Getting there

Here's why I don't get along with cars.

They're unpredictable. Drive over a couple of curbs and you end up with a flat tire. If you are lucky enough to have gallant help at hand, who'll quickly roll up their sleeves and discover all kinds of tools for changing a tire (and a spare tire) in the boot of your car, which you weren't even aware you had been provided with, you can get away with watching them change the wheel in the biting cold, comfortably snug in your jacket, making a great show of trying to get through to rental helpline on your phone. However, you still won't be spared a 45 minutes long drive to the airport (all the while desperately worried about the smaller temporary tire) to get your car exchanged.

They're temperamental. Leave your headlights on when parking in the morning and your car will refuse to start when you get back in the evening. You'll have to call help to coax your dead battery alive by jumpstarting it. Obviously it'll have to rain on that day so that you freeze while you're hunting for your car and wondering why the car you're almost sure is your car isn't responding to the key remote.

They're demanding. You have to equip them with GPSs so that they'll take you to places. Occasionally wrestle for an hour with an ice-scraper while you clean their windows and wind shields of ice and snow after they've been standing in the snow for a day.

They have a weird sense of humor. Leave them alone in the parking lot while you go and eat in a restaurant 0.2 miles away and they are nowhere to be found when you get back. You'll spend an hour looking for them everywhere and just when you've given up and made a fool of yourself by calling up people to tell them you've lost your car and you need to be rescued, they'll suddenly appear out of thin air.

They play hard to get. Try looking for a second hand car to buy and you realize how many issues they have. And they're difficult to understand. Some people are known to take a long time to get comfortable with driving them.

As you can see my relationship with cars isn't going all that well. I'm onto my second rental already which I'm hoping will survive until I get my own car, and am also keeping my fingers crossed that it'll work out better that third time.