New Car

Eric and I have been renting a station wagon (well Eric's company is renting most of it) since we moved into the house.  We had argued been in intense negotiation over what type of car we would get because we are only getting one.  Sooooo . . . Eric, in an act of great selflessness, broke down and got a people mover (called mini-vans in the states).  I told Eric that I either wanted to have a car small enough that I could park perpendicularly in all the parrallell parking spaces around here, or I wanted a car that could carry a at least a five year old basketball team and a couple of moms.  Since we want people who visit us to be spared the horrors of driving on the other side of the road (although the passenger side is scary as well) we decided to go big.  We looked at the big honking SUV's but gas prices being what they are, and the narrow streets being what they are, and the insane parking situation being what it is, we elected to get a people mover. 

Incidentally over the weekend we had a loner car that was just a tad bit bigger than the smart car.  It could seat four.  And it was red. 

I felt like a Wiggle.

But despite such feeling of fame and fortune (and are their any better examples of than the Wiggles) after four days of wrenching the kids into and out of the back seat I was glad to see our people mover pull up into our yard. 

That is when trouble struck.  Now, I can drive.  I've driven to Maine, the Grand Canyon, all over Texas.  I've pulled trailers with all my earthly belongings on the back.  I can drive.  But for some reason I could not get the car to reverse out of our yard and onto the street.  It kept getting stuck and I could not understand why.  The neighbor offered to help and I told him flat out, that I could back up a car.  Still he sort of pushed the branches of a hedge out of the way so that I could back up my van.  Finally he said, "I think you have your parking break on."  But I knew that couldn't be it.  There was no parking break light.  And I'd already tried it.  He sort of gave it a hard tug than I did though and well, it was the parking break. 

And that was the first time I took the car out for a spin. 

The second time was to take dinner over to some friends who have helped us out tremendously over the past few weeks.  I do not think we would have made it without them, and I was glad to have the opportunity to perhaps save them the trouble of cooking dinner that night.  But after dinner I went out to the van.  It's lights were dimmly glowing in the dark.  The battery was out.  Normally I would have called Eric, he'd have brought jumper cables and everything would have been fine.  But the car was parked in a way that we just simply could not get another car to it, and if we moved the van we risked it running backwards down a hill and into someone's sunroom.  Plus Eric doesn't have a car.  And so our wonderful friends who have helped us out in so many ways, helped again and took the kids and I home. 

Finally after many calls, I just joined the Australian equivalent of AAA, paid an outrageous service fee for joining in the midst of a crisis (how's that for taking advantage), and after a 10 min. visit from a service technician, I now have a working car.  I'm told these things happen in threes.  I think the kids and I will just take the bus for awhile.

Comments

[Leslie]

Hillary,
We have seen King Parrots, a bush tailed possum (that was actually in a friends hard), and a crimson rosella. Australian Magpies, geckos, lizards, and lots of lorikeets. We also see cockatoos all over town, but for some reason they do not come to our yard.

Eric (my husband) is taking surf lessons. Caleb still needs to know how to swim and the youngest I've heard for surfing is about eight.

We've seen lots of spiders and ants. And really I'm not sure how dangerous the spiders we've seen are.

[Hillary in KS]

Okay, this is totally unrelated to your blog entry, but I'm *dying* to know....

have you found any super-scary spiders in your house or yard? What kind of wildlife (besides koalas and kookaburras) have you spotted in your yard.

How is your son enjoying his surfing lessons?

[l]

Oh I do understand. I can drive, but my IQ seems to plummet when I have to figure out new things on a car. Why can't they just keep it simple? And did you say parallel park? Yikes!! I drive miles out of my way so I will never have to do it again (the only time was for my driving test I believe).
I enjoy your posts so much. Blessings to you.

[Kathleen Marie]

Wow! What a fabulous opportunity to live in another country! I will be back for more info about your new home and car and well...whatever! Glad I stopped by :)

[kelli]

It's cute, absolutely.

But, I truly thought your were going to say "the neighbor finally helped me get off the lawn by getting the wind-up key out of the bushes".

Wiggle Wiggle :)

[Addie]

Wow! That does look like the Wiggles car! I bet the kids loved driving in it. :D

I hope you can start enjoying that people mover soon!

[Sarah's in the midst of it]

It's totally going to be worth it once the third catastophe is over--I LOVE my "people mover"!

Oh, Ken and Meg arrived this morning in Australia and wanted me to let you know, so perhaps you could meet each other! Meg said she'd love to meet you guys. Madison, their daughter, turned 2 in May, so your girls are really close in age:) I'll give you their contact info when I get it.