The new ride...

As Beth and I finally get the final stages of our applications to teach in NSW (having already satisfied the Australian Government with all the same paperwork) , after delays in us waiting for our shipped stuff to arrive, post getting lost and the Alfie factor, we have thought carefully about whether one car is enough. Working from home it is certainly hard to make friends unless you include Dr. Phil and Oprah! Beth is managing to get out and about and so a car is a vital link to the outside world, with me soon dropping everything to do casual teaching (supply!)at short notice I would hate for Beth to have to cancel plans and be tied to the house. A cheap second car would be the ideal solution... can you see where this is going?

We miss Stan (the VW Camper/Kombi Australian readers!)he was also another great way to make lifelong friends. It was only going to be a matter of time before he was replaced (but not forgotten!) Before we shipped out from the UK I had spent literally hours scouring Australian sites seeing what was about but nothing ever really took my fancy... until one day about a month ago I spotted something that was everything that I think a beetle should be, I mentioned it to Beth and we tried to talk each other out of it and thought about why we shouldn't buy it... but it wouldn't go away and at the price when compared to the UK it was too good to miss (we still earn in £'s so we are still converting everything!)

Here she is...



We really got a bit stung with Stan... he needed lots of work from the moment we got him. You'll remember we didn't even ask how long it had on the MOT...two months as it turned out, £1600 later we had another MOT pass! But he was so shiny we said, we promised never to fall for that again... so we bought this beetle without even looking at it!!!! (although I was willing to give up our deposit if it wasn't right for us!)I was going to to travel to Sydney (some two hours away!)on the train but in the end Beth and Alfie helpfully decided to come along as the support crew... she is 44 years old! (the beetle not Beth!)



The journey there was fairly uneventful although as tunnels appeared that had been built since the map was printed we soon came unstuck and was eventually talked in my the guy selling the bug using our mobiles. When I saw the car it was everything I had hoped it would be, fairly standard with the little bits that I would want to do to it already done. I have a fairly strange taste in VW's... I don't go for the super shiny or the modified suped up ones either (Don't even get me started on people who cut the roof off etc!) I like VW's that are fairly standard looking just as they did when they rolled off the production line, I don't even mind if they are showing their age faded paint maybe even the odd bit of (non structural!) rust gets me all excited! I also like them with lowered suspension and improved engines... this car has both... more on that later! People into VW's tend to have their own preferences some go for everything as standard, others for super shiny (.. put it in a garage never drive it put it on a trailer to take to a show so it makes the magazine cover!) I like what has become known at the rat look or "Hoodride." I guess Stan fell in between the two camps, he was never going to win any shows and was that little bit too shiny for the rat look... he was a little bit of nothing really but be loved him!



The guy selling the car took me for a spin and I was breathless... after sitting in 4x4 for three hours sitting in this thing was like sitting in a go kart or sled.. we were soooo low to the ground. Then it was my turn and my journey in understanding all the little pecularities that old cars have e.g.: the windscreen wipers stay on til you stop! I came back we settled up and it was ours... I have called her "Sled63" although she is Beryl Green so maybe she should be known as "Beryl?" I guess one of the names will stick...

Suddenly through all the excitement we realised that we didn't know where we were, I was driving a strange old car through Sydney, we had a six week old baby in another car and the radio suggested that we get home quick as a yet another cyclonic storm with 120km winds was on the way. We headed from the suburbs towards Sydney which we needed to pass through on the way to Newcastle. About an hour later we were in Down Town Sydney, in rush hour traffic and separated. It was good to be back in the city where we got engaged but it was dark, cold, lashing down with rain and we were lost... to make matters worse the drivers door window then fell out! (This arroused little panic as Beth suggested we are now hardened to such things!)While I stubornly battled on with the street map, Beth hopped out and found someone to give directions. As it turned out we hadn't gone too far adrift and we should have taken the clue from "Bridge St" and followed it to find the Harbour Bridge. In pouring rain we sped across the bridge some 100mtrs below where I proposed nearly three years ago! However there was little to see as the rain and spray from huge trucks lashed the window and my face through the now open window!

We were back on the right track, we stopped for petrol (much fiddling here ... never opened a beetle bonnet before!) and that was about it all the way home. The rain stopped and we cruised the two hours home. It was bloomin cold... but I loved every minute of it!

When we got home it was time to navigate the driveway and get the windowless bug into the garage.. easier said than done as we have a slope. With Beth watching the exhaust get closer and closer until it scraped it was back to the drawing board. I then tried reversing diagonally and this worked with mm's to spare. It might well be that I need to raise it a little... I've seen lower but it needs to be practical too! It now sits in the warm and dry garage as I listen to yet more rain pounding on the roof of the house, a luxury Stan never enjoyed! Alfie seemed oblivious to the whole thing, although his face as I started her up was a picture!



Congratualations for making it to the end of this post! I appreciate that to most of you me telling you anything about the car is dull as dishwater, maybe others want to know more (there will be one or two!). Therefore I have created a second blog just for Beryl... if you want more about us, pictures of Alfie and the odd snap of the bug at the beach you're in the right place, if it's me fitting a new window winder that floats your boat check out http://sled63.blogspot.com/ as well! :0)