Night Fever

Last night saw Favourite Man and I out and about in Olivia after sunset. We had a shopping run and an airport-distance run to accomplish, so a good deal of pottering in the dark.

At which time I discovered a problem. A very serious problem.

You see, Olivia has LIGHTS. And not just lights or Lights, but LIGHTS. 16 of the blerry things on her front alone, and then there's the ones in her rocksliders and the Christmas tree out back. All functional (well, OK - there are one or two for mere bling), and all nicely aligned.

So when it comes to night driving, I have this big old problem in wanting to flash all my pretty lights at people.

The worst was when we were parked outside the Spur restaurant, with lovely crowds of people just the other side of big plate-glass windows mere metres away. Perfect flash-fodder!

But Favourite Man wouldn't let me... Not even after I'd reversed 10m back. Damn! :-)

I'll just have to stick to flashing people when I'm on my own.

Olivia goes to work

I had a bit of a close call this morning, driving to work in the dark.

Being a slowpoke, Olivia tends to stick to the "yellow line lane" uphill and let the speedier commuters past. This morning she was doing just that in the early morning blackness, when I suddenly noticed a HUGE pothole that had opened up overnight - right in the middle of the lane I was traveling!

I was very very lucky that traffic was thin - I managed to swerve out and avoid it. But if I hadn't.... I shudder to think of the damage. Overturned vehicle. Broken axles. Probably broken me too. Oh my - it would have been horrible.

Luckily we avoided it and by the time I next came by the traffic department were helping others give it a wide berth.

I know Olivia loves going off-road, but that was a little bit too extreme... even for her.

Wet Run

You get dry runs - and then you get wet runs. Being Olivia, and being winter, today Favourite Man is on a Wet Run.

It's a typical Cape winter day - howling northwest wind, rain on and off (when it's on, it's ON), not a hint of sunshine to be seen anywhere. Driving a solid, square block of metal with some wind-catching aerials and a roofrack is not easy - add in a topside load and it's going to be quite the trip home.

Olivia is doing e-waste fetching and carrying today. She's already taken a load of sorted goodies to the processors this morning, is on her way to another to drop off a different type of stuff, then will be picking up ready-to-work-through new waste, along with a rather large pole-type structure. Which in this wind is going to be "fun" to get home via the coastal road...!

Nevertheless, she appears to be going pretty well today (touch wood - or aluminium, seeing it's a Landy). She sounds fantastic, and even though she's merely pottering along at Olivia speed, she's getting where she needs to be - in style.

Used to be a wet run like this was a VERY wet run - water streaming down behind the pedals, dripping through the windscreen onto the steering wheel and dash, and running down your neck through the door tops. Favourite Man fixed that - and now it's merely a damp run.

Holding thumbs the rest of it goes as smoothly as it has thus far.

Going everywhere - slowly...

Right children, pay attention. Now - what is the title of this blog? Good! "Going Everywhere - Slowly"!

Which is a general trend in a 30-year-old Landy with her original engine. But hey, it's faster than walking.

Still... Rising fuel costs and this Treehugger post have me pondering today.

Remember I briefly said something about the "death of adventure" in my last post? That cost of travel is making it a luxury? Well - I'm wondering. What if, along with the drive to find new, cheaper and eco-friendlier ways to travel, there were a return to the beast-powered adventure?

What if, instead of taking a year off to travel the world, you spent that year travelling just a single continent or country? And doing it non-mechanically?

Heck, our ancestors travelled by horse, by oxcart, by donkey-power. We may have progressed considerably, got all nifty and gadget-heavy, customized and turned our mechanical beasts of burden into homes on wheels, built smooth roads to take us everywhere, but that's SO run-of-the-mill lately! :-) You just go try the same route by animal power. Now THAT'S an adventure!

And you'd get to see the scenery! You could even walk it, you'd be moving so sedately.

Sure, you'd have to plan food and water for the beasts, but you're planning food and water for yourself anyway and it wouldn't be too great an adjustment (sorta). I know it's not really that simple - where you could leave a truck standing for months, then simply fire it up and go, you can't do the same for an animal. But perhaps a new breed of safari-transport-hire company would spring up - stabling full in the off-months, everything gone over the holiday season.

Yup, I know. SERIOUSLY random ramblings in a totally illogical direction.

But hey - it's an option. Even if it's much slower than a Series Landy.

It's (still) alive!

Nope, Olivia hasn't gone to the Great Landy Gathering In The Sky. She's still around, she's still going strong - better than ever.

There's a post languishing in drafts about her new shocks/dampers and steering damper. She's gained a few new stickers. She has new tyres and she's working hard up the mountainside!

But our lives have rushed on with work every day - and it's been a while since she went out to merely play. It's been a long time since the last roadtrip. She's been doing local here-and-there's only, a daily drive when we have time and cash to throw in her thirsty tank.

In the meantime fuel prices have shot up, and continue to do so every month - crippling thoughts of adventure. I often wonder if the worldwide fuel costs are going to put a damper on adventure in general, no matter which country you're in...

But Olivia lives yet. And one of these days her blog will again be filled with tales of wonder and travel. Just not yet.