|
july 12, 2001
Somewhere on a hostel wall between Sydney and Byron Bay, there are now nude photos of me. I hope they don't someday come back to haunt me.
posted by tina 7/12/2001 11:25:04 AM
july 3, 2001
Let me clear something up. I mostly hate cars. I don't like driving; I suffer from stress and borderline road rage. However, I have been told numerous times that the best way of getting around this country is with a car. From my experience in New Zealand where a car would have been ideal, I realized that this would probably be true. When the opportunity arose for me to get this car, I decided that I would take a chance and attempt to control emotions elicited by sitting in the driver's seat of a vehicle. At the same time, I was determined to dissociate from the reality of owning a car. Up until this past weekend, I had a decided indifference to what was actually involved and tried as hard as possible to ignore the details of having a big ass liability registered under my name.
As with all things, such faith and hubris needed to be served with a tremendously humbling experience. Thus, car troubles began. Last week, the battery went dead. Luckily, a friend of mine gave it a jump and it seemed to be working fine. I naively regained my confidence in the car and scoffed at the suggested necessity of a new battery or at least the purchase of my own jumper cables. I had renewed faith - the car was working and would work just fine.
Sunday morning rolled around and I walked out to my car feeling relaxed and stress free. After all, hadn't it been parked in a lovely, quiet suburban street? Lo and behold - of all the cars on the street, whose do you think would have had its driver side window smashed in? That's right - mine. Glass crumpled and shattered all over the pavement and onto my seat so that I'm still finding bits of glass embedded in my skin. This discovery did not elicit quite the same furious invective as the dead battery of the week before although I did cringe at the cost of having said window replaced. Although I recognized that I was profoundly lucky to have had nothing stolen from the car, my confidence had also weakened considerably.
Finally, after having aforementioned window fixed, I went to start the car so that I could push off on my so-called travels. My car would not start. Instead of the comforting sound of an engine turning over, there was only the dull clicking indicative of a dead battery. Again. This time, the only response I could muster was one of resignation. I sat for a moment in the car, sighed, then stepped out of the car with a wry grin on my face. Luckily I had the presence of mind to join roadside assistance earlier in the day and, within a couple of hours, my car had a replacement battery.
I have learned my lesson. Tomorrow I depart Sydney, but with a profoundly tempered faith in the capabilities of my car. No more dissociation.
posted by tina 7/3/2001 02:55:00 PM
|
