After a leisurely breakfast, we drove straight through to Brisbane, had lunch with Sarah and the children, collected the email, uploaded the latest web site files, did a little toy mending, and retired to the caravan park in Aspley.
I talked to Toby, the guy manning the night office at the caravan park, as you do, mentioning that we had stayed at Ashby. It turns out that he was a ferry captain on the Harwood ferry for many years before the bridge was built. His father looked after the Ashby ferry and owned the old ferrymaster's house just along from the dry dock in Ashby.
In the morning, I did a large batch of laundry and a heavy load of shopping.
In the afternoon we went shopping for a car. The first two places we visited were a great disappointment. I both cases, they found it hard to rustle up a sales person and when they did, no enthusiasm was exhibited. It was as though we were interrupting something more important. Jean had taken a shine to the Mazda 121 Metro when Hazel bought one so we had chosen that as the benchmark.
We did test drive one and it seemed good value for the price being bandied about. I had a thorough read of the specs in the evening and found that we had been looking at the 1.5 litre version which has all the bells and whistles but had talked about the price of the 1.3 litre version.
We went across the road to the Mitsubishi dealer and drove a both a Mitsubishi Mirage and a Suzuki Baleno, Jean wasn't very impressed with either and when the salesman tried to hustle us into an immediate sale because there was only one white Mirage in Brisbane we firmly told him we'd look at all the options before deciding.
The third place we visited was the Holden dealer. As we walked in I suggested to Jean that we should calibrate the sales people by timing how long it took to attend to us. As I finished saying this and before we had asked anyone for help, a bright, smiling young man with a sense of humour hurried out of his office to see if he could be of service to us.
We discovered that the only car they had which met the requirements (small and white) was the new Barina. I told him we had had very good experiences with both the Barinas we had owned but that we had heard that the Barinas after the Suzuki Swift had come from Opel and Seat and didn't match up to the Barina that we know and love. Undaunted, he explained that the new model was an Opel but of entirely new design with all of the bad features eliminated and a host of new features added.
It is certainly an impressive little car which seems to epitomise traditional German design.
My research in the evening showed that it is equivalent to the 1.5 litre Mazda Metro but a bit cheaper.
One feature which impressed Jean was the European layout of the controls with the indicators on the left of the steering wheel. Since one reason for buying the car now is for Jean to regain her familiarity with daily driving before she hires a car in England, the fact that she will do this familiarisation on a car exactly the same as the one she will hire over there would be a benefit as she would not have to cope with adapting to a new control layout on top of driving on unfamiliar roads.
As we walked back to the caravan park, we discussed the real requirements again and concluded that this will probably be the last car we ever buy and it might have to last a long time so some of the features present on the Barina and absent from the Mazda, like a 1 year service interval, might be enough to tip the decision even if price doesn't.
After morning coffee with the Marretts at Cafe Zanetti, we went to Centrelink to find out why our pensions have been cancelled. It appears that we had been misled about the asset limit and that, because we haven't bought a house within twelve months of selling the last one, we won't be eligible for any pension for quite a while. One thing working against us is that the value of the principal place of residence is not included in the asset test - except when it is a motorhome.
I think that this particularly pointed discrimination against grey nomads deserves a campaign to change the rules. I plan to register to vote in the Petrie electorate using Sarah's address so that my letters to the sitting MP, Cheryl Kernot of the ALP, might be taken seriously. I don't believe they would receive any kind of favourable attention if I were to write to my present MP, Bronwyn Bishop of the Raving Loony Economically Rational Liberal Party.
In the afternoon, we revisited the Mazda and Holden dealers. We established that both the Mazda 121 and the Holden Barina would be totally acceptable as there is no significant difference between them in terms of performance and features.
I had explained to both dealers that I would not get involved in a bidding war and would only consider the one best and final offer from each company. Despite this the Mazda salesperson rang to offer a further deal. The Holden dealer had heard what I said and made a good first offer. When I told the Mazda dealer it was too late because I had accepted the other offer, she was quite rude; how's that for good salesmanship.
We went to the Credit Union to move money from Sydney to Brisbane. The Credit Union here said that the cheque will clear by next Wednesday, perhaps as soon as Monday.
