Dobré ráno Marek

The Grape is gorn and we're back in the Republic of Yaris. There are about 60,000 different used cars for sale in Ireland today. There are too many variables (marque, model, year, drive-train, clock-Km, colour, price) of uncertain weighting to get The Best car. But, as an evolutionary biologist, I don't want Perfect, I rather want Good enough. One way of reducing the choice to manageable proportions is by brand: Audi Bentley Chevy . . . Renault Škoda Toyota. And the rest is fairly straight-forward, constrained by money and size and what is available at this location today. I am not one to piffle about: so long as it goes and won't leave me or mine stranded, a decision can be made today. 

The day after The Grape was given a terminal diagnosis, which was not wholly unexpected, we went to the nearest Toyota dealer and said "Sell me this pencil us a car; any car, so long as it's black Yaris". They had about 20 on the forecourt. Half of them older stick-shift petrol like my '06 little red Yaris and half newer [petrol+battery] hybrid models. We were conducted round the stock by a charming New Irish fella from the other end of the EU. After a bit of tire-kicking, I was ready to take the '21 Red Hybrid but was prevailed upon to sleep on the decision. Our contact was off on family business the next day.

But early on the day after that, I sent him a txt "Dobré ráno, Marek, we're coming in at 0900hrs to pay for the '21 Red Yaris Hybrid 212KK456". When we reconvened at 9am, that [rather low mileage] car had been sold, and the other '21 had been keyed over the w/e and was being de-scratched, so we could either go newer for more money or vice-versa. While we dithered, Marek went to his supervisor and secured us another €500 on the trade-in: he was really touched that my text had started with G'day in his mother-tongue. We have a multi-cultural society now, I prefer to lean in to it rather than set fire to vacant hotels. We can all play nicely and use DeepL translator to spice up the comms.

It took a tuthree days to get the paperwork sorted. When I returned to take delivery Marek was off-site again. I nevertheless left him a pot of '23 Marmalade with a tag "Děkuji vám, Marek. In Ireland after a large transaction (like a horse), it is traditional for the buyer to return a luck penny to the seller . . . but you  can't eat pennies. Bob & TB". And that's how we acquired a NightSkyBlack Yaris Hybrid with a once-round-the-world mileage. God bless her and all who sail in her. 20 minutes after taking delivery I parked under tree to go shopping. Bird shat of my windscreen! A baptism of sorts.

Hint - automatic: do NOT use left foot ever - ask me how I know.