It was a scorching Saturday and, as has been my schedule for the past few weekends, I was a so-called test driver.

As everyone knows (at least that is what I used to think), when I take my test drive unit home, I am ready with my A-game.

Truth to tell, I have been fortunate to have been given the opportunity to drive new models for as long as I have been in this career as a writer.

That’s me — writer about life with pets, mine or not, a test driver of vehicles (all sorts of vehicles) and tinkering with gadgets.

Life is what we make it

I have loved cars, trucks, buses, motor bikes, scooters — and riding with the best drivers around — for as long as I can remember.

Blame that on my Dad, who was such a lover of cars that I told myself when I grew up I wanted to do something that had to do with cars. Be careful what you wish for is what I tell myself — to this day.

My professional career begin in a school where I worked for a few years as a teacher. I was a college student at the time — I was what you would call a “working student.”

After that I worked in the Senate (1987). It was a time when the upper chamber had been re-established. A fresh grad at the time, my young dreams of doing something for my country were strong.

I spent the first 10 years of my professional career in the Senate, doing other government jobs and also doing some non-governmental organization work.

One day, I was invited to join a newspaper. Sadly, when I started writing for magazines and newspapers, my dad had gone to the great beyond and was no longer around to see what I had become.

A passion of stories

I have worked in two other newspapers, retired from one and in my retirement joined the DAILY TRIBUNE.

Although I had only spent three years in the first paper I worked for, I was asked to write a column on motoring.

In the second newspaper, I spent 25 years writing about cars and my two other loves — pets and gadgets.

Life has a way of catching up with us as we get older.

I was reminded about a life past because yesterday I was asked what I liked best about the car we were riding.

Thoughts flooded my small mind as I began to recall what my life as a test driver had been like.

I wanted to answer, “Be the best driver I can be. Be observant, stick to the rules and be considerate of other drivers and road users,” but I held my tongue lest I sounded like the old lady that I have become — in my 60s.