Stranded at Spotlight

I went to Spotlight yesterday... (as you do, since there is nowhere else to buy haberdashery these days... Hell, half the country doesn't even know what haberdashery is!)
I was on a mission to buy some cord and a spring-toggle (you know, the things that are usually found on the drawstring on the bag a sleeping bag comes in, to hold it closed) to modify Cheyenne's new school hat. Whatever for, you ask. Well, let me explain.

Remember back when we went to primary school? If we even wore a uniform (definitely optional, at the school I went to), our parents would, if they could be bothered, label our clothes, hats, etc by writing on a tag and sewing or ironing it onto the item...and that would have been enough! These days, it is apparently necessary to make the item easily identifiable from the outside as well as having a name label inside, in case someone else wanders off wearing your child's item. When every child has a navy blue, broad-brimmed school hat, I guess I can see the benefit, so I've opted to change the colour of the chin-strap cord on the hat.

Anyway, back to Spotlight. I love Spotlight. You can, and I often do, spend hours there, just browsing. Yesterday, browsing was much easier due to the fact that Cheyenne is having a sleepover at Steve's Mum and Dad's. That's right, no "Mummy I need to go to the toilet", "I'm hungry", "I don't want to walk, can we get a trolley?", "When are we going home?" Bliss.

The bliss lasted until I'd finished both my browsing and required shopping, and got in the car to head home. I turned the key...and, nothing! Not even a click. No, I hadn't left any lights on, and it had been fine when I left home that morning. Turn off the air con and try again. Still nothing. The charge light and other normal warning lights were still showing up on the dash, but maybe they were a little faint...probably a flat-ish battery. OK, phone Steve. He is working on the other side of town and can't really leave, and suggests I try checking my fuses. Good idea, except that I don't have any pliers in my car and can't pull the fuses out with the useless little plastic "tool" supplied in the fuse box. Fine, I'll call the RACQ. It is what I pay them some phenomenal amount each year for, after all. May as well get my money's worth! Someone will be there in around 45 minutes. They tell me to keep an eye out for him. Gee, what else would I be doing? Not like there's anything else to do in the car park! So I wait.

He arrives, puts his volt meter on my battery, then asks me to turn the key. Like a coroner, he pronounces it dead at the scene. Apparently it is fully charged, but collapses "under load" (ie, when you turn the key). Now for the bad news - since it isn't a simple collapsed cell, but a "break", it can't be jump started! What? OK, so I'm not an auto electrician and I don't know what a "break" is, but I secretly suspect that it's RACQ-speak for "Sucker, you'll have to buy one of the really expensive ones we have in the back of the service truck." Steve already told me not to buy one from them because we can get a better deal through one of his mates (that doesn't sound like Steve, does it? LOL)

Mr RACQ asks me was I planning on keeping my car. Gee, er...let me think...um... Der! I replied, hesitantly, "Ye..s", wondering all the while if he really thinks it looks that bad. (You know, I could have sworn a new battery would be cheaper than a whole new car...) I decided not to tell him I've only owned it for 3 months!
I politely told him I wouldn't be buying one of his batteries, so he told me they could put my car on a tow truck but I only get 10kms free (and it would be an hour wait for the tow truck). Won't get it home, but would get it to my Mum's. Phoned Steve. He says not to bother, he'll get his Dad to bring me a spare battery out of his brother's car. OK. Mr RACQ dubiously asks if I'm sure, then leaves. Steve rings back. His Dad doesn't want to risk spilling battery acid all over his brand new Ford Territory and isn't sure if the battery is the right size anyway, and can I call the tow truck?
No I bloody can't! I don't have the number, and the battery on my phone is almost flat too!

By now, it is raining and I am well and truly over it all. I've spent all my money, dammit, and I want to go home and put my feet up. I phone my brother. He doesn't start work until later and can pick me up. I can wait at my Mum's for Steve to finish work. When Steve finally picks me up at 5.30pm he wonders if, although the car cannot be jump-started, can it be clutch-started? We decide to try. The carpark has cleared out a bit by now, and since I'm parked on a slight slope, that will make it easier to push and keep the car rolling. Started like a dream after rolling less than 4 metres.
Remind me again why I'm paying for RACQ membership???

Got home no worries, although, once turned off it would need to be clutch-started to get it going again. Not a problem, since I should have a new battery by this afternoon anyway.

