Yes that shiny gold thing parked outside Chateau Lawrence is the latest Lawrence Mobile. Vintage (2005) Korean engineering in the form of a Kia Rio GL. Yes, a GL. I have no idea what that means either but apparently it is a good thing. Marvellous. Lexi drove it back from the dealer and nothing fell off, of the car or Lexi, and so we have deemed that to be a first successful journey.
Taking delivery was of course subject to the usual Malaysian frustrations and confusions. Mr Andy, the esteemed and very cheerful vendor, had told us that he could deliver said vehicle today. Great. What actually happened was the following ... Lexi was phoned by a lady from somewhere or other to do with the car sale or maybe the insurance company asking for her full name, address and passport number, information that we had given to Mr Andy on Saturday. Lexi was in a meeting so Mr Andy phoned me, and as I was also in a meeting I missed his first call but sneaked out to take his second. He wanted Lexi's full name, address and passport number, information that we had given to Mr Andy on Saturday. I agreed to get it sent to him, again, and tried to phone Lexi who had helpfully turned her phone off. Standing outside my meeting I had a rant and rave at the phone while the head teacher walked past and gave me a curious look. (I will have to tell him tomorrow that I was in the process of buying a car and I am sure that will explain everything.) Eventually Lexi switched on her phone again and we made contact. I sent Lexi's full name, address and passport number to Mr Andy for a second time, information that we had given him on Saturday.
A little while later, fortunately at the end of my meeting, I spoke to The Great Mr Andy again and agreed to take delivery of the car at 6.00pm. Wonderful. 6.00pm came and went, as did 6.30 and it's near neighbour 6.40pm. At 6.43pm my phone rang. It was Mr Andy asking me where we were. I asked him the same question and went on to ask when he would actually be delivering the car. His priceless answer? "Sorry. I don't know your address."
We drove the five miles to collect the latest Lawrence Mobile instead. On arrival the much anticipated charabanc awaited our pleasure but we could not take it away before more formalities were completed. Further copies of both our passports were taken, various forms were signed and Lexi had to give a thumb print on another form. Fortunately a DNA swab was not required, although give it time....
There is much controversy among the lunchtime chatter-atti at my school and most of it related to meatballs, of all things. Under the new cafeteria arrangements if teachers pre-load their ID cards with cash then they receive a 10% discount on food and drinks. All good. The other good treatment is that teachers receive an extra meatball on their lunch! Yesterday I stood politely in the meatball and pasta queue and counted the rather paltry number of meatballs served to the students, two, and considered whether to bother. I stuck it out though and handed over my plate for pasta in a somewhat resigned manner anticipating my small portion. But, joy of joys, the server ladled not two but three, yes THREE, meatballs onto my pasta. Wow, more balls than most! But I fear a student-led meatball backlash. Will the school soon have to play host to kids unfurling banners demanding equality of servings? "Give Us More Balls!", and such like?