The art of driving

Yesterday we went to collect Christine's car at the garage where it had been for maintenance. While we were waiting for our turn to speak to the mechanic, the latter was having a conversation with a (very) senior citizen. The old man was incredibly shabby, with worn, dirty clothes and a dusty old cap on his balding head and he spoke very rough local dialect too. We couldn't understand all of it, but after living in this area for almost a year and a half now (Christine already two years) we could make out most of what he was saying. Apparently he had dropped by for a broken stop light of his old little Peugeot. The mechanic was most helpful and asked the man to press the brake pedal so he could investigate the problem.

- "Errr... which pedal would that be?", the old man asked.

- "It's the one in the middle", the mechanic kindly replied.

In the meantime Christine and I were standing there in wonder. That man was driving his car without knowing where the brakes were??? We had hardly overcome our initial surprise when we overheard him mutter something else which we didn't understand but which ended with:

- "...I'm not seeing too well anymore because I have cataract." 

Our eyes must have seemed to pop out of their sockets and our jaws dropped open wide. How on earth... There wasn't much time to think because the bulb was replaced in no time and the man appeared to want to reverse his car. There was little room to manoeuvre and Christine's car was parked pretty closely behind his so I shouted at her: "Quick, move your car out of the way as far as possible!" Which she immediately did. Better not take chances with that bloke behind the wheel! To our great relief, however, the mechanic was so friendly to reverse the car himself because after all it was a rather tight spot and so the man could take over straight onto the entrance lane.

And then... suddenly an elderly lady arrived on foot and took the driving seat of the little Peugeot.

- "Yes, I'm driving because my husband's sight isn't too good, you see", she explained. Christine and I were having difficulties not to laugh too obviously and we really had to clench our teeth together. And off they went...