As kids we all believed in dragons in the forests and monsters of the sea. What do grown men still believe in when looking at cars? We all know that clever car salesmen would not dream of starting a car yard without also decorating the yard with flags all strung around strings leading to the ‘special car’ usually elevated on a kind of scaffolding or throne. It all goes without saying that all cars for sale must have their bonnets open as well. Why?

What are the expectations of those interested in cars of finding underneath those bonnets?

This morning I promised to walk to the Moss-Vale shopping centre to buy our special Sunday treat, not a car, but a much more modest item, croissants that a Vietnamese bakery excels in making here locally. On the walk to the bakery one passes two car sales yards. The first on the left side is huge. It sells both second hand and new. Hondas, Hyundai’s, and Subaru’s. All bonnets ajar as if yawning, greet those that happen to drive or walk by. Below the bonnets and at the front there appear increasingly aggressive looking grills. With some squinting and going back to the years of ‘monsters in the sea’, they are looking like predatory fish, a mixture perhaps of shark and piranha.

The second car yard sells Skoda’s and Peugeots, new as well as second hand. Perhaps in keeping with a more modest and aesthetic Euro approach, there are no flags but just open bonnets. This morning I noticed a young couple standing in front of the first and very large car yard. The girl was standing somewhat away and was kind of moving both her arms up and down and sideways as if exercising or perhaps showing a bit of impatience or boredom. The boyfriend had his head hidden underneath the bonnet. Now, this head under the bonnet has always intrigued me. What are they hoping to see there? It is only ever men that look under the bonnet. Is it a sex differentiation thing? Are they doing a kind of metal muff diving here ( scusi signorina), or is it a genetic predisposition, afflicting both hetero and homo men? Surely all cars have an engine under the bonnet and what can you ascertain by just looking?

Only once have I seen a woman under a bonnet. Her car had broken down. I stopped and she was wiping the air-filter with a pink shopping bag rag. Trying to clean up a bit, I suppose. Her battery lead had disconnected and after I fastened it she managed to start the car and drove off.

After I bought the croissants this bloke had his head under another different car bonnet and the girl friend had given up her arm swaying, was sitting somewhat uncomfortable on a thick chain swinging between the car yard’s posts separating the yard from the grassy knoll. She was facing the road.

 I just walked by