NO - NOT My Poor Car!

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. We heard from the mechanic yesterday. I don't remember half of the things that I was told in order to fix it but it's going to cost a pretty penny to get my car back. *looks around the house to see what I can sell*

The mechanic had even looked around to get a second hand motor but he was unsuccessful. I am praying and hoping that the warranty people honour the extended warranty we have on our car (that one the used car dealer gave us) and that it will cover approximately half of the cost. The mechanic said they will do their best to get as much out of them as possible. Otherwise we will need to find the money ourselves.

I have only had my car for 7½ months so this was the last thing I expected *sigh* It looks like it's lots of mince meat meals for a while. It's a good thing I have lots of recipes stashed away for mince.

So I have now placed myself on a no frivolous purchase BAN. That means NO yarn or stationery products for a while. Unless they are super, super cheap (as in a $5 or less) bargains and then I will need to think twice about it.

Wish us luck!

My Car Died But ..

I have some sad news about my station wagon, which backfired badly on the weekend and kept stalling. I needed to call the RACV out to try and get us going. He couldn't so my car needed to be towed. The mechanic couldn't work out what was wrong with it and basically said that it would be a money pit to fix. Of course I was devastated. I loved that car. It was roomy, had some grunt when needed and well, it was mine. She will now be going to the wreckers 😪 Also the mechanic waived the fee for the work they had done on my car.

That being said. Mark and I, after some prayers and checking out our financial situation, have managed to scrape together enough for me to get a second hand car. We checked out Car MegaMart's website and I spotted a car, a 2005 Holden Vectra, that I liked within our price range. Of course, Mark had to convince me to go and check it out. I was in mourning for my Gemma (the station wagon) and I didn't feel like going anywhere. 

Mark rang the dealership and explained our situation and how we wont have all of the money for a few weeks and that provided we were able to have a test drive we were interested in the car. The guy said not a problem, come down when you are ready. I was still a little reluctant to go but in the end I thought we may as well. I am so glad I did. The car was a dream to drive. She had some grunt for a smaller car and is so smooth to drive. 

So guess what! I have a NEW car. The dealer was very happy to take a deposit and wait a few weeks for the balance. He has even offered to deliver it to us. He also knocked some money off the price so I can put it towards registration. I believe we were truly being smiled upon.

There are so many new 'toys' in her to work out but that wont be a problem. That is what Mark and the boys are for 😂

I just realised .. it's almost the same colour blue as the TARDIS! Woohoo! 

Is She Roadworthy?

My new car, Gemma (yes I finally named her) is now at the mechanics for the roadworthy check. Other than a new windscreen, which we have asked the mechanic to replace, there doesn't seem to be anything else wrong with the car. Not that Mark can see any way. The mechanic will also be pulling the gas tank out of the car so that it can be inspected tomorrow.

Fingers crossed that all goes well and that I can register the car soon. Wish us luck!

Money, Money, Money

I was joking with Angus the other day about how two things use up all of your money .. cars and kids. He wasn't too impressed that I mentioned it. I had no idea that I was actually predicting what things would be like so quickly. You see, silly me, thinking that now I have a new car it would be easy, relatively cheap and fast to get it on the road. Oh boy was I so wrong.

I had no idea how much things would cost. Today I needed to purchase new headlights. Thankfully Mark found some on ebay for a good price, for around $115 including postage. Okay that's not so bad I suppose. However, Mark phoned up to get an idea on how much a roadworthy check costs (roadies are compulsory here in Victoria before a newly purchased car can be registered) and how much it will cost to get the gas tank checked. My jaw dropped when I realised that I needed to find at least $400. That's even before I can get the thing registered.

Mark has also found some scratches in the windscreen. He's going to try and buff them out or it will cost at least $300 for a new one. Otherwise the car definitely wont pass the roadie.

I know Mark wants me to have a safe and reliable car but if I realised that it was going to cost this much extra I wouldn't have bothered to buy privately. I would have gone through a car yard. That way I wouldn't have all this extra worry. As if I don't worry enough as it is.

