A new old bakkie

After 38 years in the civil service, I finally retired at the end of January this year. Now my wife, Engela, and I are pensioners together. Around March, I decided to tackle one of my bucket-list items and buy an off-road vehicle. I decided against a new one, as I don’t want to go to the bundus in a brand-new half-a-million rand bakkie. I bought a 2009 Mazda BT-50 that had been cared for properly, and I’m quite proud of myself. The bakkie did have a few scratches, and as my daughter Angelique’s friend Marcel Da Costa owns a panel-beating business, he would fix it for me. But luck was not on my side, because as I dropped it off at the panel beater in Pretoria, the lockdown was announced. This after having barely travelled 100 km in it. In the meantime, I’ve read the April issue of from cover to cover, and fortunately just got my May issue. I don’t read any other magazines and I keep all my issues stacked neatly on a shelf, because you sometimes forget what you read a year ago. If things go according to plan, I will be able to fetch my bakkie soon, probably two months after the initial lockdown. Thank you so much for a great magazine.