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Day 10 - Wednesday 6th May
Another day spent hot on the trail of our adventure vehicle. We had some good leads today from Grant who spent a gruelling hour on the phone to various car yards in the Victoria state! What we had begun to realise, that there were very few diesel cars in a 100km radius was becoming a reality! We followed up leads in Heidelburg, Preston and then Thomastown looking out for other possibilities on the way. Heidelberg was a 3lt Prado - the right vehicle but the wrong price and the sellers wouldn’t budge. Preston was a full on leather interior within a Landcruiser - that was a big no from me! Thomastown, our final yard of the morning was on a recommendation (friend of a friend) and the guy we met was great but the car we’d come to see wouldn’t start! It was a Nissan Patrol with 298000 on the clock and it was dual fuel so it was everything we weren’t looking for as it was the 4.2lt engine but it was cheap at a driveaway price of $10500. The battery wasn’t fixed in and the starter motor clearly had a problem - both
of which could be fixed so we went for a test run in it anyway. There just didn’t seem to be the power that either one of us was expecting for that size of vehicle, probably just needed a really thorough service but we figured maybe it wasn’t for us. We had a long chat with the yard owner about our ‘perfect’ vehicle and he was good enough to say that we were welcome to call him to run ideas by him even if we didn’t choose to purchase one from him. Nice chap.
We still hadn’t done anything about getting a medi-care card or a bank account so we popped into Box Hill Centro to sort both of these. Commonwealth Bank was our choice and they were fantastic. If the cards come through with no issue then we’ll be writing to complement the sales staff - top stuff. We also wanted to sort our mobile broadband out and despite being put off signing up for a ‘contract’ of 12 months we thought a good option was the Pre-paid where you purchase the dongle and just top up when you need to. That’s something we’ll then be able to pass
on to Mum and Dad when their turn comes assuming it works well enough and doesn’t cost a fortune. We think a mixture of free MacDonalds Wi Fi and the mobile broadband should see us through although there will be less facebook activity and more travelblog! $149 later with a further $20 top up and we’re now Telstra customers for the broadband too!
Bit of suishi for lunch in the Centro, there’s a great choice of food in Box Hill which has a strong Asian feel, and then we head off back home.
We’re having Souvalaki for dinner tonight, again cooked by Grant! Darryl is his able assistant and I hope that he remembers it all so we can do it at the racetrack when we get home!! You’d love it!
When we get home Grant and Colleen are there. Col is kindly helping Grant with interview techniques and management approach as he’s determined to make the move up from Senior Constable to Sergeant - he’s an acting sergeant at the moment! Col is top notch at this stuff; she’s an Executive Coach and is currently working in Abu Dhabi. It’s a big day for her as she’s appearing on
TV in “Today, Tonight” and “Current Affair” talking about the death of her sister Erin and Erin’s son Matthew in November last year. They were passengers in a light aircraft which came down near Sydney killing all on board. Colleen and her family are in the middle of a battle with the bank about interest and charges outstanding on Erin’s account since the account was closed down following the deaths. We hope that this can soon be resolved as it’s stressful enough for Col without having to deal with this aswell.
Col rushes off before we eat dinner but we catch up with her later in Port Melbourne as she leaves for Abu Dhabi again tomorrow. It’s quite a snappy bar we’re going to so I (Sarah!) borrow Anna’s finest, most favourite Italian boots! They’re great, she might not get them back!! They hold up well in the quite palatial surroundings - Hotel Nest - where Col is on the Coffee Martini’s! There we meet Hilary and Sally, a couple of Col’s friends and also Nicola (Day 6 face down on the settee!) so we know we’re in for a laugh!! After a couple of drinks the bartender asks us to leave …. because he’s closing not because we’re too loud!! We end up in “The Sands” where the atmosphere is quite different! A hot chocolate is Anna’s choice of drink, the boys are on schooners along with Nicola and I’m on Baileys … with Milk!! It’s lush!! We’ve been joined by Mark (Matthew’s father) and we find ourselves in the lap of gambling luxury! To our left is a series of fruit machines, behind is a lovely open fire and all around us are TV screens of horse and dog racing! The night has turned somewhat! “Come on ‘Raindrops on Roses’!” What a ludicrous name for a dog, it’s such a mouthful to shout! Thoughts turn to Walthamstow and the fun we all used to have down there when we were working at Enfield, can’t believe they’ve torn it down.
We figured it was time to leave when all the TV’s were turned off and I think we came home around 1am! Grant has been banished to the couch, which is the norm if he’s been drinking, so we know that the snoring crescendo will take place around 3am!!!
We fall into bed as tomorrow we’re up earlier to leave for the beach house and we need to clean up before we go!
Cheers!!
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