New Year's mayhem and a lucky Bond

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New Year’s evening is an evening for celebration. With friends and family, a ticking clock, champagne and fireworks. But for some it’s not that. And the current fear of mayhem during the Christian’s most celebrated night reminded me of a New Year’s eve of some 10 or 12 years ago. I lived in Amsterdam, where my daily driver was a green Bond Equipe at the time. I loved that car, with it’s quirky fastback lines and smooth Triumph six-cylinder, and sometimes used to motor through the city centre on early Sunday mornings. And so, when we decided to celebrate New Year’s evening abroad, I decided to park it in the safest spot I could think of. Not easy, as the area where I lived certainly wasn’t the poshest of places in town. Never the less I believed I’d found a very suitable place under a motorway bridge not too far from our house. Parking was free there and outside the office hours the place was deserted. With the bridge above, it seemed just the ticket as not a single skyrocket would land upon my finely waxed fibreglass roof. Well – it wasn’t.

We had a grand celebration but upon returning home I was deeply disheartened once I entered the street where my pride and joy was parked. What I found was a total mess. A mere chaos of rubble, fireworks leftovers and broken glass. Somebody with a not so noble New Year’s thought had decided New Year’s eve was a splendid opportunity to smash all the glass of all the cars in that street. There were at least 10 cars with all the wind-; rear- and side screens smashed and several more with just a few. Fire crackers had been thrown in several for that little extra. The worst bit was that my beloved Bond appeared to have been parked in the centre of the action. A crew of the local television channel was standing right next to it, interviewing people about what had happened. With lead in my shoes I dragged myself to the car, thinking how on earth I’d be able to source new glass for this one. But the extraordinary thing was: it had remained completely untouched. All the glass was still where it should be. There was not even a scratch on the car, and I can tell you I searched pretty well. I’m still amazed I got out unharmed, but it’s kind of heart warming to think that even the lowlifes in this world seem to have some kind of care for an old little car.

(Words and picture Jeroen Booij)

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