My New Car Has Arrived

I got my new car today. Mark is outside checking it out to see what needs to be fixed before we get a roadworthy done on it and get it registered. That being said it is in really good condition so hopefully there isn't much to be done on it.

Under the bonnet looks different to Emmy's engine.

Angus is checking out the interior.

The guy I bought the car from said he was going to give it to his daughter for her 18th birthday but he didn't like her attitude and how she had been talking to him lately so he sold it. Sounds like something I would do.

I can't wait to get her on the road and see what she's like to drive. I need to give my new car a name. My last three cars have had names why should this one be any different, right? I'm just having trouble thinking of a name for her. She does have the word Sapphire written on the side. Maybe her name should be Gemma. What do you think?

My New Car

Mark found a nice 1998 Ford Falcon EL wagon on LPG up for auction on ebay Sunday afternoon. After going through my finances I told him that we could place a bid on the car. We had one other person who made a bid against us yesterday. So we increased our original bid.

Last night I was sitting there watching the clock count down. I was hoping and praying that no one would do one of those sniper bids. I really liked the look of the car and it's very similar to Emmy. She's a younger model and has extras that Emmy doesn't have like driver side airbag and power windows. Not that they matter. The best thing is this car is in a better condition than what I am driving now and we WON. All we need to do is go to organise pick-up & for me to go to the bank.

My Car is Playing Up Again

Brodie and I were getting ready to leave for Church this morning when I asked Brodz to check the radiator and oil level in the car. Just as well I got him to check. Not that we wouldn't have noticed but the car has leaked ALL of the water from the radiator.

There was a lovely BIG puddle of water under the car. From the look of it the leak has come from the back of the engine. All I could think of what NOT again! Mark is in bed but when I told him the said something along the lines of crap.

I have doctors appointment to go to on Tuesday. Angus is back at work placement in Morwell on Friday. I drive him so he doesn't really have any other way to get there at that time of the morning. On Friday afternoon I have my nerve conduction test in Dandenong. I have been waiting for months to get this test done so I cannot afford to miss it. **just double checked it's next week not this week for the test in Dandenong.

I am disappointed that this happened. I was super organised for my little Sunday school class. The kids would've loved today's lesson. We were going to go fishing. Mark made up a magnetic fishing rod for us and I had little fish laminated for the kids to catch. I guess we shall play that game next week instead.

Oh Emmy, why couldn't you have played up next weekend after all of this running around has been done *sigh* Cross your fingers for me that Mark is able to diagnose this problem and we can get it fixed easily.

One Thing Or Another

If it's isn't one thing with the car it's another!

After last weeks little bit of fun with a very dead battery our gas converter froze yesterday when we were coming back from a run to the rubbish tip.

Not that you can see it very well but that's ice on the gas converter 

I took this photo on the drive home before the car stalled.
It's blurry because we were moving.

While we were waiting for the gas converter to defrost I thought I would take a couple of photos to show how pretty and green things are on the other side of the town we live in. 

The photo above was across the road and shows a dairy farm with the cows in the distance.

This photo was just to my left where we had parked the car.

I just love how green everything is.

Back to the car. Mark ended up flushing the radiator once we managed to get home. The car stalled once more on the way home. Thankfully we were able to get to the side of the road without causing any traffic hold ups in the main street of town. Once the radiator was cleaned out that seemed to do the trick BUT a bolt has snapped where the engine and the radiator are connected. Mark will be replacing that once we are able to get to the wreckers to get whatever parts are needed.
At least this is fairly easily fixed. I'm crossing my fingers that nothing else goes wrong with the car. That's three things already and we all know bad luck seems to run in threes.

Time For A Pity Party

Yesterday afternoon I managed to hurt my back when I was about to sit down. I got this awful spasm in my lower back and it is hurting like there is no tomorrow. You know that saying when it rains it pours? Well it certainly feels that way at the moment. Sore back, sore mouth and sore arm. I swear I need a new body. This getting older and having all these aches and pains sucks!

To top it off my car is sick too. The head is broken/cracked or something & water is leaking from it. Mark said that it is cheaper to replace the motor than to get the head repaired. The car is now booked in at the wreckers to get a new (but used) motor next week.

