BurbleChaz

Today would have been perfect without the fire alarm. Although it changes the chronological order a bit, I'm starting with the muppet who set of the fire alarm on the ninth floor this evening. We trudged down eighteen floors of claustrophobic concrete stairs to be told it was caused by some young lads goofing around on level nine. We're hoping eviction notices will follow. This actually soured a really, really good day. Grrrr. strong words.

Skipping over the productive work stuff, I did the following before lunch:

• Dropped off the Nissan Nasty. "Did you like it?" asked the drop-off dude. "No". "Was it too small?" "No. It was a Nissan". "Yeah, we're phasing them out".
• Arranged a cheque for the car
• Researched car and home insurance.
• Bought car insurance and home insurance for $1000 less than expected. The price spread here is astounding. The insurers I've selected are not the cheapest, just the cheapest who answer the phones.
• Ate a pie. No, that was lunch. The list ends here.

Later, we took a train to Car City, and picked up our new car. We did the paperwork, and took poseesion of the Gas Guzzler. We drove it 400m to the nearest filling station, and topped up the tank. From 1/4 to full is 40 litres. Hell, it's cheaper than filling up the Yaris in the UK.

On the recommendation of a Local Colleague, we drove it out to Mount Dandenong. This gave The Less Psychotic Driver a chance to get used to driving this vast barge without the stress of the city. Once we got to the summit (around 630m, 2000 feet), we stopped and took some photos. Most of these will appear over there soon, but I've been allowed a couple.

The Gas Guzzler

Forest destroyed by the Gas Guzzler today

On the way home, the very excellent people at iiNet texted me. ADSL has been connected. Unfortunately, they had sent the details to me by email. Which I couldn't get, what with no net access and all. After a bit of goofing about, including one call to find out my password, we have broadband. Megabits and megabits of it. Well, 12 when I last looked. Enough. Plenty, one might say. Now, if I can just make the router do Wifi at the same time as ADSL2+, all will be well with the world.