Gloriously Ordinary Sundays - 21st January 2024
This week saw a beautiful photo test (test three) moment. For the last few months, we’ve been in the process of getting a new Motability car. It’s an amazing scheme and we’re really lucky to be eligible. For most of us, the idea of a new car is full of excitement. Browsing websites for makes and models, colours and specs, checking out the latest widget car manufacturers have come up with (Ok, I own it, I love cars).
For the girl, getting a new car is actually a really stressful experience and it’s compounded by all the things that make getting a new car at the moment even more difficult; the global computer chip shortage is delaying production and this means that even though they give you a delivery date it’s likely to change …and the girl really hates anything changing.
We started the process of choosing a car last June, introducing the idea that there was going to be a new car and then thinking about what it might look like. I wanted the girl to have as much control over this as possible – it’s her car – but sadly she doesn’t share my love of technical detail. She knows what she likes the look of and what she doesn’t like the look of, and after a bit of a Google, we narrowed it down to …red! She also has some specific things that she needs – the armrest on the backseat to come down, so she can put her juice bottle into it. The ability to charge her phone …And her DVD player …And potentially her MacBook …all at the same time.
So there you have it – a red car that can accommodate a back-seat juice bottle and multi-device charging! Perfect. Trouble was, once I’d found the make and model that could do that, we had to get into the conversation of timescales.
‘When’ in our house is a specific date, preferably accompanied by a specific time. The initial conversations with the garage gave us an estimate of ‘before the end of the year’ which just wasn’t going to wash.
I went into the garage to chat and explain our situation and met the wonderful Sophie. Sophie is probably only a couple of years older than the girl, and she really got the fact that the system wasn’t making this easy. We agreed that the date would be January 19th, meaning it could arrive early and sit in the garage for a couple of weeks if necessary. Sophie agreed to send the girl video updates each week and she was always really clear and specific about what was happening.
By early January, we had a specific date – 12th January and Sophie made a video message offering the chance to have the car on the 12th or wait until the 19th – the girl went for the 12th! When the car arrived and was in the garage Sophie took a video showing the girl the car - opening up all the doors, showing the inside and her armrest and charging points, saying that she was looking forward to seeing her to pick it up.
So, what’s the photo test? Well neither of the young women involved wanted their photo taken but picture this; bright red shiny new car, two young women, looking at each other, both with big smiles, Sophie having just been just experienced one of the best hugs of her life!
There is a bit of a ‘yes but’ to this story though, and it has made me think that the photo test does require some thinking and some curiosity. What might appear to be a great photo – a person picking up a new car from the garage – might not be great for that person or might have required a huge amount of work to be a great photo. Conversely, what might appear not to be such a great photo …someone sitting on their own in a room looking out of the window ...might actually be showing someone doing exactly what makes their heart sing at that moment. Context is everything.
