Swiss Smiles at One-Thirty

Today’s the day! I’m going down to the south of France to pick up Qrac! I’m driving down with my daughter and our trainer and I’m effervescent with excitement. It’s going to be a long day, as driving down hauling the van is way slower than just zipping down in the car, and tomorrow will be even longer, and I know I’ll be nervous because that’s just the way I am. But the weather is gorgeous, and my daughter has made a special Qrac collecting playlist for her i-Pod, and we're going to have a wonderful time.

This is only going to be a mini-post because I can barely think straight this morning, but I thought I’d tell you about a funny thing that happened to me yesterday after I picked up my van from my stables and hauled it to a little yard right across the road from my house. This where they keep the heavy horses that haul away the "clean rubbish" once a week (I wrote about them about a year ago), and the lady in charge was kind enough to let me park my van there overnight. Having it so close is going to save us lots of time today.

Anyway, on the way here I stopped at a garage to see if someone could check the pressure of my van’s tires. It was one-twenty as I pulled up in front of the workshop. There was a man inside working on a car, so I ventured in with a big smile, said hello, and asked him whether he would be kind enough to take check my tires. He looked at me, scowled, then mumbled that he could indeed, but only at one-thirty as this was lunch time and he wasn’t open for business. Then he turned away and dove back underneath the car.

What a grump, I thought, slightly miffed as I headed back to my car and sat down to wait for the clock to strike one-thirty.

At one-thirty on the dot (it's a Swiss thing!), he emerged from his workshop wielding his tire-pressure-checker machine and waved at me, beckoning me to move forwards. I did as I was bid, then cut the engine and got out,curious as to whether the tires had lost a lot of air since I used the van last autumn. I stood behind him, a little guarded now, mentally preparing to deflect an onslaught of scowls and grumbles and mumbles. Imagine my surprise when instead I was treated to big smiles and friendly chatter, followed by a cheerful prognosis that everything was A-OK and good to go!

What a difference ten minutes made! Maybe there’s some truth in what they say about biorhythms…

And now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a horse to collect!