Sorprendido

Life has a habit of jumping out at you and surprising you, even when you've been in the same routine for two terms and a week now.

 

Having just come out of the shower and gotten dressed, my mum comes into my bedroom to tell me to come with her to see something. I was expecting my puppy doing something silly, or birds making a nest in the tree outside the kitchen window or something equivalent, but what I got instead was a short man with white hair and a cropped beard standing in the hallway. It took me a few seconds as I shook his gloved hand to realise that he must be Bill, my sister's bus driver. My dad had seen him during the week and had been talking to him about cars, and Bill suggested that we go to his house to see his collection. What I wasn't expecting was for him to turn up at my place at 9 am on a Sunday morning, while everyone but me was in their pyjamas and dad was at church.

 

At the bottom of the driveway was a British racing green Triumph Stag convertible. He asked if I wanted a look, and while I was, he asked if I had my P's. Having to respond that no, I didn't even have my L's, made me want to cry. Instead, I sat in the passenger seat, and we decided to scare mum by setting off loudly in the V8. We drove around the block, talking about the car over the noise of the wind and the rumble of the engine, and we even impressed a P plater sitting smoking in his Commodore as we headed back to my house. It was great, and when he suggested that I get my dad to buy me one for $14,000, I smiled and wished he would.

 

It was such a surprise, but it has already become the highlight of my day, and it amazes me how easily I could talk to this man that I'd only just met about something we both have a passion for. It seems funny that strangers can understand us so well.

 

I think I'm mostly writing this out of elation, and to make some of you jealous, but either way, Christmas has come early.