I ended the last post by recounting my lack of success with the clapped-out-van-buyers of Sydney on my first Saturday at the backpackers' car market, and to be honest the Sunday after was little better - I spoke to a grand total of five browsers. But at least my haircut turned out OK.
On that Sunday I parked the van up next to a young Irish couple trying to sell their similar-looking and similar-priced Ford Econovan. They were good company, and we passed the time trying to save our sanity (sitting in a car park all weekend really is a crap way to spend your leisure time) by inventing alternative lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody, and scrawled them on the concrete to join the other messages of despair left by earlier sellers. Once I figure out how to connect my phone (Hannah has our camera, godamit) to my PC here in the office i'll upload some of the funnier photos that might give an idea of life in the dungeon.
A reasonable message...
Slightly desperate...
Total desperation...!
(In case you're wondering, I wasn't responsible for these, er, works)
Work was busy last week, with two days of project reviews and a 'facilitated relationship workshop' (whatever that is) on the Tuesday. This was actually more fun than it might seem, as there was good food, free drink, a view over Sydney harbour, and I even had to sing Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire to earn a bonus point for my table over dinner (don't ask). I thought I might have to go to Brisbane on Friday, but that got put off until Monday, and then got pushed back again until the end of this week. Geez, this project is a little chaotic.
Saturday came and I returned to the car market. Interestingly, a lot of the vans and cars that were present the weekend before had gone. This fact, coupled with the texted offer of $2000 that I had received for the van on Friday evening, filled me with hope. I had an offer, but maybe I could hold out for more... as it happened I didn't have to wait long; around lunchtime a young english couple showed an interest and wandered off (as many do), only to return half an hour later for a test drive. To cut a long story short, they made an offer of $2300 which I was more than happy to accept. I had sold the van at last!!! I was free again!!!
(well sort of, I actually had to wait until Monday evening to collect the cash from the happy buyers - pictured above - as they couldn't get hold of so much dough at short notice at the weekend)
So on Saturday afternoon I went into town to upgrade my by-now daggy backpacker clothes by buying some new jeans and trainers (I'd managed to get new smart gear for work, but I'd waited til now to get some fun stuff). By serendipitous timing I actually had somewhere to go on Saturday evening to celebrate my luck with the van - having made a few friends in the office, i'd been invited out to watch some rugby with a colleague's husband and a few other blokes, before joining the ladies for dinner nearby. Good banter, quite a few drinks, good food, and even a lift home made for a good way to celebrate my liberation from the backpackers' car market.
So finally I get the chance to do a bit of travel on work as it were; I'm going to Brisbane for legitimate work reasons on Thursday and Friday this week, and i've managed to stretch it out so that I don't fly back to Sydney until Sunday night. This gives me the perfect opportunity, now that I don't have to spend so much time hanging around Kings Cross, to hire a car and head up to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane, where Hannah's sister Naomi and her lot will be having their last hurrah before heading onwards to the USA. Shame I don't quite have time to get to Fraser Island too...!
Robin
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