CT

This afternoon I had the controle technique for my car. I was a little nervous as my car is getting older (2001 Volkswagen Bora with 232,000km on it!) But it all went ok, a few things to change soon though... boo.

The funny part isn't the test itself but how I sold myself for 7 euros... let me explain...

Last month I called up a few places nearby to find out how far in advance I need to book an appointment and to ask about a discount. At my previous job I saw that several different CT companies offer employees a discount so I thought well, I'm no longer employed there but only since February so I thought I'd tell a little white lie to see if I couldn't get a few euros off.

I called a few places and they said, sorry but no discount. Then I called the last place on my list. The guy who answered didn't know but passed me to the boss. He heard my accent and got all interested and asked if I worked at the local agency, I said, no the one in Caen but name dropped a few "colleagues" in town. Ohhhh! He's been there to the Caen branch, they are so nice blah blah blah. He kept me on the phone for quite some time and then said that when I came in for my CT to ask for Stéphan specifically and he'll give me a discount.

Fastforwards to today. I dropped off Dora and went for a little walk around to kill time. When I came back the employee said that everything was fine and went to print up the bill. I'll paint you a mental image of what happened next; this large smarmy guy with a big beer belly, tight black t-shirt unbuttoned to show some chest hair with a gold chain nestled in there was talking with his buddy. You know the kind right? I think of an Italian used car salesman or something..  I turned to him and asked, Stéphan? He turned and smiled.

Oh yes, I had found the boss man.

So there I was spending the next ten minutes putting up with his small talk, where I was from, how I ended up in Normandy etc... but I walked out only paying 53 euros instead of 60...


How is it that I felt so icky and wrong?? ewww.