The Car

(I will add a picture soon)

Last night this was supposed to be a funny story but somehow my head twisted it into a wreck since then. Today I felt really alone. The house is quiet and I have the weekend off, today I can feel the distance since everyone at home will still be asleep for hours. I was excited about this weekend actually but for some reason I have been completely upset today. I finally have freedom and I don't know what to do with it.

I really did not want a car in Australia, or ever really, but I've realized that I am trapped in this bogan town for the next two months if I don't get one. (As Drew explained it, a bogan is kind of like a pirate, they drink a lot of rum. So like a white trash pirate I think.) So after debating for weeks about buying a car, I finally decided to buy a piece of crap for $900, yay free from Busselton. Wednesday afternoon I bicycled half an hour to the McDonalds in town to meet this guy named Ono and look at his 1990 Nissan Skyline. First of all, I had never driven on the left side of the road until that moment and I definitely found out that the windshield wipers were in working condition after hitting the leaver about ten times instead of the turn signal. The car smelled like sweat and wet dog and inside looked like a teenage boy's room stuffed inside a station wagon, mounds of wrinkled clothes cushioned a guitar, surfboard, bags of chips and boxes of food, there was no way I could see the seats below the crap. The car seemed to drive ok, the front bumper was a little mangled from some kangaroo boxing, there was a little rust but that's expected for a 19 year old car and I had absolutely no idea what else to look for, very helpless scary feeling. The next day I talked to people at work to see if they had any advice about it since I have no idea about cars. My friend Drew was all about it, he was like yeah Nissan Skylines are awesome, anyway if you buy it you can sell it to me when you leave, I'll fix it up and sell it to a backpacker and make some cash, because I'm a kiwi and that's what we do haha. So this guy Ono was leaving town to go back to Brazil on Monday and in a hurry to sell the car, I figured I could get it for about $800. I kept wondering if I should look at other cars though, its just hard for me to go anywhere to look and I'm not going to be here that long so I didn't want to spend all my time looking for a car. I figured, $800 bucks and I can't lose that much, its cheaper than renting a car for a month ($1700) and a cheap car leaves me with more money to spend on other stuff, hopefully I can sell it when I leave for something too. Anyway, I decided to go for it, so he met me Friday night after work.

I took another spin around the block and tried to decide if this was a good idea. When I got back out I offered him $750 and the most shocking look dripped across his face, he really looked like he was going to cry. He was like nooo, so I said I could pay $800 but that was all the money I'd have until my next pay check (true, all the cash I can get out of the ATM at least). He told me he had a friend who would buy it for $900 so he would call her to make sure, so he called her right there and I listened to her say she would meet him to buy it the next morning. I think that convinced me that if someone else wanted it then it might be an ok car and I really wanted to get out of town this weekend. So I borrowed $50 from my flatmate and paid him $900, signing the papers as my stomach quivered. He needed a ride back into Dunsborough, so I said ok, although the gas tank was on E (thanks, no stations open that late to fill it), it was night and I was worried I couldn't find my way back. I thought I did pretty well although he kept telling me to drive closer to the middle, it felt weird, like I had never driven a car before, really shaky. So of course, the first night that I own a car I get pulled over by a cop and of course I was a bit freaked out, not knowing what I did wrong and really not wanting a ticket. He pulled me over for a random breath test because I looked like a drunk driver, swerving as I went around the round about, signaling wrong, etc oops…haha, it was kind of funny. I just said I'm sorry and he was really nice and let me go. I almost felt like saying, please take the car back what am I doing. As we reached the hostel where Ono was staying, he reached over, patted the car and said: I'm gonna miss this car, it's not just a car its my home.He got out of the car, collected his stuff, I told him not to forget his dingy heart shaped pillow but he smiled and said no I could keep it or throw it away…along with some empty water bottles, a grocery basket full of dirty dishes and who knows what else, yuck what did I get myself into. So I drove back in the dark, somehow finding (and making) the right turns back to Busselton, my shoulders and eyeballs were tense the entire drive just praying not to hit a kangaroo or be hit by a car for my bad driving, it was scary. I made it back and was excited to have a car and two days off to explore.

