Gainfully employed: Day 3 wherein I damage company property

Okay, so I'm now working at [redacted] and today I was sent out to do "site maintenance". Site maintenance is deadly dull and time consuming and sends me out to all the industrial estates of Darwin to do the minor stuff that the more senior members of my company fond too boring and time consuming to do.

(I always assumed growing up would suck, now I have evidence.)

Anyway, there's a company car. It's a little front-wheel drive automatic Toyota Corolla. I drive a big beefy manual Nissan Patrol. What follows is a result of that inexperience.

I reverse out of the driveway and into the street. I instinctively apply a little more gas to stop me from rolling down the hill and move to put it in drive.

ZOOOM. CRUNCH.

It turns out that a Corolla is quite a lot lighter than a Patrol and doesn't need help on the gas to stop it from rolling down a hill. Also, automatics aren't really meant for the quick gear change I'm used to. The car shot back and scraped along a hinge on a ute behind me. This left a nasty scratch on the Corolla and nothing at all on the ute.

I meet the ute guy walking from the take-away shop and after careful perusal of his vehicle he could see that it was remotely possible that I left some powdered paint on his car and then laughed his arse off at the nasty scratch on the work Corolla.

I check the car for damage that actually impairs the function of the vehicle and there appears to be none. I figure I should go earn some money for [redacted] before I get fired so drive into town and perform a site maintenance before coming back and telling the boss.

Boss is understanding and says that's what insurance is for but grows a little more peeved when he sees the extent of the damage.

I go and do more site maintenance jobs (I can't actually express how dull these things are but they do make one feel virtuous, like taking out the garbage or clearing out your email). I get back at 4.30 and take a call from the boss as I get to the office. He says someone called to tell him that one of our cars was driving around with a flat tire - my car.

Apparently front-wheel drive vehicles have very little weight in the back so you can drive for HOURS without noticing that a tire is flat.

Front-wheel drives - how do they work?

Day three, people, day three.