Let this be a lesson to you - regular checking of the water levels in the cells of your battery is a must. Apparently, running each cell bone dry is a bad thing, and is undoubtedly what caused the "break".

On the bright side, at least Mr uppity RACQ didn't check this, so could not stare at me with the scorn, reserved by men, for "women drivers" that don't maintain their vehicles.

Changing of the Guard - A New Beginning

Before After



Well, we finally have a new vehicle. We found our 2004 Hilux dual-cab at Pickles (an auction house) on Christmas Eve, and put in an offer of $14000 on it. The engineering company that owned it accepted our offer pretty much on the spot (they'd originally wanted around $17500 but it had been there for over 3 weeks and hadn't attracted any interest at that price, so they were happy to sell it), however we had to wait until the following Monday for it to get a roadworthy, before we could get it registered and take it home.

The top picture is how it looked when we purchased it - oxidised paint, steel tray, plain steel wheel rims, covered in red dirt and dust...oh yeah, and complete with orange rotating light !
The engineering company did a lot of work for mining companies, so we discovered it had a few other features designed to comply with mining workplace health and safety regulations - internal roll bar (we're keeping this), headlights wired up so that they are on whenever the engine is running (day or night) for extra visibility, and an extra loud reverse beeper - no, not the sort old fogies buy from Supercheap to put on their cars, I'm talking about the sort you find on large trucks, heavy vehicles... or in fact, on mine trucks!

Less than two weeks later, and it looks like a totally different vehicle (second picture).

Steve's first mission was to give it a polish. The paint has improved, but as it is quite oxidised, this is still a work in progress. Then he fixed up the headlight wiring so that they can actually be turned off during the day. This also included plugging the dashboard lights back in and replacing dash bulbs (clearly unplugged so that they weren't on during the day annoying the driver) - discovered this little "feature" the first night we drove it and couldn't read the speedo in the dark! Then, of course, the reverse beeper was disconnected - no more waking the neighbourhood backing out of our garage late at night...

Next began the serious search for wheels and tray. Steve is a tad obsessed with the aesthetics of his vehicles, to put it lightly, lol. They simply are not allowed to look ugly. I must admit though, the alloy tray is not just for looks. It has a practical side, being that it will not rust from frequent beachwork, unlike its steel counterpart. Ditto for alloy wheel rims, versus the original plain steel ones. Luckily he found both a suitable alloy tray and a near new set of sidesteps at a wreckers and they gave him a discount because he was buying both items. A bit of hard yakka, a whole lot of adjusting and a fair bit of swearing later, and the new tray (previously from a Holden Rodeo) and sidesteps were fitted to his satisfaction. The old steel tray was advertised in the Trading Post and a bloke drove all the way from Biloeila to buy it!

The wheels are a bit of a saga. We were checking out prices for rims and tyres at Fourby's and they had a secondhand set of alloy rims that would suit the Hilux. We said we'd take them and ordered a set of new tyres to go on them. When we arrived to have them fitted, the tyres hadn't been delivered yet. While waiting to hear back about our ordered tyres, we bought a secondhand set of the tyres we preferred (but didn't order because they are too expensive these days) from a friend. We had these put on the rims and fitted to our Hilux. They look great, but scrape the mudflaps a little on full lock, so of course, he's not 100% happy, and is still looking until he finds a better set of rims.

He's just installed a new stereo mp3/CD player with new speakers, and a UHF radio. The window tint will need to be redone as well. It still needs a bit of a cleanup, but we're going to get a detailer to do the seats and have another go at the paintwork. Next on the list is rust-proofing and then a canopy for the tray, but that can wait until the next serious fishing trip in July.

It's not the turbo we were looking around for, but it isn't the "standard" diesel either. It is an EFI diesel, which apparently has power/performance somewhere in between the standard and the turbo. As long as it can handle towing the boat, fully loaded up with camping gear, that's all that matters.

Who cares! It's still the newest car we've ever owned (at just 4 years old), it has low klms (only 85000) and we got it for an absolute bargain price.

You've gotta be happy with that!

(Sorry for the "marathon" post, people!)

Happy New Year!

OK, OK, so it's a week late, but better late than never!

Hope this finds you all refreshed and relaxed after the Christmas/New Year break, and that you enjoyed your New Year celebrations, whether they consisted of serious partying and drinking, or a quiet one at home with family and friends.

