Oh, my first love, something that I could never forget and looking back now I can laugh with fondness at the mistake and adventures we had together. Inevitable there were problems along the way but C`est la vie, it`s how we learn and grow. It brings a smile to my face to think of her now and how my father "God rest him" introduced us to one another.
It was a little over 14 years ago when I had finally landed my first real office job with a large food distribution company for a large supermarket chain. The only catch, I now joined the people of the night, when most people finished work I was only starting, during the Autumn and Winter there would be days I wouldn`t even feel the sun on my face. The hours were long and somewhat unsociable but the money was great.
One Saturday morning I could hear my father call from the bottom of the stairs, only I was reluctant to acknowledge as I have only been in the bed of I would guess was three hours. When I did answer my pleasantries were few and far between. As per most Saturday mornings, well when I was still one of the day walkers he would prepare every hungover Irish person dream, the full Irish. From sausages to grilled tomatoes and fry brown bread, the smell alone carried me down the stairs once my head had raised from below the covers.
When we had devoured our breakfast he had told me to get ready we were going to meet a friend of his just out of town. This kind of early morning practice would never really be uncommon so I didn`t read too much into it at the time.
We drove into a long gravel yard with grey stone walls and headed towards a small single story pebble dished house a short middle-aged man in a pair of dirty dark navy overhauls with a badly grown mustache stood and giving what I would call a country farmers waves (an over exaggerated arm held in the air as if we would struggle to see him)
"Mick ya old bollox"
"Morning Tommy, this must be the young lad"
"That`s one of them anyway. Barry, Mick"
"So you`re the lucky one yah"
I look at him, puzzled and silent forcing a slight grin and a quick nod of the head upwards.
"Well, there she is now"
He said as he raised one arm and pointed towards a large garage to the side of the house. There a set of large wooden doors with a dark green paint heavily flacking off stood wide open and there, there she was indeed.
"Well, what do you think of her, I had Mick get her ready for ya, she cheap and reliable"
And there she was in the shadows her pale blue shell still visible; to be quite honest I didn`t even consider the price as my eyes focused and the thought of actually owning my first car actually seeded.