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Jun 22 - I Enjoy Driving

By Stefano Blanca Sciacaluga

I drive a red and white 1992 Fiat Panda that I bought for the grand sum of twenty five pounds. I've had two minor accidents, both not my fault, and have been stranded on more than one occasion, but I enjoy driving.

I feel every little bump on the road both on my butt and my hands as the steering wheel rattles as if it were to come off. In fact, there are times I zone out at the wheel and imagine one of the many potholes on our roads making one of my front wheels shoot off the car, into pedestrians or a bike on the next lane, and I let out a big sigh every time I park it for the night, feeling safe that I made it in one piece, but despite all this I enjoy driving.

I'm not even maddened by the new speed cameras, the flashing screens and the warnings that people are being fined. I drive slow, respect signage, sometimes a little too much, por si las moscas, and perhaps spend longer than I should to find a parking to make sure I am not breaching any laws, but I still enjoy driving.

This is not to say I haven't broken the law, of course. On two occasions I have committed driving infractions, one time for supposedly jumping a give way, which as I see it was a misunderstanding due to the angle of the policeman, and the other a case of driving just two over the speed limit. But in both cases I have produced my license and other documentation well within the time limit and paid my fines; but this won't stop me because I enjoy driving.

I've driven for hours on several occasions looking for somewhere to put it, because even if it's tiny the parking situation in the town area of this city is atrocious; and I've almost cried from frustration and even parked it in places provisionally and come back to it later on in the day. I have even stopped driving altogether for extended periods of time to avoid the whole parking issue; but then I man up, get in the driver’s seat, pull down the window, start the engine and kick myself for being such an idiot because really, I enjoy driving.

The traffic in this city gets me down and gets me frustrated, but nothing beats driving on a sunny late afternoon. I wait until just before the golden hour, I jump in the car, turn on the radio to my favourite station and drive around the empty evening roads. I drive all over, until the sun starts to disappear by the lighthouse and the blue hour signals it’s time to go home. I try to avoid the people leaving their houses at night to speed around the Scalextric, because they truly are the worst, and the ones that ruin the relaxation that driving gives me, and make me want to get off the road; but I exercise a whole lot of self control to stay calm and try to avoid the idiots, and enjoy driving.

Now I must let go of my beloved Panda, after almost a decade, and I will hold all the memories of driving it close to my heart as the best first experience of owning a car. The mishaps, the little accidents, the times I've miscalculated and driven up onto a curb, the lifts I've given people, the laughs I've had and the times I've felt terrified in it. The times I've packed a whole load of music gear and heard it struggle up the most insignificant of hills, and the times I've feared for the bottles of beer knocking about in the unpadded, square boot. The hours I spent learning to drive in it and the times I drove it to the beach or to visit my grandmother, or to take photos and conduct interviews. All the music I've listened to on CD’s and the new music I've discovered from the radio. The time I had one of those tape to iPod cables and it would get stuck, the few times I drove into Spain in it, especially the time I went to el Pinar del Rey and took some nice photos on a late winter sunny morning. The early morning and late night difficult starts, the choke, the loud motor and irregular wiper fluid outlets, the quick parkings, erratic driving and the paper-thin doors. It will forever be the best car, the one that some people love and some people just don't understand, but it'll be my best car and even if I can't keep it any longer I'll always remember it fondly and how it made me enjoy driving.


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