One Of Terry's Corners Of the Online World

Well the bridesmaids weekend went down with two and a half days of jewellry shopping, boot shopping and a few quality moments sipping merlot with the girls. Ended a bit unsettlingly, but none of that was the fault of either myself, queen_nephthys or the two bridesmaids. It was great catching up with my sister Linda, who is one of the coolest people I know, and not because she bought us series one of American Dad yesterday.

Even though the weekend was busy, we did get to go to Joe's Garage (my favourite eatery on Brunswick Street) and have coffee at Jaspers (my favourite coffee place on Brunswick Street).

The downside was that an 18 year old "P" plater backed into our new car when I was picking Linda up from Avalon Airport and punched his tow-ball right through the licence plate and grill. He'd pulled up at the scanner that reads your paid-for parking tickets, realised that he was more than an arm's length from the barcode reader, then backed up over a car length to take another shot at it, and punctured our Corolla. (I couldn't reverse as someone was behind me.) So he gets out and his Mum gets out and she suggests that I tell my insurance company that she was driving, not her son, because he's not insured. I told her flat-out that I wasn't going to do that, the son says, with surly sarcasm "Happy birthday to me". I said, "Happy birthday, but we're still going to get this fixed." I got their details and off we drove. What pissed me off was a mother so thick that she didn't realise the message she was sending the kid (Mummy will fix it) isn't the one she should have been sending (take responsibility for your own mistakes and move on). So I called my insurance company today and gave them the details, including the woman's suggestion. If she tries to scam her insurer (RACV) she's going to be surprised. We now have the hassle of getting a quote on repairs, okaying it with our insurer and then putting the car in to be fixed. But I feel good about how I handled the fracas. A lot of people bitch about young people today. They cop immense amounts of bullshit and flack from people my age. Maybe these critics should turn their basilisk gaze on overprotective parents who try to shield their legally adult offspring from the consequences of their actions. Yeah, the kid accidentally made a mistake. We all do. But his mother made a deliberate, very dishonest and much larger one.