We heard from Holden that the car is released from quarantine and will be available by next Wednesday, perhaps as soon as Monday. How's that for timing!.
I talked to a guy in Everton Hills about a trailer and he can make one specifically to suit the Barina in a couple of weeks. It looks like everything is falling into place nicely.
The trailer will be about 6 metres (20 feet) long making the rig over 13 metres (43 feet) long so we will truly be a little big rig. I wonder how much we'll have to change the way we travel. Others cope with no dramas so I guess it will be OK.
Scrapbooking day at Patricks Road.
I had an appointment at the doctor at 2 o'clock to get some antibiotic to quell a persistent sore throat and cough. Jean went to the podiatrist at the same time.
In the afternoon, we had happy hour with a couple of motorhomers from the NSW south coast who are staying in the caravan park visiting their son, who is in Brisbane to participate in a motocross meeting tomorrow, their daughter-in-law, and granddaughter.
I was in need of some rest so Jean went out with the Marretts for a picnic at Tinchi Tamba. They all seemed to have had a good time.
We had to move the Motley to dispose of the black water so we drove to Mitchelton to have brunch at Cafe Zanetti.
We spent the afternoon at Patricks Road doing stuff and preparing Jean's travelling wardrobe and returned early to Aspley to avoid the late afternoon chill.
After breakfast, I checked with the credit union and ascertained that the cheque from Sydney had cleared. We went hotfoot to Brookside to get a bank cheque for the car and rang the dealer. The car will be ready at half past three tomorrow afternoon.
We spent a little time at Patricks Road. Jean made some new trousers to take to England and I shortened the trousers I had bought in Armidale.
In the morning, we visited the local tow bar people. I confirmed that trucks need to have properly certified tow bar installation and that there is only one firm in Brisbane capable of doing the job properly.
In the afternoon I did the laundry and then we went to take delivery of the Little Motley. Sadly, the good performance of the Holden dealer was somewhat marred by a lack of preparation. We had to wait around for an hour while they put on the number plates! As I said to the accountant who eventually took our money, we only buy a new car every ten years or so the time is not really significant.
Finally we were able to drive the new toy to Patricks Road to show off and to have a celebratory dinner.
Jean didn't want to drive back to Aspley in the dark so I did. I noticed some strange behaviour, which Jean confirmed she had noticed too. The engine revs don't always drop as expected when changing up while accelerating and sometimes the idle speed varies noticeably.
I remember reading that this car has a fly-by-wire accelerator, which is novel but not surprising in this era of computer-controlled engine management systems. Perhaps there is a software bug which causes this phenomenon.
Jean says she didn't notice the problem on the test drive vehicle. I guess we'll have to get it checked out.
We took out first shopping trip in the Little Motley. What a breeze.
We visited the travel agent to finalise the arrangements and then we went to American Express Travel to organise some travellers cheques. All OK except that I couldn't pay for them with my American Express card. Silly me to think that the two organisation were one. In this era of economic rationalism and post-modernist corporate deconstruction, they're probably competitors!.
My problem is that almost all our money is still in Sydney and we have to deposit a cheque in the Brisbane credit union and then wait for it to be cleared (this still takes three working days even though the transaction is probably complete in seconds).
Then I ordered the trailer with all the options I need. It should be ready before Jean goes away. I still have to organise the tow bar on the Big Motley.
Jean spent the day scrapbooking with Sarah and I went into town to buy a CD burner and some other stuff and to get Jeans tour ticket for Bandar.
We spent the day at Patricks Road doing stuff.
Trivia Night in aid of the school music department. They asked for each table to go as a theme. We went as the Tour de Force with teams like Plan B (instead of Mape) and Barina (instead of Festina)/ We all wore coloured maillots and the table was decorated with national flags and cycling kit.
We lost to a team which came as a Mixed Six Pack with beer logos on their shirts, crown seals on their heads and a plastic sheet over all.
We did well in the competition, coming only three points in a hundred short of the winner. Our best effort was a perfect 6 in Numbers which we had nominated for our double score bonus and, surprisingly, the Arts with a another perfect 6.
We all had a lot of fun and raised a considerable sum (about $1500 I think) for the music department.