Luke Martin Jones Awards - Car Of The Year!

3/1/2018

The 'Luke Martin-Jones Awards,' will be a new regular feature of 'Spanish Views.' Here I will be highlighting the best of Gran Alacant; offering online awards for the great and good in my life, over the last year. There will also be a few less than perfect awards, for those who deserve to be highlighted, for their poor performance and lack of dedication. In the main however, I want to keep this a positive reflection on the things that held myself and Darrell together over the last twelve months and continue to allow us to live our life in Spain, without the disappointments of the past.

My first award, is for 'Car of the Year;' a tongue in cheek homage to our old banger that gets us from A to B everyday, without which we would be both walking up and down all these hills and mountains, making life that much harder. Here's hoping she carries on working after this entry. Judging on past experience, as soon as I say anything good about someone or something, the opposite tends to transpire and I am left eating my words.

Meet Bernadette, Bernie for short. She reminds me of the nurse, in the Catherine Tate sketch show, in more ways than one. The name was born because, Bernie literally is debt free, we actually own the car outright. For once in our lives, we have no credit, or car loan and no debts. Bernie is the only asset we have, but that's cool; the less baggage you have around your neck, the easier it is to move on when you have had enough.

We have had this fine example of an Opal Corsa, since we moved to Spain in 2016, acquiring her from a Lady in the pub in March 2016, paying the huge sum of 450€. I'm not sure she would even be salable in the UK, but in Spain, Bernadette is a desirable family hatchback, that so far, touch wood, has been a lifeline to the outside World; well the World outside Gran Alacant. I believe she was born in the mid 1990s, making her over twenty years old and still working as hard as the day she was born, without any problems.

The exhaust sounds a bit like the one attached to Onslow and Daisy's car, from the popular television series, 'Keeping up Appearances,' smoking on occasion, as loud as a sports car, without the performance. Despite this she still works. Like anyone of a certain age, left drying in the sun day after day, she is cracking and peeling. If the sun causes this much damage to a cars paintwork, imagine what its doing to your face. If Bernie ever has a wash; from a garage only; it's illegal to wash cars in the street here in Spain; a shed load of dark blue paint comes off with it; just adding to the character, the substance that keeps the car going, when everything else has failed.

Even when Darrell was in Australia, Bernadette never failed. She was used by our neighbours for a seven month period; If my memory serves me right, the car broke down on one occasion; even then it was nothing serious. At the time, it also passed its ITV (MOT equivalent) with flying colours, as it also did in November of this year, with no major or indeed minor faults; this old car just keeps on going!

On a final, serious note, it is essential to have a car, living in Gran Alacant. The geography of the area is such, that one would be walking long distances, just to get to a shop. The bus service can be sporadic; I have often been left waiting an hour for a bus; and the taxi service, is practically not existent in this urbanization, with drivers having to come from Santa Pola, charging a premium, before they even get to Gran Alacant. The public transport situation is terrible, although fares to travel remain very reasonable. We are both lucky enough now, to be living within walking distance to the town centre, so Darrell only needs the car, to get him to the airport and back; about a fifteen minute journey, four days a week. As long as Bernadette holds up just long enough, for Darrell to return to the UK and buy a new car, she would have done her job. Cars are very expensive in here; thankfully we have been lucky enough to own a reliable vehicle, in which to spend our first few years, living in Spain.