I didn't go to be until midnight and barely slept all night as my nightmares flipped from draining the wrong wine tanks at work and my car breaking down in the middle of nowhere. I finally got out of bed really panicked about the car, I just kept thinking I didn't do something right, I didn't have the right paperwork for the car or something bad. I was freaking out and really wishing I could just call him to take it back. I looked out on the sidewalk at my lump of s*** and decided at least I have to get some gas before everything close…since it is Saturday in Busselton. So I started the car and it was making some terrible noises and driving really hard, I was freaking out, hoping it just needed some gas. I pulled into the gas station and as I figured out how to use the gas pump this guy came up to me and said, hey did you know your tire is really stuffed (for a second I thought he meant it was actually stuffed but that means messed up here)? My heart thumped, oh no, I am such an idiot for buying this car! Thankfully there was a spare tire and the guy offered to help me change it, of course he happed to be a mechanic and had been changing tires for 15 years, I am so lucky sometimes. That did not make me feel good about this car at all though. I have been pulled over by a cop and my car is already breaking and I haven't even had it for 24 hours. So I went inside to pay for my gas, my debit card wouldn't work, I tried the ATM which only let me get out $50, great. Not turning out to be a good morning. The guy fixed my tire in about two minutes, so nice, and told me how to put some air in it. I drove into town shaking, probably having a panic attack because I have no idea what I am doing. I just wanted a car wash, they must not have them here, but I parked the first place I saw and walked down the sidewalk just trying to calm down. I bought some air freshener and cleaning stuff at Red Dot (the dollar store) and found a dump to drop off the crap the dude left for me in the car. Ugh it was so filthy, covered in sand and spilt lentils. Why do I always do things the hard way, always, everything. I needed to get a few more things but since I have no money and can't get any from the ATM I just drove back home. At least it was driving better now, I can't believe I wouldn't have noticed a flat tire before I bought the car, so stupid. I just kept thinking about all the things I could do with $900, take a week trip somewhere, pay for half of a flight for someone to visit me, pay student loans, spend a few hundred more and get a better/cleaner car. I think it just made me worry about what else might be wrong with the car and that I would have no idea what to do if something happened. It made me realize that I was doing this by myself, no dad to take car of my car here. I just kept trying to remind myself that it only has to last 2 months and if nothing else I can sell it for parts, if it dies I just have to call a tow truck no big deal. I spent the next few hours sucking out sand, leaves, lentils and trash from the crevices.I scrubbed the windows and handles, the doors, the bumpers, every inch of the car. It looked a lot better but it's pretty hard to make s*** look good. Errr this is supposed to be my adventure car, its supposed to be funny, the last thing on earth I would buy but it just started to freak me out and I didn't want it anymore at all. So I left the cleaned beast on the sidewalk, went inside and kind of broke down myself. I just wanted to talk to someone, just for a little reassurance or something, but there was/is no one. I feel a little better now, not as excited as I want to be, more like mad at myself for being scared and really unsure of my decision. I think I would feel a lot better if I had someone to hang out with tonight, just to have some fun for once but at the same time I am kind of upset right now, I've given myself a headache and I'm not really in the mood to have a good time. It's raining for the first time since I've been here, it seems strange. I wish someone would call me but that is not going to happen so now I get to decide. I think Amanda is having people over tonight so I could just crash her party and feel like a loser for not making my own plans since I do finally have a car. So my options are 1) see is Shayne is free (unlikely) or 2) Text Drew from the list of work numbers (kind of lame of me) and see if they are doing anything tonight in Margaret River (probably what I will do).Hopefully the car will be ok, hopefully it was not a stupid decision, I think I just had a really bad day because this whole idea was very funny and exciting on Thursday. I just want to make the most of my time here, meet some people and have fun! No matter what, good decision or bad, it is just part of the story now and six months from now it won't matter anyway. Life experience, I get to figure out how to deal with a car, probably one of the few life things I don't know how to do besides buying a house maybe. So bad day behind me. Still wish I could talk to someone at home though but I can't even call for at least two more hours. We will see and that is all.