Rent-a-Banger
One of the advantages of reaching old age is being allowed certain privileges. Smoking and sex being the obvious ones, and of course the right to exercise an immaterial say in who may have some input into running the country.
One of the less obvious advantages of old age is being allowed to hire cars and other general grown up things like buying car insurance for less money than exists in the universe. Being 28 I was under the impression that I was done having to convince the world of my sensibility, and was past most testosterone driven age discrimination barriers.
The UK van rental industry seems to disagree. It appears one needs to be over 30 to be allowed to take a rental van out of the country. I suspect this is a Daily Mail plot against closer European integration, however, the upshot of this is that the only company I could find (and believe me, I tried) which would entrust me with a van with which I could move my stuff to Fontainebleau was .
At first I was excited at the thought of this adventure. The excitement quickly turned to panic upon receiving the keys to the aforementioned banger. It really was a banger. Graced with 15 years of age, and an odometer that is unlikely to have been clocked at 250k miles, the banger was also host to an exhaust which was winner of the 2004 "Fishnet of the year" award. This beast was capable of a solid 55mph assuming the pedal was firmly held to the floor. Top speed was measured at a downhill wind assisted 71mph.
Other features of interest included a battery warning light which was permanently on (I only realised this after I had driven away the van, and there was a moment of sheer panic when I had to wonder whether this really did mean it had a dodgy alternator), and a stereo that didn't work. An immobiliser that would sometimes decide that the security of this 15 year old luxury cruiser was paramount and would therefore refuse to let you switch the engine on until you had gone away and thought about having a cup of tea topped off the list of extras I could have done without. Imagine going on the channel tunnel with 100 cars behind you and this feature, and you soon get an idea of one stressed pre-MBA student.
Thankfully, and amazingly, the trip went off without any major hitches (apart from bringing the age at which I will be totally deaf forward a few years). At 55mph, it took around 9 hours to get to Fontainebleau and 9 hours to come back. I couldn't have done it without the help of my trusty companions, whose map reading and box moving skills were simply legendary. Thanks guys!
Which means that the to do list is almost ticked out of existence, and that the MBA is about to begin. Now all I've got to do is explore China for 3 weeks! Not bad.
One of the less obvious advantages of old age is being allowed to hire cars and other general grown up things like buying car insurance for less money than exists in the universe. Being 28 I was under the impression that I was done having to convince the world of my sensibility, and was past most testosterone driven age discrimination barriers.
The UK van rental industry seems to disagree. It appears one needs to be over 30 to be allowed to take a rental van out of the country. I suspect this is a Daily Mail plot against closer European integration, however, the upshot of this is that the only company I could find (and believe me, I tried) which would entrust me with a van with which I could move my stuff to Fontainebleau was .
At first I was excited at the thought of this adventure. The excitement quickly turned to panic upon receiving the keys to the aforementioned banger. It really was a banger. Graced with 15 years of age, and an odometer that is unlikely to have been clocked at 250k miles, the banger was also host to an exhaust which was winner of the 2004 "Fishnet of the year" award. This beast was capable of a solid 55mph assuming the pedal was firmly held to the floor. Top speed was measured at a downhill wind assisted 71mph.
Other features of interest included a battery warning light which was permanently on (I only realised this after I had driven away the van, and there was a moment of sheer panic when I had to wonder whether this really did mean it had a dodgy alternator), and a stereo that didn't work. An immobiliser that would sometimes decide that the security of this 15 year old luxury cruiser was paramount and would therefore refuse to let you switch the engine on until you had gone away and thought about having a cup of tea topped off the list of extras I could have done without. Imagine going on the channel tunnel with 100 cars behind you and this feature, and you soon get an idea of one stressed pre-MBA student.
Thankfully, and amazingly, the trip went off without any major hitches (apart from bringing the age at which I will be totally deaf forward a few years). At 55mph, it took around 9 hours to get to Fontainebleau and 9 hours to come back. I couldn't have done it without the help of my trusty companions, whose map reading and box moving skills were simply legendary. Thanks guys!
Which means that the to do list is almost ticked out of existence, and that the MBA is about to begin. Now all I've got to do is explore China for 3 weeks! Not bad.
posted by The Apprentice at 10:35 PM
5 Comments:
Have an amazing trip, and keep on blogging... You'll be missed!
Man I cannot believe I missed it!
Man I cannot believe I missed it!
Man I cannot believe I missed it! Ah, (ex) girlfirends... the source of all my whoes. And btw, I think I screwed up my first post to a blog, my comments might appear in at least triplice format.
If you've seen the Fiat, you know there will be some action in the future...
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