A few years back we went to Arizona and were heading out for the day. There were a few of us and we all piled into an MPV which had been hired for the purpose. As happens so often when anyone is going out, there was the inevitable load of questions before we could go. These questions seem to vary depending on whether you are on holiday or at home, but there's always some mix of the following:
Home (on leaving)
~~Have you turned the gas off?
~~Have you locked the door?*1
~~Have you got your keys/ glasses/ walking stick/ teeth/ coat/ umbrella/ insert as appropriate?
Home (on leaving with children)
~~Have you been to the toilet?
~~Have you got your mobile/ iPod/ DS/ PSP?
(If visiting grandma)
~~Have you combed your hair?
~~Are you wearing the jumper you were given for Christmas?
(If going on a date)
~~Have you brushed your teeth?
~~Have you got 'something for the weekend?'
(On holiday)
~~Have you got your camera?
~~Did you shut the room door?
~~Have you got/ handed in the keycard?
~~Have you got the map?
Well, you get the picture...
...so we fired all these questions at the driver (as well of asking, of course, "Are we were there yet?"!). Something tweaked a nerve and the driver felt compelled to go back in to check and left us all in the vehicle. You know how it is...we were in a foreign country, in a new hire car we hadn't seen before with all sorts of interesting knobs and buttons that we didn't know the function of. We were bored, waiting for the driver, and since they'd taken the keys (no doubt suspecting that we might go careering round the car park on two wheels) we pressed all the buttons, trying to see what would work without keys.
Well, we were in luck, we found the radio and we thought it was pretty cool that under the radio was a little display that seemed to give you information about the car. "Open Door" it said - so we did. We then shut the door only to see that the display read the same. We tugged on all the doors - they all seemed to be shut. We opened them all and then shut them all again - it said the same! We got out and checked the boot (trunk), got back in, opened all the doors, shut all the doors, opened each door in turn, shut each one; opened them and slammed them really really hard - the display didn't change and we figured that we had somehow managed (in all the button pressing) to have broken the vehicle (or the doors at least). We started to panic since our driver was going to get back any minute and we thought we'd be in trouble...what to do....what to do?
It was at this point, that the next record was played on the radio and suddenly the offending display changed - it now read "She Loves You" and we realised that this was some new fangled radio that none of us had seen before - one that cleverly tells you what track is playing! Doh!
Well, in our defence, none of us had ever heard of Open Door - what would you have done?!
*1 I once failed to ask hubby this, only to find out when we returned (6 hours later) that the front door was wide open and had been all day!!
