The weather in Sydney the last few days has been wonderful. Too good to be inside, I've been out walking the streets, checkout out some of our great buildings like this one:
Okay, maybe not the best building I saw. But tucked away in the same area was:
and this mailbox:
Things to see wandering the streets..
Well, had a delicious home cooked farewell dinner, and then left the Gold Coast for the trip back to Sydney
My trip into Sydney was delayed a bit by the record temperatures forecast. I was still up near Armidale at that time and decided to stick around up in the mountains and not experience 46C temperatures.
First item of business was to get the van serviced. I mentioned to the guy that recommended Bears Auto Clinic for getting my windscreen fixed that they did a terrible job. (See here for the full story.) He immediately called up Bears and spoke to them, then told me to go around and talk with them. So I did. I didn't expect much from this. As I complained when I picked the van up about only fixing part of the windscreen and not all of it. Was told then that it would have cost more to fix all the window, even though the quote has "Rust around front screen" on it. Not: rust on bottom of windscreen. So, went around and spoke with Michael (again) at Bears. He was all sorry that I'd had a bad experience, blamed everyone else: the window installers (leaking windows), and the paint suppliers (rust started within a month of the paint inside the van), and promised to call me back after speaking to them. That was last Thursday morning. Lets say I'm still waiting for his call.
Sat out the Xmass and New Years period in a bush camp up near Tenterfield. Was a quiet time for me. The first week was mostly showers, which meant it was cool. It fined up and heated up in the second week, but still night time temps were under 20C. Something nice about snuggling into the sleeping bag in cold weather.
The fine weather gave me time to wire up a second battery in the van and try it out. The technical stuff: I've a Ctek 250s Dual charger, an Exide 105 ah AGM battery, and a Sharp 130W folding solar panel. Still new, but it certainly keeps my phone charged.
Found this bug wandering about the grass up near Tenterfield. Wasn't hard to miss with its bright colors.
I think its the Red Jewel Bug .
I'm down on the Gold Coast now, visiting friends. Not really enjoying the record heat wave temps though. Looking forward to when it cools down.
NRMA has vehicle inspections . " For peace of mind when buying a used car .."
Sounds like a good idea?
Nooooo!!!!
Its not worth the paper its printed on in my opinion.
Why? You'd imagine that the qualified mechanics would be checking for some exotic engine or body damage that us untrained plebs wouldn't know about.
Nope. They only do a visual inspection. So, if you can see it, so can they. And to top that all off, they don't even do a good job at that.
I had thought that the "putting the vehicle on the hoist and looking underneath" might show up stuff I couldn't see. In hindsight, I could have just driven spent a bit more time on the ground with a torch and mirror.
Looking over my van while washing it, I found:
No mention of this in their visual inspection.
Okay, I missed it also in my looking over, but I'm not a paid professional at this.
Hindsight for this was that I should have done more research about what the NRMA inspection is about and what it does and does not do. Maybe if I had of done this I would have saved my money, and just gone on my own visual inspection since the result is that its my problem in the end.
Still hanging out in Byron area, I was in Mullumbimby - known as Mullum to the locals.
The local public toilet sets a standard in graffiti. Good quality stuff here:
