinese lads looking curiously at the front of the car. They were trying to find a place where they could hitch the rope, but didn't seem to be making much progress. I walked up to the young lads and a slim Balinese guy with spiky hair introduced himself to me as Moses.
Deciding that this was not working, the young lads changed tack. Moses started to rev up the car in reverse mode. After much spitting and groaning, the car reluctantly moved. Hurray, Moses had done it! We were free to go home. I gave a tip to Moses and his friends, gathered everybody into the car, and arrived back at our villa, with a used to be black, but now chocolate brown car, that looked as though it had been dipped in a mud fondue.
What did I learn from this life lesson? Samuel Beckett said "Try again. Fail again. Fail better". I believe I failed better this time, as we could sit and eat dinner while waiting to be rescued and it didn't take so long to sort out. A much more civilised way to get stuck in the mud!
Janet
Well attempt number 2 as the first loaded a page error!
ReplyDeleteSo funny to read the above after partaking in the events, feel a sense of priveledge to have taken part as again it reminded me of the power of laughter and fun, we so often forget to turn these kind of situations into fun as we get het up and stressed!. Thank you! XX
Yes Mrs Anonymous - laughter and fun are the best forms of medicine! It certainly beats getting stressed about these occurrences in our lives.
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