I don't want any more bad luck. I don't think I can take any more right now.

Our (Mis)Adventure

Yesterday morning the boys and I left for our trip to Adelaide. The plan was to try and get into Adelaide and through the Adelaide hills before dark so that I didn't have to drive at night (something I really dislike doing).

All was going well and good. We stopped near Ballarat (approximately 2.5 hours from home) for a toilet break and to get some fuel. We also stopped for a quick toilet break in Ararat. The next stop was planned for Horsham (the half way point between our home and Adelaide) so that we could have lunch. 

Oh we stopped there alright. In fact Emmy began chugging about 15 kilometres (around 9 miles) out of Horsham and she scared the pants off me when she was doing that. We made it into town and I had just turned the corner at a set of traffic lights when she stalled. Uh oh, not good. I start her up again and think on lets find a petrol station. I was begging the car to not stall again so that we can make it 100 metres down the road. We pull into the service station and she stalls again. Crap. I start her again and make it a few more metres to a car park at the petrol station and turn her off. 

The next thing we do is phone Mark. HELP! Not that he can do much considering we just travelled 4.5 hours & we were 400 kms [248 miles] from home. We open the bonnet as directed and Brodie notices that the gas converter (LPG converter) has frozen. Mark tells us to wait a good 20 minutes or so for it to defrost. He suggests we go somewhere that's shaded (it was quite hot in the sun) so we can cool off. Plus the boys were hungry so we used that 'defrosting' time to have lunch. I can tell you I was no longer hungry after the stress of this but I forced myself to eat something any way. 

Rather than risk driving all the way to Adelaide with a car that was now misbehaving mark said turn around and come home. You have no idea how relieved I felt when he said that. So before we took off to find a park Brodie and I phoned Dad and Julie to let them know about our car troubles and that we were turning home. I did spend a little bit of time having a cry. Mainly because I was letting family down for not being able to come over and help out with Dad but also because I was stressing over how on earth will we get home safely AND how on earth will we make it through the city, especially through citylink and the domain tunnel, without stalling.

After lunch and after making sure the car has cooled, Mark instructed us over the phone how to safely open the radiator cap without getting splashed with boiling hot water. We had hardly used any water. That was a good thing. While we were still in Horsham we found a SupaCheap store (they sell stuff for cars) and purchased a very large 20 litre [5.28 gallons] water container just in case. The guy that served us was also kind enough to fill it with water for us. I was so grateful for that. 

Once we were on our way home we stopped every hour or so to check the gas converter to make sure that it hadn't frozen. We also checked the radiator again to make sure there was plenty of water in it.

It had taken is 4.5 hours to get to Horsham in the first place and it took us a little over 6.5 hours to get home. Boy was I so relieved to see Mark in the carport when we got home. 

Even though the trip back home was a long one it was pretty uneventful. Apart from that stretch on the Western Highway near Ballarat where we have to drive through some pretty thick smoke. That was kind of eerie. Taking it easy on the road returning home made all the difference. Well that's my thinking anyway.

I do have some photos of our travels that Brodie has taken. I'll share them with soon I promise.

Pfttt Cars

Cars can be such a drain on the finances can't they?! Of all days for the car to play up it's today. Why couldn't it be last week when we didn't really have anything planned? But NO it has to be today when school is back with a new term & I have an appointment to get to.

The windscreen wipers on the car wont work only trouble is it's raining. It's something really simple to fix. Or so I had hoped. Like a blown fuse but it doesn't seem to be.

Now that the car is okay. I'm going Op shopping!
I ♥love♥ that Mark is able to work on cars. That he is good at the electrical side of things. He said that it seems to be something to do with the ignition switch. He's working on it at the moment.

- - -  Lucky me! - - - Just had a phone call from the Community Health Centre where the Diabetes Educator works. My DE isn't well and they wanted to reschedule my appointment. Well that worked out perfectly because I was about to phone them and ask to reschedule anyway. I now go on Wednesday afternoon. I guess we are being smiled upon once again.

