New Car

Well today, with the much appreciated help of Mum, Dad and Davo, and after much stress and money budgeting and test driving and stressing and budgeting and stressing today I put a deposit down on a new car... Today I ordered my new Kia Rio.  Sure its not the most glamorous of cars...I mean its not a Ford...but I am super excited about it and I can't wait until it comes....but I really will have to wait because it is going to take forever.

Being slightly paranoid, I decided that because I was getting a small car I wanted it to be as safe as possible, this meant getting the curtain airbags installed, which meant that my new car was now a factory order.  So it turns out that it takes a really long time to get a factory ordered car in and so I won't actually get my car until mid to late May, which feels like forever away!  The other thing that has to happen, is I need my good old Saabie to hold up until then...Saabie is staying strong and holding in there, but I think that we might be cutting it fine.  I think that due to my climate control issues, I will have to start packing extra clothes and stuff to keep me warm as the Castlemaine winter starts to set in as heating is no longer an option.  

Nevertheless the new car is ordered...its coming and it is going to be awesome... Here are some facts about my new car that I am excited about (and yes I know some of them are lame):

1. Its small and cute2. Its blue...ford blue...3. It only uses 6.9L/100km...cheap cheap cheap4. It has a CD player - this is a massive step up from my tape deck
5. It has a drivers arm rest
6. It has air con that works
7. It has windows that work8. It has a 5year unlimited km warrenty
9. Did I mention that its small and cute and blue?10. It has a plug for my iPod
11. It has bluetooth for my phone
12. It has curtain airbags13. Its a rare gem, coz it turns out there just isn't that many Kias in Melbourne...yet
14. The ignition is in the regular spot... as apposed to the center console ignition I currently have15. It has a drink holder made for 1.25L bottles...just in case I am really thirsty16. I will no longer have crazy big blind spots
17. It won't put my oil warning light on every time I turn the corner
18. There is no 'void' between the driver and passenger like in Dave's car
19. It will enable me to park on Dave's lawn again...coz it's got a little button nose, and little bottom
20. Its mine

So now I just wait and wait and wait... but while I wait, I will enjoy my last drives with Saabie and think about important things like...What I will name my new car??? 


I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Climate Control

Its just getting worse...seriously,

Today, its really really hot in Castlemaine, so I get in the car, which has been in the sun all day and think its ok, seeing as I can't make the air con work any better, or put the temperature onto supper cold, I will put the windows down to get some air through... As the window goes down, it makes a strange noise and then begins to go down on a very very strange angle.  In fact, because I was a little too panicked at the time I have drawn this picture of what was happening for you in paint...which I have a particular talent in: 

As you can see, it is not normal, and it can't be good...  So because there was also a storm moving in, I pulled over to try and fix the window before it started to rain. In the end, I had to lift the window up and put it back in the right spot...so now it is shut...and it won't get opened unless absolutely necessary.  Although it does mean that the climate control in my car is now significantly reduced...I know now have either air con on, or air con off.  I think its time to seriously look at a new car...sorry Saabie   

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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# 60 - Test Driving

So after the efforts of my car yesterday, I have decided its time to start looking for a new one, so today I spent my day test driving cars, which means I can now cross # 60 - Test drive a car off the list. 

This was the first time I have ever test driven a car, and I tell you what its a little nerve racking!  I mean, I am not the most confident drive at the best of times, but now I am in a brand new car, that doesn't belong to me with a guy I don't know in the passenger seat who wants to ask me all these questions while I am driving, its full on.  Thankfully I had Davo in the back to answer the questions so that I could concentrate. 

I did have the opportunity though to go without the sales guy at one of the show rooms, so before Dave and I headed out, we took this picture as proof that I had been test driving cars...Its not super flattering...sorry.   

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Falling Apart

So only just a week ago I wrote a little blog about my car, and how I feared it was the beginning of the end, well... after tonights efforts, I am sure the end is near...

Tonight I got stuck at the same servo, at the same time with my car...and this time the same RACV man as last week, told me little Saabie did need a new battery.  The thing is though, this would have been fine, if that's all that happened, but it appears that this was just the beginning.  As I drove home, I decided it was getting warm in the car, so I attempted to adjust the temperature, only to have the dial fall off in my hand, with the inside bits of the dial all broken... only another small thing I know...but still.  I am beginning to get scared about touching things incase they fall off. 

At least for now I still have widows and aircon, although I must admit the air con isn't super strong...but at least it is there.


I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Kilmore

Saabie and I have been on another little adventure tonight...this time we made out way across central Victoria...to Kilmore.  Why would we make this trek... to visit my friend Pez. 

The trip itself was actually quite nice, because unlike the trip to Melbourne, it was only on the boring freeway (which I love coz it takes much less time, but is very very very boring to drive) half of the way.  Instead of just freeway, I actually got to see things, like bush land and farms and even some small towns.  I really love just going on these little adventures, it makes me appreciate the things that God has made for me rather than just bypass it all. 

Anyway, it was heaps nice to catch up with Perri in her little cottage in Kilmore, her little house is much like my little one in Castlemaine, except she has a lot more rooms, all small, but more than one.  One of my favourite rooms though at her place is the toilet...where my knees can almost touch the door in front of me when I am on the toilet...crazy. 

Now we are both semi city girls living in the country, for work...leaving our boyfriends behind and carrying on.  Its nice to be able to share my experience with someone else and know that I can share what I have been through and that it might actually help someone.  Of course its always nice to hang out with good friends, even without a reason. 

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Sad Saabie

This past year has been a year of change, which if you have read even just a few of my blogs you will probably know, however it appears that there is another change on the way. Once again it is something I am not quite ready for, something I don’t really want to have to deal with, but once again it is something I may not actually have that much say in. I am sad to say that I think that the end of my car's life is not too far away.

My car, my saabie, and I have been together almost as long as Dave and I. We first meet in 2005, just after my 18th birthday and just before I got my license. At first I wasn’t sure if we were going to get along, Saabie had a big nose and smelt a little like vomit, which I have to admit didn’t turn me on. However, with the ignition in the centre and the fact that he was given to me (thanks Mum and Dad) we persevered and now we are the best of buddies, well most of the time.

Sure we have had our downs, like the time I smashed his face into the back of someone else’s car, or the time I thought he was out to kill me, given the crazy number of electric shocks I constantly received, or even the time when the remote central locking decided its time was up and I sat in the carpark at uni with both the car and me crying, of course Saabie was much louder, given that his cry was in the form of his car alarm. But there have also been a lot of ups, like Saabies trek to Adelaide with Davo, or up and down from the beach for the last 4 years, or the trips to Ikea because Saabie has the biggest boot in the family.

We have been through a lot together really, Saabie survived my years as a P-plater and now carries me to and from Castlemaine week after week... But I am beginning to fear that Saabie’s life is coming to an end. Recently, its been taking a lot more for Saabie to get up and going each day, and this afternoon, when I stopped at the petrol station he wouldn’t get going again. Now because I am not completely car illiterate I thought that it was probably just a dead battery, which was no biggie, so I rang the RACV and they came and checked him out. Despite the fact that it was a jump start I needed to get going again, the RACV man tells me that my battery is fine, and every thing is charging fine and that he is not sure what it is. Now this along with some other little problems, like the fact that my cruise control is no more are beginning to make me think that over 500kms a week is too much and that perhaps this is the beginning of the end. I am not really ready to safe goodbye, and I can’t really afford a new one. So I guess for now we just ride it out, but perhaps someday soon I will need to say goodbye.

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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