Jair is now the proud owner of a mid 70s Nissan Datsun Roadstar ute. It's a good resto car, and it's a good excuse for Jair to do something that's not "work" but rather fun, in a place where most of what he does it work. It gets him out of the cluttered, mugginess of the "office" and into the fresh clean air space underneath a car.
So, the Datsun.
He towed her home from her previous storage facility - underneath a mango tree behind a house in Chinatown where it resided for 8 - 9 years.
It's mint - in colour that is. In condition? Well, not so mint. The Datsun is so rusty - Theresa had to balance on various bits still left in the floorpan to be able stand up for the photos.
But boy is she cute.
Well, Theresa too. But this post is about the Datto.
Look at this retro dashboard. Isn't it enough to make you go weak at the knees?
It's a good thing Jair married me. Where Jair's loves (understatement) cars (the rustier the better, it seems), I have a weakness for them. Especially geeky ones. Think back to the Holden Kingswood in wedgewood blue. Jair picks me up for our first almost date - well, not even a date, the occasion he's going to ask me to court him - in this ugly as anything Holden Kingswood, that has no carpet and sounds like a helicopter. I almost turned around and walked back into the house. No actually, literally. I almost did.
Thankfully I didn't. Because that was the day I fell in love.
With classic geeky cars.
And Jair. Well, mostly with Jair.
But while I'm a one man woman, I'm certainly not a one car woman. (Neither is Jair a one car man. Unlike marriage, fidelity in cars is more about love for the whole race of cars rather than one particular model - well the whole race with a few exceptions, e.g. Fords).
There's been the Kombi. The Sunbeam Scepter. Honestly, I still wipe away a tear when I think of my parting with her. The Morris 1100 was pretty dashing in my eyes, even when she didn't start first pop on those cold Hawkes Bay mornings.
Then think of my ultimate heart throb of a car - the 1963 Citroen DS. Not that that's one I've ever owned.
Yet.
Ah. close your eyes and think about her.
Those curves in all the wrong places. Those awkwardly large eyes. The bumper that puckers like a frog's lip.
I love it. I just love it.
So when my latest baby came home...
it was enough to make my heart skip a beat.
Even though she was full of rust.
*sigh*
;)
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