Illumination

There are moments in life when one has to confront the unknown: peer over the edge of the abyss and dip a tentative toe in the water; sometimes while simultaneously grasping the nettle. Facing up to great challenges, and overcoming them, and, importantly, surviving the ordeal in one piece (or at least in a relatively small number of pieces) can be a life-enhancing experience.

I changed a headlamp bulb this morning. This does not sound like much of an ordeal. But the first time, on a new car, can be daunting. Especially as my previous car was a 2004 Ford Focus, which was specifically designed to inflict severe flesh wounds whenever you dared to insert a hand into the inch or two of space between the engine and the back of the headlamp fitting; a particularly dangerous task as it was impossible to get your head into any position under the bonnet where you could actually see what you were doing and so had to work completely blindly with surgical precision. And it was not just me: I heard tales from work colleagues – men of robust character who could take a car to pieces in minutes and re-build it without leaving anything out – how they had suffered long hours to change a bulb on a Focus, removing the battery in their frustration, and seriously considering tearing out the engine, too. I once managed to persuade – to my shame – one of my children to have a go, on the basis they had small, nimble fingers, and were oblivious to pain. In the end, with my tail between my legs, I would find an excuse to take it along to a garage, and bashfully ask for assistance. And the garage mechanic, without a moment's hesitation, would deftly replace the bulb with the manual dexterity of a small octopus with an interest in car maintenance.  However, after several years of effort, in the end I did manage to succeed on my own, thanks to the purchase of a small mirror. Which only goes to demonstrate the value of actually being able to see what you are doing.

As you can imagine, this experience marked me severely for many years. That car has now been ditched in favour of the 2009 model, which on the face of it offered a simpler approach to bulb changing. So this morning there was no intricate manipulation to be done, but merely the removal of the entire headlamp unit from the front of the car. Which was still unnerving, as halfway through the process you realised that if you were unable to fit it all back together, there was no way you would suffer the embarrassment of driving to the garage with the headlamp trailing on the road behind you.