Being "between vehicles" during the Christmas/New Year break, we didn't really get away for a holiday. We did however, manage to spend our New Year's Eve with some friends at their holiday place at Bribie Island - just a few quiet drinks and nibblies in their courtyard.

New Year's Day itself was spent swimming at the beach, playing backyard cricket and just relaxing, before heading home again.

The previous late night (New Year's Eve) really took its toll by mid-afternoon. This photo just proves that kids can sleep anywhere, in any position.

We have finally managed to purchase ourselves a replacement vehicle, but I'll tell you all about that in the next post.

Christmas is a destination, not an event!

So where was your Christmas this year? Growing up, it always seemed to us that the question was "Where is Christmas this year?" - never "Which relative is hosting the festivities?"

I never cease to be amazed at the amount of traffic on the roads on Christmas Day. It seems that everyone is doing the "travel between both families" thing (or several sets if you have step-families). Christmas is clearly a destination.

Thank goodness it's all over for another year! Hopefully everyone else managed to survive the festivities (as we did) and escape without too much family drama.

After 5 years, Cheyenne has finally started to enjoy unwrapping presents herself. We kept her presents simple - Tinkerbell movie on DVD, clothes for her Barbie dolls, and a Tinkerbell toiletry bag with her name on it (gotta love Identity Direct !). She also received a shower gel pack and miniature pony playset from our friends, the Sheather family.

Christmas Day itself was fairly quiet for us. Spent the morning opening our presents, then went to my Mum and brother's for a light lunch of cold meats and salads, then on to Steve's parents' place for a BBQ dinner with Steve's brothers and their families.






Isn't this photo priceless? His expression just says it all. I simply had to buy this shirt for my brother for Christmas because it pretty much sums up his whole attitude. It could have been designed especially for him.

Cheyenne and some of her cousins enjoyed dressing up as Santa and his helpers, to help hand out the presents. Callum (Santa) is obsessed with all things Christmas, especially Santa, and has been Santa for the past two years running now.

As usual, Cheyenne came home with far too many presents that we really don't have room for. Amongst other things, she received a t-shirt and patchwork bag in the shape of a cicada (from Grandma), a Polly Pocket Pool Party playset, a tennis racquet and several other things (from Nanny and Poppy), $10 from Great Nanny, and a stationery set, some puzzles, Bratz folding chair, dolls and some other stuff from her Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.

I got Steve a new electric razor (his old one doesn't hold charge in the battery anymore) and he got a foam rocket launcher from Cheyenne - which they are both getting a kick out of, so clearly I should have bought two! He also got a car wash extension brush from his parents.

I got an electric toothbrush, weather shields for my car, some more beads for my Amorica bead charm bracelet (one from Cheyenne and Steve and two from Steve's parents) and a box of chocolates.

We also got some shared presents - a cheese platter with knife and a nice bowl full of chocolates from the Sheather family, and some bamboo placemats and a tin of shortbread from my mum and brother.

All in all, it was a good day...if not as jam packed with rellies, as in days of old. Thankfully the idiots at BoM got it wrong (again) and the day was not horribly hot and muggy, and the evening storm did not arrive as predicted.

Roll on New Years Eve!

Changing of the Guard Continues - Part 2. End of an Era

We sold our Cruiser yesterday. Just in time for Christmas. In fact, just in time to ruin our Christmas holiday, more than likely.

It's Murphy's Law isn't it? We advertised it in the Trading Post online several weeks ago, with the hope that it would be bought by people wanting to go offroad for their Christmas holidays. Plenty of time for it to sell and for us to find and buy a dual cab 4WD ute as our replacement vehicle, so that we could still go away at Christmas. After all, my Mazda 323, great little car that it is, has no towbar and not a whole lot of room for camping gear, either! It certainly isn't going to handle driving on the beach. We'll have to come up with some alternate plans. (Normally we don't go away over the Christmas/New Year period, but Steve actually has holidays from Christmas Eve until the 5th of January.)

Naturally, for the first few weeks the online ad attracted no calls at all from potential buyers. The only guy to phone us up was actually trying to phone about the one listed above it in the online Trading Post, and phoned our number by mistake. Steve left it parked down on the main road with a sign in the windscreen and had a couple of queries, but nothing concrete.

