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Barbara could be very patient, especially when she working on a drawing. She could sit hours non-stop working on a very detailed part of a drawing. Barbara liked to make her drawings were very detailed, she often used color pencils. Barbara was the opposite behind the steering wheel of a car.

In 1978 Barbara passed her driving exam (2nd try). Her mother bought her a car. It was English made, a small ordinary, dark green car. Barbara used this car to come to school and of course for driving everybody around. None of our friends had a car, this was a luxury for all of us. Life became such a lot easier having a car. We could go to nice places together. We used the car a lot to transport food, drinks, people and animals. We didn't take good care of that car. It got scratched a lot and I can't remember that the car was ever cleaned (inside and outside). For us it was just a means of transport. I don't think Barbara’s mother realized how much pleasure she had given us with that car (and the free petrol).

Barbara was very impatient driver. I am a very slow driver, she couldn't stand that. Therefore every time we were in the car together she was driving. The strange thing is that this still happens. My girlfriend always drives.
Once we were late for a party. In front of us drove a mother carefully (and a bit slow) because she had a few kids jumping around on the backseat. Barbara kept on complaining about her driving. I asked Barbara what would she do if she had kids in the car. She said: 'even if I have seven kids in this car I certainly wouldn't drive like that!'.

Barbara was invited for an interview by the Central School of Art in London. This interview would determine whether she would be admitted for the following year. A very important interview for both of us. We decided to go by her car. Barbara was a bit late, she tried to make up for the lost time by driving faster . Those days there was no free way from Cambridge to London just provincial roads. Just behind the village Royston, the road made slight turn going downhill. At that point Barbara lost control of the car, the car spinned round, hit the shrubs beside road and stopped. The car was damaged, we were a shaken. There was a lot of pieces of plants and soil on the road. The left front wheel was damaged. We called a local garage and they managed to fix the car in a way that we could continue our journey to London.

Instead of being glad that the car was fixed, Barbara complained to me that she had to pay so much for so little work (a typical Barbara statement). Instead of parking the car in the outskirts of London and then taking the underground, Barbara drove straight through the centre and parked the car on a reserved parking space for employees in front of the entrance of the Art college (she didn't care) and had her interview. I think we were very lucky that day, especially if you think that Barbara wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

 

 

美玲可以非常有耐心,特别是在她画画的时候,她可以一连几个小时坐在那里,不停地描画一幅画的细节部分。美玲画画注重细节,她经常使用彩色铅笔画画。不过,在汽车方向盘后面的她就没那么有耐心了。

美玲在1978年通过了她的驾照考试(考了两次)。她妈妈给她买了一辆车,那是一辆英国产的,小型、普通,深绿色的轿车。美玲开着辆车上学,当然也带着朋友们到处去。我们这群朋友们中没人有车,车对我们来说是一个奢侈品。有了车后,生活容易了好多,我们可以一起去很多好玩的地方,我们经常用这辆车,运食物、饮品、人,甚至动物。我们没有好好爱护这部车,车上有好多刮擦的地方,我记得我们也没有清洁过它(不管是里面还是外面)。对我们来说它只是运输工具,我觉得美玲的母亲并不知道她给的车(和免费汽油)带给了我们如此之多的快乐。美玲是一个很没耐心的司机,我开得很慢,她受不了这个,因此每次我们一起在车里时都是她开。比较离奇的是,现在的情况依旧如此,每次都是我现在的女朋友开车。

有一次我们去一个聚会迟到了,在我们前面一个妈妈开得很小心(有点慢),因为她有几个孩子在后车座上跳来跳去。美玲不停地抱怨那个妈妈开得慢,我问她如果她有几个孩子在车里,她该怎么办?美玲说:"就算我有七个孩子在这部车里,我也绝对不会开成那样!"

美玲收到了伦敦艺术学校中心的面试信,这个面试将决定她是否进入下一学年的学习。这对我们两个来说都非常重要,我们决定开车去,面试时间快到了,有点迟了,美玲想开得快点以便赶上面试。那时从剑桥到伦敦还没有快速道,只有省道,就在冠鸦村后面,道路有一个小拐弯,接着是下山路。就在那个地方美玲对车失去了掌控,车转着圈儿撞向路旁的灌木丛,最终停了下来。车撞坏了,我们也被摇晃得心惊胆战。路上是被撞得七零八落的灌木丛和泥土,我们的车左轮坏了,打电话给一个附近的修车行,他们来了稍微修了修,没有彻底修,可以让我们继续开到伦敦。美玲并没有因为车修好了而高兴,相反,她跟我抱怨就修了这么一点她就得付这么多钱(美玲经常如此评论)。那天美玲并没有象以前一样把车停在伦敦市郊,然后我们乘地铁,她直接把车开去了市中心,把车停在艺术学院的入口处专为教职工保留的停车位(她不理睬那标记),接着完成了面试。我认为我们那天太幸运了,特别是你要知道,美玲没系安全带!

 

(translated by Julia)

 

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APPLE
10 years ago
从BARBARA写给你的信的字迹来看,她又主动向ROB提出订婚,开车又快,从这所有的一切看来,她是个急性子的女孩
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TD
11 years ago
Thank you, Robert.
I love every single story. In fact if you write in detail of each story, I would not mind. I read all of them many times and still find them interesting.
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sandy
11 years ago
I'm so appreciated that you have done a lot work of making the site looks more beautiful than previous , but the black background with the white words above made my eyes dimmed eyesight. :sigh:
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rob
11 years ago
Is this better?
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