Back to the car. Mark is brilliant! He's fixed the wipers. It was something to do with the power not getting through to the fuse for the wipers. Thank goodness that it was relatively easy for Mark to fix.

On the weekend I took the boys to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. We were very fortunate to buy the last three tickets for the session we wanted to see. When we were lining up we were told there were thirteen tickets left. I was hoping that we would be able to see it as I didn't really wish to come back another time. I felt bad because there were a lot of people behind us wanting to buy tickets.

We have been waiting patiently for this to hit the big screen & it was worth waiting for. If you're a Potter fan & you get the chance to see it go. You will enjoy it. The special effects are worth seeing on the big screen.

Now that the car is fixed. I am going Op Shopping. Who knows I might find a bargain or two.

Let's Face It I Am Awful

I feel so bad at the moment. The most horrible Mum ever. Angus is feeling unwell at school (he said his stomach is sore & I sent him to school anyway) and I have no way to go and collect him :( At the rate things are going he will need to catch the bus home as usual. That poor kid has been waiting for hours for me to come & get him.

Mark has been working on the cars rear brakes and is having a hard time with them :( I feel like its my fault that he is unable to finish putting the new disc on. I don't know what to do. He needs a special tool (a calliper thingamabob), which at this stage may not work because this thing (I have no idea what is is called) wont budge and it needs to or he cannot finish it. Only trouble is I don't have any cash to give to him to go and buy it. The tool costs $4o and I only have $10 in change.
Mark is having to do all the hard work by hand and is covered in blisters. Mark is only fixing the car right now because of something I said the other day.

I am so sorry :(

Emi Sounds So Much Nicer

that's part of Emi on the left

We took our car to the wreckers this morning. The same place that we got the replacement motor. The guy that runs the place said to bring her in after we had travelled 500kms (340 miles). I think we did more than that but it doesn't matter. Basically it was to check for any problems after a decent amount of travelling had been done.

There were a couple of hiccups. Firstly with us trying to get there, Mark wasn't up to it last week (which was completely understandable considering he was in hospital last weekend) but at least we got there in the end. The second hiccup was the fact that the car was making squeaky noises (the ones that needed fixing/tweaking or whatever you want to call it)

I cannot believe how quick it was to repair. I thought that we would be stuck in Pakenham for hours like the last time but nope. It was super fast and super easy to fix. I wish all of Emi's check ups went that quickly! In fact I wish our check ups at the doctors went that quickly. It would make life so much easier.

Anyway, Emi sounds GREAT! No more burping, squeaking or anything else! Let's hope she stays this way for a LONG, LONG time :)

Emi Is Home

Late yesterday afternoon Mark and his brother left to go and collect my car. Yay she is home and all fixed. The transplant went kind of went well. The first motor the mechanics put in her had problems so they had to put a second one in. I was worried that it might have been third time lucky but the second one was okay, apart from a ticking sound that disappeared by the time Mark got the car home. The ticking sound had me worried but things seem okay today.

Emi sounds like a new car. The engine sounds great, nice & quiet like it should be. Mark said the gears change really well (I honestly can't tell the difference but that's just me).

There's only one small problem now that the engine is so quiet I can hear all sorts of other noises that I couldn't before. Mark checked Emi & said that the noises are okay for the moment and are not from anything critical. However, even though I know that, it doesn't mean that I wont worry about it. That Spandau Ballet song 'Highly Strung' [I tried to embed the song but it didn't want to work, oh well] seems to fit me really well at least where my car is concerned. After all I take my family out in it and I want it to be safe.

At least my car is home. I can drive her again without the worry of hiccups & fluffing. Now I'm all set for when the kids go back to school at the end of next week! Woohoo. Only 6 days to go not that I am counting or anything.

My Car Is Sick

We took the car to the mechanics today. Well Mark took it. The mechanic phoned us an hour or so ago telling us what was wrong with the car.

It seems our Emi is a really sick girl [Yes I named my car]. In fact to the point where we aren't even going to bother to get her fixed, well not today. The mechanic said the head gasket was gone and considering how much it would cost to get it repaired he agreed with Mark that the better (& cheaper) option is to just replace the engine.

