A wish list – or is it a not-wish list?

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The car I had twenty years ago had few ‘modern’ features. It had wind-up windows, an air-bag for the driver, and no annoying alarms. The doors were unlocked by putting the key in the lock. When that one was sadly written off by some careless young man, I had to get another and it wasn’t easy to find what I wanted. I needed a car that had a passenger air-bag that could be turned off, so that Big One (who was then the only one) could sit in the front. That really restricted the choice available. The car I ended up with fitted the bill and was comfortable for me to drive, economical, big enough to carry all of us plus diving and camping gear, could fit a roof rack and tow a trailer. It did have electric windows which I wasn’t too pleased about (I always carried a hammer just in case), but I have mostly got used to those although they are a pain in the *rse for passengers sitting in the parked car. It also had a maddening alarm that beeped when it thought you were too close to something at the back of the vehicle. This would beep incessantly every time I reversed out of our driveway, because of the fence alongside. It was a wonder I never ran over any pedestrians as I reversed as fast as possible out of the drive just to stop the hated noise! Thankfully eventually I found a helpful person who managed to locate and disconnect it. That just left the seatbelt alarm, that would make a different but even more maddening noise if the driver didn’t have the seatbelt fastened. If I had to get in and out many times in a short space of time (e.g. to deliver things) I would just fasten the seatbelt first, before getting in. But eventually I snapped, managed to find the connection for this, and disconnected it is as well. I was SO happy! Just sorry I hadn’t done it years before. Sadly, a couple of years after I had finally fixed everything to my liking, my poor car (by now 19 years old) developed an expensive fault and had to go to the scrapyard in the sky. And we decided to see whether we could manage with just the one car between us. It’s working out OK although I wouldn’t have chosen this car as it’s designed for a taller driver. To reach the pedals I have to move the seat so far forward I feel as if my nose is practically resting on the steering wheel, and then the seatbelt attachment is behind me. The seat height can’t be adjusted either, so I have made myself a cushion. Fresh from the experience with my own car, I located and turned off the maddening seat belt alarms. This car also had one for the passenger seat which was weight-activated, so it would go off if you put a heavy bag on the seat – but it wouldn’t go off right away, so you’d be out on the road when it would suddenly start shrieking at you and it’s obviously highly dangerous to try fastening the passenger seatbelt while driving! Funnily enough my partner doesn’t seem to have ever noticed that anything has changed… This post is getting too long so I will have to write a second I think!