Down in the trenches

The saying goes that when it rains, it pours and all I could manage was a chuckle when coming out of the hockey rink after my team's first win in a torrential downpour.  I found not the Subaru I was expecting and had driven to the rink in but rather an empty and wet parking spot .  At first I thought I was a bit buzzed from the game and the frosty beer enjoyed in celebration was clouding my memory but soon found my initial reaction was correct; the car had been taken as evident by the broken plastic once covering the tops of the windows.  I chuckled because if I didn't laugh and take this mishap in stride I would have probably cried instead.  It's not easy starting over in a new country for so many reasons and this did not help for not only did I lose my mode of transportation but also that my only means of accessing the internet with any sort of convenience was also gone.  My iPad which serves not only as entertainment but navigation as well was locked in the glove box.  I don't flash the iPad around so I'm almost certain the car wasn't targeted because of the loot stored in it.  It's not as if brick upon brick of gold bullion were stacked in the boot (yes, I'm using the native lingo now) and a thief could ascertain from the sagging suspension perhaps something worth stealing was in the car.  No, nothing was visible for this exact reason and even though the car was parked in a well lit spot outside the rinks main windows some brazen* idiots decided it best to take a 13 year old Subaru for either parts or a joy-ride.  The second of my many chuckles came when I realized I had paid the rise in my insurance premium because of the high volume of stolen cars in Auckland five days previous;  a silver lining indeed.

Either way I was not amused and spent the next half hour on the phone giving details to the police.  Luckily one of the players whom I've gotten to know is also a cop and is currently looking at video footage from the ice rink to determine if the scallywags were smart enough to conceal their identity. 

I did find out today that the car has been recovered but I won't know until probably next week whether or not it will be considered a total loss or up for repair.  Apparently when these cars are recovered around Auckland they have been driven into the ground mechanically on joy-rides so I'll update whether or not I'm just losing an iPad on this shady deal.

for obvious reasons I will not have any photos attached to this installment.

Will check back in with better news soon as I'm guiding a wine tour with some South African executives tomorrow for a small but very successful company individually run for a Kiwi that needs some help. Hopefully it turns into something for me otherwise I might have just experienced in the last few days one of the last straws this camel can take piling up on my back.