So that is exactly what we will be doing. We've booked it in at the wreckers (yeah I know it sounds odd to have you car worked on at the wreckers but that's what they do here not sure about anywhere else) for later this week. Hopefully everything will be sorted out and I will have a car that will not longer burp & fluff like she has bad indigestion.

I want it all sorted before school goes back. Thankfully that isn't until the end of NEXT week!

Older Drivers

I phoned my Dad up the other day & had a nice chat with him. He was telling me about his 'girl' friend whom he likes to take out for lunch (& sometimes dinner at the RSL club he goes to). I think its really nice that he has someone he can spend some time with after all Mum has been gone for almost 10 years now. That's an awful long time to be on your own.

Dad was telling me how his friend suggested that she catch a taxi to the restaurant they wanted to eat at. Dad got highly offended. Dad told me that he wasn't going to go out to lunch with his friend any more if she didn't think he was good enough to pick her up & drive her there. I can understand where he is coming from. He's 82 years old and of that generation who did the noble thing and picked up your date when you went out.

I can also see it from his friends point of view too. As I mentioned Dad is 82 now. His driving skills are NOT what they used to be. When we were in Adelaide visiting him last year he took us to Salisbury one day for lunch. I nearly had a fit when he began driving down the middle of a two lane road. Granted it was for traffic going in the same direction but he was driving down the middle of it leaving no room for anyone who might have wished to overtake us & we were heading towards a roundabout making me think he wasn't going to be able to stop & give-way. He seemed like he was off with the pixies and not concentrating as much as he should have. I didn't point it out to him at the time. I didn't want to upset him. However I am thinking that perhaps I should have. So I totally understand why his friend wants to catch a taxi.

Dad ranted on a little bit on how he gets his approval from the doctor each year so that he is allowed to renew his license. Well that is all well and good but I am thinking that he needs to have a yearly road driving test. Sorry Dad I love you to bits but you are NO longer a safe driver!!

Next time I talk with either of my sisters I might mention his driving and let them deal with things. They might be able to handle him better than I can considering they at least live in the same state as he does.

Back Luck Comes In Threes

My Mum always told me that bad luck runs in threes and it seemed to me that even famous people seemed to pass away in lots of threes. I am truly hoping that this run of bad luck with the car is well and truly OVER as we have had three things go wrong within a matter of three weeks. I am getting tired of the number 3!!

Firstly we had problems with the gas converter freezing up. There was a leak with the water/cooling system that prevented the converter from icing up. It was no wonder the car kept cutting out on me on the way to Church the other week. There was NO gas getting through so the car was awfully sluggish. Thank goodness it was nothing major but it put a HUGE dent in the wallet as it cost me over $350 for a new converter. It worked out to be cheaper to just buy a new unit than to repair the older one. We were told that once something goes wrong with the unit it was highly likely that something else would go in it too like a seal or something. Plus I was told repairing it might cause more problems as things were 'fragile' for want of a better word and more likely to be broken. Whatever!

Then the battery in the car was dying. There were times in the morning that I though we would never be able to get the car started and the kids, well Brodie mostly, would be stuck at home instead of being able to get to school. I am so grateful that this particular item only cost $100 to replace. Although that was earlier this week and our food budget became dramatically smaller for this week... good thing we have been stocking the pantry & we could live off that.

The other night when Mark was towing his brothers motorbike back from the next town after it was getting a roadworthy the radiator gave up the ghost! We knew we had some problems with it and we were planning on saving up to get it checked out & serviced but I certainly didn't think it would happen so soon. Once again I am so grateful that I had my ING account from which to transfer some saving from. My savings account is now another $180 lighter but at least we have a new (well second hand reconditioned) radiator in the car.

I truly have to thank Mark for being my Mr Fixit! He has so many talents and one of them is being a mechanic! He has saved us so much more money thank I even wish to think about. He has been fantastic. Big thanks hon. I really do appreciate all the things that you can do about the place. I would be lost without you & your skills.

