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Yes, Pink Pillows Are Essential!
Melbourne, 12th to 13th January 2002
These were the last 2 days before the start of our
big road trip. We headed down town at midday to pick up our quality
little van. We were really excited, it's finally come true, we are
actually going on a big road trip! Woot! Woot! Here we come
Australia! Are you ready for us?
We sorted out the final details like the paperwork and insurance. We
also decided to get some extra insurance, it was only about A$200
and could come in very useful. Especially with Stinge's driving. He
he, just kidding! When all the final bits and paperwork were sorted,
Stinge and Em jumped into the Merc (which we'd driven up to town)
and Nat & I took the new van back home.
The van handled quite differently from the Mercedes, a little
'heavier' shall we say. Happily driving down the road from the
dealer, we thought, what about petrol? How much had the dealer
kindly given us? I looked down at the dial, and it read EMPTY. Not
just empty, but completely stone dry! I could practically hear the
internal parts grinding together. Luckily we passed a petrol station
about two minutes later, so I pulled in to top her up. Top up the
van that is, not Natalie.
The rather obvious question then popped up. Leaded or unleaded? Ahh.
I popped in the petrol station so I could phone the dealer and ask
them. However, their phone didn't work. So I asked the guy working
behind the counter. He assured us that all pre 1985 cars took leaded
petrol, so ours was definitely leaded. I hope you're right mister!
I opened the petrol cap and put the nozzle in. The car guzzled
greedily and in no time it was full. I paid for the petrol, then
switched the engine on. It quickly growled to life and seemed to run
fine. It sounded much healthier than before. So off we drove on our
first trip in the car, out of Melbourne city centre and down the
highway to Ikea. Luckily, my skills at driving a manual car weren't
too rusty and we got there with no problems. Even driving in
Melbourne city wasn't too bad.
Of course, when we arrived at Ikea, Stinge, Em and the Mercedes had
been waiting a while. The Mercedes goes a little faster. Em tapped
her watch and we realised we had about 5 minutes to run in and get
what we wanted before Ikea closed. After a quick trolley dash, we
managed to grab all the essential bits and pieces. After paying
(obviously) we went out and eagerly kitted out the van.
The van looked very ordinary beforehand, but with the new decor, it
was full of character. We put down thick blue rugs on the floors and
covered the seats with colourful throws. The girls had managed to
talk us into having a pink throw on one row of seats. Luckily we put
a blue throw over the other row. A bit more manly. Grrrr. We'd also
bought 4 cushions, 2 white ones to sit on the pink row of chairs,
and 2 pink ones to sit on the blue row of chairs.
The next day, we bought a collection of spare bits for the car. We
didn't want to end up broken down in the middle of nowhere on one of
those long, desolate Australian roads without essential spares. We
bought some spare oil, brake fluid, distilled water, jump leads, tow
rope and a few other pieces. These bits are what I'd call 'real
essentials' as opposed to yesterday's buys.
On the 13th, we popped into an out of town shopping complex and had
sushi for lunch. Yum! I can't eat fish, but we found out that
Chicken sushi is quite good as well. Chicken teriyaki rolled in rice
wrapped with seaweed! Delicious! We also grabbed some new chopsticks
to continue our practice. Practice makes perfect and I'm really
starting to get the hang of them!
Tomorrow we start out road trip. We're heading to a place called
Mansfield where Carol and Graeme have another house. Carol and a few
other people are staying there at the moment, and they'd invited us
to stay there for a few days on our way to Canberra.
Next Diary Entry >>
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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