Oh Vista!

You can have an item for so long that it literally becomes a member of the family!!

Today we sold the Vista...been more than 8 years with us (my sis kept saying SELL IT, SELL IT!!!)

So, we found a buyer and gave it up - turns out the guy also had a vista and loved it, but it rolled, so he was looking for the exact same car as a replacement, luck was on our side, since he knew a guy, who knew a guy, who knew a mechanic, who knew my bro, who....anyways, we go connected and exchanged vista for mulla... :( :) :( :) :)

Been trying to sell it since January but no luck - and the way they say Toyota is easy to sell!! Maybe we didnt try hard enough???

Anyways, I remember when we got her (its a girl, tihihihi)

It was in late 2007 and we needed a more spacious car....so off  I went to the Ngong road to check out the many car bazaars.....the first one i went into....was right opposite the matatu stage and I guess the salesman saw me walking in and i kid you not, gave me a once over, and basically paid little attention to me...and the way I was a serious buyer.....pana dharau watu jameni.............so I moved on to the next bazaar and an eager very young sales lady showed me around. When i told her i wanted a spacious family car, she told me, eh...let me show you one that came in yesterday...and sure enough it was a Vista....and I was sold!!! I loved it.....me, its about how it looks....engine manenos achia wengine....hehehehehe.

And what do you know, its first major mission in January 2008 was to ferry an expectant mother to hospital to get baby!! Imagine that :)

Goodbye Vista, hope you make some other people happy!!

PS This happened so fast, didnt remember to tell the kids....when I mentioned it, they said....woiyeee we didnt get a chance to say Goodbye!!!!

Car trouble..

One of the things I fear most is car trouble!!

From the simple one of early morning, when you are ready to go and boom, flat tyre ....to the more complex problems where the dash board has turned red because everything seems to be wrong!!

I once packed my sisters and their kids into the car and we were to head off to see Giraffes and of course having this loud conversations as we usually do, so am not really noticing that something is a miss with the car. Shortly, the car just stops!! It agrees to start and i move it to the side of the road and by this time we are already in Karen.....seems to be smoking from the front and so we agree, lets go to Hardy police area since there is a petrol station there.....by the time we got to Hardy the car swayed and for sure stopped. When the mechanic opened the bonnet, one pipe was off....yaani the car was thirsty like a nonsense! silly me had totally forgotten to check coolant!! and that's where the problem with that car started!! it became so sensitive, I would rather use public means!!

Another time, am driving calmly along statehouse rd, and the front park starts smoking!! clear smoke....surely the car has just come from the garage!! and so i call the mechanic and he says,  if the indicator for engine heating up is not on, then ni sawa tuu, hiyo gari can still move...am like, ehh? me, still drive a smoking car, ebu come and pick it! i slowly drove it to the nearest petrol station and he sent his mechanic....and the guy is like hii gari iko sawa....told him chukua tuu...mm nimeenda home...leta kesho kama haina moshi!!

ION - don't you just appreciate those mechanics who come and pick the car from you, change what needs to be done and bring back with invoice....I had one like that for a couple of months until funny dude conned me by not replacing a part and invoicing me for it!! The car had the same problem and I sort second opinion and the guy tells me you need to replace XYZ and I say, I did that last week...and he tells me nope, its an old one!!

If only mechanics knew that honesty is the best policy, hiyo biashara can boom esp with ladies, who am sure, many are like me, who would rather do something else, than watch a car being repaired!!!