Sitting, watching, waiting

The van wouldn't start, and we couldn't get anywhere. We were beginning to think that it was going to be a huge waste of money, but at least we had somewhere to stay. We were still with Marion in Adelaide, spending our days aimlessly wondering around the city, reading, watching movies, checking our emails, going to the zoo (Australia's only zoo to have a panda exhibit) - anything to keep us occupied. She even introduced us to the art of bin diving. Bin diving is when people rummage through supermarket bins at the end of the day to get food that is past its sell-by date, but before its use-by date, which I think is a great idea considering the amount of waste produced by the large supermarket chains these days. We also played with Marion's dog (a jack russell called Weasel), who would just lie down and present his stomach for a scratch as soon as he saw any human.

We got a quote from a mechanic who, mysteriously, managed to start the van straight away, but told us that the radiator was bust. There were a few other minor problems with it, for example, the bolts on the drive shaft were worn, so it could fall off at any point and pole vault the entire van onto its side; or the fact that there was a bolt missing that should have been holding the alternator (attenuator according to Amanda) in place, and if it keeps hitting the engine then it would have exploded. We weren't too worried.

The next day we drove up to Jenny and Mark's house (Matt's relatives, who incidentally live up a huge hill, we had to stop half way up to let the engine cool down) for Australia day - a nationwide celebration of the day that the British invaded the country (aboriginal people actually call it invasion day). Marion was very against this holiday, and her views kind of rubbed off on me a bit - but not enough to stop me from going to Jen and Mark's barbecue. While we were there that evening, they kindly offered to let us stay until we got the van fixed. As nice as Marion was, she didn't have a son who could fix Reggie for free!

It took a whole day to replace the radiator. The gap to pull out the radiator was smaller than the width of the radiator itself, so the rest of the van had to be dismantled to get it out, and then reassembled after we'd sourced a new one and put it in. We could see why the old radiator wasn't working - if you touched it, it would crumble to pieces! We thought we should also put a bolt in to hold down the alternator. Exploding on the highway didn't sound like too much fun...

From here, it was another waiting game, because we needed to wait until Monday to hand in the change of ownership forms. In the meantime we kept ourselves busy by playing PS one games (mainly Rayman and Tekken 3), we went go karting one day, and Mark and Sam even play in a band, so we went to see them one evening. While we were staying with Jen, her brother and his wife (Dave and Alicia) were staying there too. Dave is honestly the most Northern person I have ever met. His accent is so broad that I could rarely understand him, and he had a whole vocabulary of word that I'd never heard of!

By 4pm on Monday 30th Jan 2012, after spending at least an hour trying to hand in the change of ownership forms, we were finally on the road again! I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone in Adelaide who made us feel so welcome, Marion, Jenny, Mark, Sam, Joel, Dave, Alicia, and all of the other people we met  during our stay. You were amazing, and I hope to one day see you all again, but for now, Melbourne was beckoning!