So, just when we figured we'd remove the ad and wait until after Christmas (and until there weren't quite as many other Cruisers being advertised - ours was one of about 25 of the same model and year!), thereby still retaining a vehicle to use for the Christmas break, Steve got a call from a couple who were after a Cruiser.

They came to look at it yesterday morning, took it for a test drive and were very happy with it. So happy in fact, that they came back yesterday afternoon with the bank cheque! They are from the Northern Territory and are headed back up there at the end of the week. They apparently only came to Brisbane to visit family and buy another Cruiser!

Now we have just under a week until Christmas. Maybe if the cheque clears quickly, we might even manage to find a new car by then... as if we didn't already have enough to do!

On a side note, my brother says (tongue-in-cheek) that no longer owning a Cruiser means I will need to relinquish my "Cruisergirl" avatars and email address, but I disagree. The way I figure it, having owned five in a row must surely entitle me to "life membership" of that nickname, as it were...

Deck The Halls...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... well, with less than two weeks to go, it's kind of hard to avoid all things Christmas-y. Shopping is a nightmare. Christmas lights are on up and down the street. The usual round of Christmas parties has begun.

First we had the break up party at Playgroup. Found an easy recipe for Christmas tree biscuits. Luckily, I had a tree shaped cutter stashed away in the back of the cupboard. Cheyenne helped to decorate them with mini M & Ms. I thought they looked very cute - bright and festive - and all the kids loved them.

We'd had our Christmas lights on the front of the house fairly early, but been a bit slack putting up our tree. I must confess that two rope light shapes (which hang in the front windows of my craft room) are there permanently, all year round... out of necessity because they are in an awkward spot, not because I'm too lazy to take them down, honest! I'd had to buy a new set of icicle lights for the front verandah because the set from two years ago only just limped through last year's display. When I hauled the tree and decorations out from the storage area under the stairs, I discovered a brand new 8 function rope light, still in the shrink wrap! I'd post a photo of our lights, but can't find my itty bitty tripod and anyway, our current compact digital (a Pentax) takes the most appalling night shots - even whilst in night mode! I would have thought that a Pentax would be better quality, but I guess, at $185, you get what you pay for!

Cheyenne was keen to get the tree up, so we had a bit of "family time" decorating it. There are still a lot of decorations that didn't make it onto the tree this year, but really, you can go a bit overboard if you aren't careful, and the tree will do, as it is, without the extras.

Steve's boss decided to go barefoot bowling for their Christmas party. I don't mind lawn bowls really, and barefoot bowls seems to be becoming quite popular these days. All but Steve and one other bloke live on the south side, so it was held at Carina Bowls Club. The food was a bit average. The boss's wife was livid about ordering enough nibbly food to feed 20 people, paying $300 for it and only getting three lousy trays - one of cold meats/antipasto/crackers and dip, and two of various hot savouries of the mini spring roll, curry puff, spicy meatball, unidentifiable mini quiche variety. She ended up ordering 6 large pizzas from Pizza Hut because everyone was still hungry. Nevertheless, the bowling itself was ok, despite the fact that a storm hit and we ended up playing in the rain. At least it cooled us all down.

Cheyenne's kindy is finished for the year and they held the Christmas party for the children and their families on Thursday night. It was a bring-a-plate affair and the children sang songs and had a visit from Santa. Cheyenne STILL has a problem with Santa's beard, so I got this photo under protest, with Cheyenne clinging to Steve the whole time. It is the first real Santa photo I've managed to get of her in five years, so I'm happy with it.

So with less than two weeks to go I still have so much to do... finish making my Christmas cards, and finish my Christmas shopping (still heaps more to go) not to mention wrap everything and get it under the tree in time, attend a bbq and a Christmas drinks evening and anything else last minute that I'm bound to have forgotten to do. Hopefully I get it all done and can kick back and relax.

New Uniform

I couldn't resist posting these because they are just so cute. As mentioned in my previous post, I decided to go with the shorts (although I may still buy one pair of culottes just so she can be "girly" occasionally). I had to buy size 6 shorts so that you can actually tell that she is wearing them under that long shirt! I may have to hem it up a bit...

Cheyenne has had her Orientation Morning up at Prep, where she got to meet her new teacher, and her kindy has had a couple of "uniform show and tell" days so they can get used to wearing their new uniforms.