Ruby Tuesday R.I.P.

I'm alive! Ruby Tuesday, I'm sorry to say, did not make it.

Since my last anecdote I've had a wee "off the road adventure", the kind that you don't really want to have.

On Sunday I was driving to church when I caught a glimpse of the Southern alps looming over Christchurch in a spectacular fashion, they looked so beautiful, covered in snow against the blue sky; it didn't take me long to decide to skip church and go and visit the mountains instead! A decision I later came to regret.

The road was sunny and bright for the first 40 minutes but as I started to get into the foothills of the mountains I turned a corner into the shade and made contact with some ice; at this point I lost control of Ruby Tuesday and she started to skid all over the place. I was trying desparately to avoid the 10-15 metre drop on my left hand side and did manage to slow down but then I realised that a tumble was inevitable. As my car tipped over the edge I remember thinking to myself- I could get really hurt here and then I closed my eyes, leaned back into my seat and started praying "Jesus protect me, Jesus protect me" until the car stopped rolling (I think I must have rolled a couple of times) ... amazingly, he did!

I opened my eyes to find that I was absolutely fine-not even a scratch; poor Ruby Tuesday, however, was wrecked; every one of her panels including the roof had been damaged and the passenger window and back windscreen completely smashed in.

The car behind me on the road had watched me disappear over the edge and immediately called an ambulence. The driver had jumped out and was scrambling down the embankment to see what state I was in. After a few seconds, I suddenly thought -I must let these people know that I'm o'k! I went to roll down the passenger window, only to find that it was already open (!) and shouted over to the man decending the rather steep embankment "I'm totally fine- I just can't get out of my car because I'm feeling a bit shocked" (under statement of the year-hands shaking up and down like a jelly fish on speed). The man came over to my door and said that he could smell petrol and suggested that I step out of the vehicle; at which point I suddenly found the strength to evacuate Ruby T- God rest her soul.

Ten minutes later- in true Ayley style-the fire brigade, ambulence and police were all on the seen. They were all relieved to see that I was in one piece and quite amazed that I didn't even have a scratch on me. They said that someone must have been watching over me; my flat mate, Andrew, later said he thought that someone must have literally wrapped themselves around me!

Felt a little shocked and emotional Mon, Tues, Wed but feel back to normal now, glad to be blogging to you all. Flat mates have taken to calling me tumble weed!

Ruby Tuesday was my plane ticket home and I only had 3rd party insurance, so for those of you who have connections, perhaps you could ask for some provisions from on high!

I'm not too worried about that side of things, in fact this whole experience has built up my faith in many ways. Still I wouldn't mind a wee Rudy Wednesday to run around in :0)

Keep safe-Ayley.