I just truly hope that like I said earlier .. bad luck runs in threes and that we have had our fair share.

There's No Place Like Home

While we were on our recent holiday to Adelaide I kept thinking that there is no place like home. There's nothing wrong with visiting relatives and doing loads of FUN shopping while away but there really is nowhere else on earth quite the same as your own home.

I decided that I don't particularly want to go visit South Australia again in a hurry. Now before anyone gets upset and sends me hate mail. I was born in Elizabeth, South Australia & lived there until 2002 when I moved to Victoria. 90% (or more) of my family still lives in S.A. I just no longer like the idea of living there.

The S.A. drivers are freakishly weird and are accidents waiting to happen. They don't seem to have the concept of "sharing" the road. They change lanes without indicating & cut you off as soon as look at you. It's no wonder that Mark saw a lot of tow trucks while we were on holiday. No doubt they were either picking up wrecks or travelling to one.
I must admit my own Dad is one of those drivers who should no longer be on the road. Which I already mentioned in my previous post.

Now don't get me wrong there are a lot of SAFE drivers out there. Not all of them seemed to be horrid and reckless. I think that the South Australian government has a lot to answer for when they allowed learner drivers on the road that had to ONLY complete the required hours of driving in their log books before getting their Probationary license. After all my ex-hubby is ONE of THOSE kind of drivers who should have never been allowed to get behind the wheel in the first place. I am just so grateful that my boys no longer have to get in a car that he is driving.

I am also grateful that I am home now. Where the drivers don't seem to be in such a rush like the drivers in Adelaide. There certainly are advantages of living in the country. We seem to set our own pace here which is much more relaxing.

Credit for this photo goes to Angus. He took this photo for us

Hi Honey! We're Home!

We got back from our holiday! Dad is doing well. As well as expected for an 81 year old at least. I'm so glad that he is still independent. Although I think he should give up driving. He is no longer the safest of drivers any more.

Dad drove us to Waterloo Corner Road to an all you can eat place called Charlie's. On the way there he was driving smack bang in the middle of the road. In the middle of the DUAL lanes straddling the white lines. Very scary. Thank goodness Mark or I drove him about for the rest of the time.

Would you believe that while we were at Charlie's we ran into six missionaries. I saw all these young men in suits and told Brodie about it. He said yeah they look like missionaries. Well he was right. I wasn't surprised to see them at an all you can eat place. They would certainly get their money's worth that's for sure.

I have so much to fill you in with in regards to our holiday that I think I'll spread out the posts over a few days. That way I wont swamp you all at once with everything. I can let you know that this holiday was certainly one for the books. One of the books that I might not really want to read again.
Will fill you in more later.
xoxo

Cruise Control & Other Stuff

I'm not sure if I have already mentioned this but we now have cruise control in Emi. It makes things a lot easier when driving on the highway although I got flustered the first few times when trying to set the darned thing. I must admit I am getting much better at using it now and quite often use in on the school runs.

We bought fog lights for the car earlier this week. Mark found them on ebay. Last week when Brodie & I were driving home from visiting a friend from Church it was so foggy on the highway that we couldn't even see two metres (6 feet) in front of us. It was awful scary. I drove slowly & carefully (well around 70 -80 km) I am sure that other motorists would've been ticked off. Although I don't think that they would've overtaken us. There was one car that was quite happy to sit behind us until we got out of the thickest part of the fog.
Anyway, we now have fog lights on Emi and since we have had them put on there hasn't been ANY fog about to test them. It's always the way isn't it!!

Mark bought a CB radio for the car. To be honest I didn't want one but I can see the advantages of having it. It too was an ebay item & only arrived yesterday. I don't think he's finished connecting it all yet.

Last week we bought a lock box to go in the boot for the tools and things (motor oil, transmission fluid, etc.) plus a few other bits & pieces like ramps. All this bonus money that we got from the government is just about gone. I do know one thing we've spent an awful lot on the car and the rest of the money will NOT be spent on it. I want to buy something for ME, to pay off some bills & to put some away for emergencies.

Maity was right when we told him about us getting a new car. He said that Mark would make all these modifications to it.