Joseph Avakian

by Joz & Geronimo ….

There are days one does not forget! Beautiful weather, awesome start … and a great Plan! But as we know life is full of surprises .. right? right!

The Setting:
The ends of the earth 68º N Arctic Norway.
The Actors: Glenn (the next guy’s friend and our driver), Geronimo (aka ØyWind aka Island Breeze), Joz and T. Corolla
The Extras: A Viking guy with dialect … and the infamous 3 bottles – water, Soda water and Pepsi …

The Scene: Beautiful Fjord and mountains and no sign of Civilization, a swamp and a road not very frequently driven
The Plot: Gettting us all to Bodø by wheels to catch some wings to the capital and then on to another city …

The Story: As we are enjoying the fingerlicking average soggy fries … “Oh NO” is the word that gets us all worried …
Glenn:”UHHHHHH”
Geronimo: “what’s the sound?”
Glenn: “OH I think forgot!” .
“what’s that smell?” .. came the question from Joz, hoping not to end up stuck in the middle of the road.
We were slowing down , smoke filled the (new) horizon and the dashboard was blinking!
“Oh S**t” (Glenn uttered) in desperation and surprise!

We pulled over only to realize that Corrolla had a seroius dehydration problem.
Joz says: “I am glad I did not drink my water … so we can use it if we need to”, and as we opened the front of T. Corolla smoke, oil and heat is the puzzle that reveals itself!
Glenn: “Uhhhh …. I think we have a problem! hmmm …”
Joz: “I survived war, I can survive this!”
Geronimo: “let’s pray … Jesus …… ……. have mercy on Corolla … … … … amen” (faintly as a whisper)

Glenn: “There is one bus that could take you to Bodø. Did you see it leave? ”
Geronimo: “Uhhhh you are the local – you should know!”
As we all looked at each other and the surrounding beauty… we hear a roar from down the road ….
“There is the bus!!” says Joz.
In that moment Glenn moves around the car and quietly utters … “You can stop the bus if you want”
Joz and Geronimo look at each with an overhelming sense of lostness …. as the bus whizzes by! … a few seconds later echoes the voice of Glenn again: (as calm as a Norwegian glacier): ” That was the last bus for the day to Bodø”
For a moment time stood still (and so did the sun and the stars and our hearts)
Geronimo: “Well, maybe we can hitch hike?”
Joz: “Aaaah it will work out!, let’s try to start the car!”

Brrrrrrrr tck tck tck tck … mmmmmmmhhhhhhhhh eh eh eh hark hark … clump!
We stood there in awe .. and hoped a car would come by soon! … then Lo and behold …. we see a bus, no a truck, no a bus … no a truck … truck .. yes a tow away truck ………….
“Please stop” Geronimo cries out.
“Harr’ u hjelp för oss” .. was the thought that crossed joseph’s childish Norwegian mind ( as a cross cultural expert he tries to adapt!!) as he is surprised that the Indian called Geronimo was actually quite fluent in the language and got the Viking driver of the towing truck to help! After a second of inspection he asks for water and Geronimo and Joz start looking for fresh water .. only to find a small pond of swamp water .. while Glenn stood there looking at life pass him by!

Corolla was so thirsty that joz and Geronimo ended up doing a relay race of bottle fillings to satisfy her thirst! Meanwhile the Viking entertained everyone with his knowledge (expressed through his funny Stavanger accent) about cars, engines, oil and worries! In between he is looking at times at Glenn and asking him question about his Corolla that were not answered due to Glenns outer body experience in space and time!

After 4 litres of water, Corolla was satisfied to get her heart pumping again! The viking entrusted us with the rest and said all should be fine! By now it was 6:30ish … and before us lied still another 100 KM of winding roads in between mountain ranges and islands. As the journey continued the only parallel Joz could recognize was the temperature gauges frequent extreme rise and the frequent Loud Metal Music playing! However, Stryper was not loud enough to keep him awake, and while dreaming of a warm tropical island, Corolla carried us through the rigid mountains of Arctic Norway.

Three kilometers before the airport, the gauge hit an all time high, and Joz said to himself: “I will not believe that everything is fine, before I am ON the plane.” As we parked, our next surprise was that the back door of Corolla had jacked up and we had to pull our luggage out of the side doors. While Geronimo was doing a snap shot of his friend (with the fattest sideburns ever seen north of the Arctic circle) Joz headed straight to terminal. Arriving at the check-in 25 minutes before departure, another surprise was yet to be revealed. It contains the elements of a stolen identity, hi-jacked boarding cards and a confused ground personel of the airline. But that is another story…

So what is the moral of this story? Glenn: “Uhhhh”.

THE END

Glenn, Jo & Corolla (not fully in Picture!) Geronimo & Glenn The Land

2 Responses

  1. liest sich ja witzig… war aber “in echt” sicher nicht so zum Lachen… 🙂
    gute teaching week Dir! – Jutta

  2. LOL!!!! maaan that was quite a ride…amazing…i was laughing so much reading that, i dount know if you laughed as much during the time of this super interesting Norwegian car break down..but, it shure blesses some other friends out there:)

    thanks for sharing the storry, i love th funny way you write it all:)
    hope teaching goes better than with the car…i`ll be praying;)

    happy smilyes from ell