Not Too Many Days Like These

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DAY 237

I had to be up early this morning as I needed to take the Patrol in for a service, Caroline was going to come along but I said you might as well enjoy a lie in bed.

I made sure the truck was clean inside and out, its just the way I look at things, if the truck is nice and clean then the technicians seem to give the vehicle a bit more respect, and also if its pretty tidy under the bonnet then their work should be quicker, perhaps? As they haven’t got to spend time cleaning things down in order to maintain them.

I set off for the other side of Darwin, the journey was to be about ½ an hour, I had been instructed to pull up around the back at Nissan where you are greeted by staff members who book you in.

Today was the Patrols 120,000 Kilometre service, we had asked for a courtesy car but they wanted to Charge us $45.00 bucks for the pleasure (No Thanks!).

I got across Darwin, no worries in the light-ish morning traffic, pulled up at Nissan, and a dolly dressed in black with red stiletto’s greeted me. “Morning,” she said “Mr Trenfield 120,000 Service, I’ll take the vehicle, do you want a lift?”

“Yes please!!” I replied. “Where Too?” “Howard Springs Please.” “No! We can only take you to Palmerston, that’s as far as our insurance lets us go.”

“Well sweetheart!! If you had told me that when I booked the Patrol in for its service, then I may have come out with (a) money in my pocket (b) my mobile phone and (c) I wouldn’t be wearing my Flip Flops, so you are going to have to get me back to Howard Springs.”

She told me to go in and speak to reception!! So in I wandered and waited at reception. Where the young girl behind the desk said the same script to me, claiming that their apprentices did the traffic run in the morning, which quite frankly I didn’t really care about.

“Listen, If the guy who booked us in had told me this from the start then I wouldn’t have any place to argue, but he didn’t!! “Who was it that booked you in them Mr Trenfield?” “The bloke standing next to you now!!”

This guys head bowed slightly, he knows I am right and he cannot defend it. I remind this fella of our conversation virtually word for word, and he agrees. They ask me to go and grab a coffee and go and sit down and I will just have to wait for my lift (No worries).

I drank my coffee and read the newspaper, eventually a young girl comes over to say that she will take me back to Howard Springs!!

I get back about 9.40 and Caroline is just pottering around, so she made her little soldier a cup of tea, as my first one I made at 7.00 am had gone cold, I was not expecting to be gone for quite so long.

After a shower and a shave, we sat around just enjoying the morning sunshine, my mobile phone went off and it was a guy who I had left a message for at an agency in Darwin. He was British, originally from Glasgow, but had no accent and lived for a while in Camberley.
He now lives in Perth and works in Darwin and was going back to Perth this afternoon so I arranged a meeting for Monday hopefully trying to secure some work.

Feeling calmer inside about the work situation we went over to the pool and sat in the shade for a while, we both got in and just relaxed in the water for an hour. It felt lovely to be relaxed and have time to enjoy the water.

After our swim I went over to Richard to ask him a favour, if it was not to much hassle for him would he take me to Nissan later on this afternoon, if or when the truck was ready?
“Yea!! No worries mate, I’m just going out to Berry Springs about 30K’s away and I will be back at around 3.30.”

“Cheers mate, I’ll see you later, do you eat curry?” I asked “Love it.” Richard said. “Tell you what, I’ll cook you a curry Thursday evening!!”

I go back to the trailer, Caroline was on the lap top trying to sort out the extended warranty for the lap top, and was struggling with a slow connection today. We would not normally consider extended warranty on things, mostly it would seem to be a waste of money, however we don’t feel confident enough with this laptop not to, we have already had to make two warranty claims and the 12 months initial warranty is almost up.

About 3.45, we walk over to Richards and he is not back yet, so we mosey on the reception, just as we were about to go in the mobile rang, its Dell asking if our parcel arrived yesterday, Caroline said not, but we are just about to check if it has today, fortunately as soon as we walk in through the door, the receptionist reaches up to a shelf behind the desk and voila! Our Dell Parcel has arrived, we are overjoyed, we buy an Ice lolly and a newspaper and walk back, anxious to try the new Dell part to see if it functions correctly.

Minutes later Richard arrives, so have a quick chat and then jump in his car, and before we know it we set off for Nissan in Darwin for the second time today. Arriving at Nissan, Richard says he will wait in the car park, as the Patrol is nowhere to be seen, I just go in and find out what is going on.

I go in, I’ve already stood my ground once, but they are pleasant enough, well they didn’t ask me to leave, but they say it will be another ½ an hour so I go and tell Richard we will be fine and he can head off.

We sit around having a coffee, and watching the world go by, I go and have a look at the cars in the show room, but nothing really catches my eye.

A young girl comes out and we follow her back to the reception counter where she has processed our bill, here we go, I think to myself when she is trying to explain about the gear box warning light, that comes on when you are on heavily corrugated roads, we can see a huge bill coming up. As she is explaining about the gearbox warning light I do the Pinocchio sign as if I don’t believe her, she laughs, and tells me it’s the truth, yea right.

We had been quoted $1110. 00 dollars for the service and when I look at the bill its $942.00, blimey its less than the quote, what a result? It’s very rare, indeed unheard of that the bill, especially in the UK is less than was quoted; they always come up with something to add.

So a big round of applause for “Kerry Nissan” in Darwin we are truly impressed.

We drive back to Howard Springs, I drop in to thank Richard for helping us out it is very much appreciated.

Back at base Caroline has plugged the laptop in and it is functioning, correctly and it is, all we have to do now is send the faulty item back in the air bag provided.

Caroline goes and gets a shower, we pick up our e-mails, we had said a couple of days ago that the inverter, and our fluorescent light had packed up, and we had received an e-mail from Jarrod at Camping Country in Buderim, that they will be sending the replacements parts straight out, that is very good news.

So all in all today has been a bit of a winner for a change, firstly Dell, then the truck, then the replacement inverter and light.

Dell call back with prices for the extended warranty so we are now thinking about what to do, they will call us again tomorrow.

Reading the paper, it seems that we did not win the $100,000,000 (it went up since we purchased our ticket) on the lotto, the tickets were purchased in South Australia and Queensland, never mind, better luck next time, I am not sure that we would have told all of you if we did win the lotto, but I think you would have been a bit suspicious if we suddenly upgraded our gear to a huge Winnebago, you would be asking questions I am sure. So don’t get excited nothing has changed.

The tiny ants seem to keep driving Caroline mad, they are getting into everything again.

We both thought it would be a cool evening but the humidity went up again, we rustle up an evening meal, and by the time we have eaten that, sat down for 10 minutes and done a bit of blog it is well past 10.00 o’clock so time for bed, we had promise ourselves a cooling down shower before bed, as the night was hot but we just could not be bothered.

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