Car Update

I am sure that you are all sitting on the edge of your seats wondering how the car deal went. Well I am pleased to report that the whole thing went rather smoothly. Its complex and bewildering but the guy who was selling me the car knew which desks to visit and in which order (which was a jolly good job because bewildering is the word). First you visit the insurance company where you hand the lady a form. She mutters something in arabic and the guy mutters something back. She looks like she is not happy then gives him a form. He looks happy to get the form and we walk to another desk where I hand over BD5. We get a receipt and take it back to the first lady who is much happier looking now. She stamps the form and presses a few buttons on her keyboard and then gives us the form back again. We go back to the desk beside the paydesk and hand over our form. The nice young man behind the desk the produces a certificate of insurance in my name (transferred from previous owner). It looks like a credit card. We then drive to the vehicle licensing centre where, by the way, you don't get in if you are wearing shorts. I just thought I would let you know that. Luckily we were all appropriately dressed and in we went. Its another case of you first get the form checked by one chap who stamps it, then you go to accidents desk where they do something and stamp your form. Then you go to another desk in another room with no indication as to where or why and a chap there checks whether there are any outstanding traffic fines for the car, then a few desks and a few stamps later you find yourself at the pay desk. You then queue up because there are lots of people doing this (every car that changes hands on the island have to be done in this building) and when you get to the front of the queue the chap there gives you a ticket with a number on it. You then take a seat in front of a lot of different desks and wait for your number. It was then I handed over the lolly. When its your turn you go to the desk and pay your BD16 and a few minutes later you have in your grubby little hand a vehicle owner registration card. It again looks like a credit card. That's it. Job done. The previous owner says to me "Mabrook" which apparently means congratulations. I say "Shokran" and he replies "Afwan", thank you and you're welcome for the uninitiated (my arabic is coming on although I have no idea how to spell those words). That's me up to three words. I am the proud owner of a Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7 litre flying machine.

I said it has all the boys toys? What about this. It has electric seats - no big deal there you say. It has two presets so we adjust the seat to our desired position and save the settings. If you open the door and press your button the seat goes to your position. OK so that's pretty good but what about this. There are two remote controls which are slightly different colours. If you open the door with remote control 1 the seat goes to the settings for 1 and if you use the other remote the seat goes to position 2. How cool is that? Oh and by the way the door mirrors adjust to the two settings too and the radio goes to the preset stations for that driver. I am still investigating. Pictures to follow. It was dark before I got the car home.

Cheers for now
David