Farewell little pink bubble

Once upon a time our car was red. It was shiny. It had no dents. It was a cool car (in 1991). It was owned by my mother-in-law. It lived outside, it got many dents and the paint gradually turned pink. It was given to Franky and I the year we were engaged. It has served us well - driving us on holidays, driving me to work and, in recent years, making short trips to and from the station.

On holidays at the Hunter Valley

But this year, we decided not to renew the rego and to scrap our little pink bubble. It was 21 years old and was going to need quite a few repairs to get registered this time. I think the beginning of the end was when someone thought that they would find something valuable inside the car towards the end of last year. They smashed in one of the windows and broke the passenger door lock. They searched though all our things and (surprise, surprise) there was nothing valuable left in our junk station car. We never bothered to repair the window or the lock - but I did do a mighty nice job of taping plastic over the window frame!

Wonder what they were expecting to find under all that newspaper?

Nice, yeah?

I called the guy from Sydney Scrap cars (website - sydneyscrapcars - hehehehe) who came within an hour. I was shocked! He was much quicker than expected - I hadn't even cleaned out the glovebox yet! I quickly pulled stuff out of the car and he got to work putting the car onto his truck.

The boys watched curiously from the driveway. Mr Fun was interested, Mr Sociable was a bit sad - he's pretty attached to our car.

Then, it happened.... he smashed through the windscreen. Mr Sociable started to cry! I think it suddenly all became real to him - that the car was not just going away, but that it was going to be scrapped!

We watched the truck drive away and I encouraged the kids to say "goodbye" to the 121. Mr Fun was happy to farewell the truck, but Mr Sociable was too sad.

He was still a bit sad later on and talked to Franky on the phone. Franky told him that we got paid by the man which I expected this to make Mr Sociable even sadder, but it actually had the reverse effect! He's developing a head for money.

So, for now, Franky is walking to and from the station each day. It's quite a walk - so great exercise for him! Not sure how he will go in winter, but for now we are choosing to be a "one car" family.

Have you ever scrapped a car? Did it make you sad?