Our workshop may have only one trainee, but we have a very good training system. Every lunch and teatime, Japie gets the benefit of learning from three experienced mechanics. The other day, the subject of swearing came up. Syd maintained that it’s useful because colourful words often help to clear the brain when a problem appears to be insoluble. Hennie agreed, citing the fact that many mechanics believe in the power of four-letter words.
Japie then said that he feels sorry for preachers because they’re not allowed to swear, so they can’t have much of a swearing vocabulary. I disagreed with the last statement because, in my youth, I once didn’t tighten a spark plug sufficiently and, when I started the engine, it jumped out and made a dent in the closed bonnet. The car’s owner, an Anglican priest, subsequently displayed a purple-language vocabulary that would have surprised even a sailor.
