1 about motors

Over the years I’ve developed an interest, some may say obsession in cars and all things motorised. Here’s a thread of topics that lays out some of the things that have nurtured and inspired that interest.

There’s no particular order to them and no single reason why something is here, neither are any things less important than others…

A good one to kick off has to be film star cars from the humble VW Beetle ‘Herbie’ to the menacing black Dodge Charger in Bullitt. I first remember as a kid seeing Herbie in one of the “Herbie goes to…” films, probably Monte Carlo and was enthralled that cars could really do in real life (I was probably about eight) what I knew they could all along! And so the list grows for both the big film screen and the smaller television world, it must be endless. General Lee, another Dodge Charger, McQueen’s own 390GT Mustang, James Bond Aston Martins, a red Dino and an orange AMV8 in the Persuaders, the Green Hornet, Batman (old and new), the Monkees, UFO, U.N.C.L.E and of course Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Then there was the unbreakable Dodge Monaco in the Blues Brothers, A Plymouth Fury called Christine, a black Trans Am and a dodgy cowboy in Smokey and the Bandit, a red, white and blue Mini in Turin and the all too ordinary Dodge Challenger in something very wierd called Vanishing Point. More telly cars became as famous as their actor drivers; a red and white striped Gran Torino outdid a questionable cardigan, Rockford lived in a trailer and drove a gold Firebird, Magnum drove a borrowed 308 GTS and every week I’d watch just to see the cars. Perhaps that’s where it all started?

These are of course just some of my favourites but the list is almost endless. As a closer for the next ‘about motors’, anyone know who said this;

“I bet one of those would go like the bloody clappers with a twin cam in it”

and just what it was about to start off?

2nd gear

Probably time to report on the proceedings of the Australian paper-mountain. We were very much stuck in first gear for a good while and although there hasn’t been much change at least the motor taking us to Sydney hasn’t blown up completely.

There are still dribbling emails from the migration agency handling the business visa application, still more requests for copies of forms, signatures to agree to this and certifications agreeing to that. I have no doubt it will continue for weeks to come. However we have managed to reduce the revs on the screaming engine of transition and at least make some progress towards myself getting out to Sydney. In some ways this is a good thing, although due to said visa restrictions I may not be able to start work until the business papers are agreed, so at least I can begin the search for somewhere to live.

As to the situation remaining in the good old Confederation Helvetica, that’s now more complex than ever. We have to give three months notice on our rented house, which would be fine if we weren’t approaching the end of the year as we cannot contractually leave on the 31 December. So that takes us into January for our departure lock stock and barrel. It’s something to do with landlords not having empty properties around the New Year time. Clauses, clauses always in favour of the landlord, so it seems. The quotations we’ve had for moving our possessions are astronomical and as we are not being funded by some multi-million dollar conglomerate it’s coming out of our own ever-depleting funds. Already we have reached the sad decision of having to re-home the cat. Poor Lila has survived an horrific road accident in France, been stuffed in a box and driven to Switzerland, is tormented by the kids and adored by the girls. And now she has to face life on a Swiss farm. The fee to get her across is equivalent to three airfares (!) but it’s more the stress of such a journey and the prospect of 90 days locked up in quarantine, with the uncertain outcome of actually surviving it all. Of course there’s two sides to that situation too, I couldn’t live with the harrowing guilt of having sentenced a poor animal to such demise AS WELL as having paid thousands for the privilege! Personally I think she’ll fair better by staying on the farm than taking her chances down under.

The boxes and boxes of our personal possessions that we gleefully unpacked back in November 2005 after our struggles in France will now all have to be re-packed and doing it ourselves may just cut the costs by enough to warrant all the hassle. Oh what joy! Shipping freight this way is all done on volume so if we wish to cut down the total it’s necessary to offload the big box-like pieces of furniture that are basically full of fresh air. And we’ve only just got them! Fine if we want to ship dozens of small boxes of heavy spanners and tools but not for chests of drawers. Either way it’s a headache of gigantic proportions. We could share a container, we could have a crate made to size, we could airfreight our valuables or we could just sell the lot, if it were not for the paintings, the books, the toys, the memories. Some people have gasped out loud that we’re thinking of moving to Australia, I’m beginning to see why.

But I’m not really worried about all the possessions and as for the money, that’s all replaceable too. I’ve resolved myself to arriving in Australia with the clothes on our backs, the suitcases we’ll be carrying and the rest of our worldly belongings in a twenty foot container on a ship somewhere bobbing about the ocean, a few thousand nautical miles behind the 747.

My impending flight is what is really harrowing for it means I have to leave behind my fledglings and with all the complications mentioned above it’s very unclear when they will be able to join me again. Still, there is the respite from all the panicking to look forward to, the challenge of finding our new home and the prospect of some sunshine. It may also help my spiralling mind out of the confusion and utter state of overload that it’s currently in.

All this is really just detail compared to the actual job of pulling off the move itself. So, second gear is where we are and the motor’s just warming up as is the weather…