road trips

Land Rover drivers anonymous

You know your spouse is obsessed with Land Rovers if:

  • He walks up to every Land Rover he sees on the street and gives it a good look-in.
  • He waves to other Land Rover drivers or gives them the thumbs up and then gets upset if they don’t reciprocate.
  • He chooses his parking spot based on its proximity to another Land Rover.
  • He posts angry comments on the Land Rover Facebook page about the proposed concepts for the new Defender. Repeatedly.

You know it’s serious when:

  • Your two year old can identify other Rovers on the road (“That’s a little bit like our car.”).
  • He also tells you that his “favourite toy is a Land Rover.”
  • You start waving at other Land Rover drivers too, without even knowing it. (If this has happened to you too, please contact me and tell me I’m not alone. I beg you.)

Despite my tendency to poke fun at my dear husband, I must confess that I’ve actually become quite fond of our Land Rover Discovery. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pain and a half to get in and out of for a short Asian female like myself, but I genuinely enjoy driving it (though possibly not parking it) and we really do have a lot of fun in it.

Like when we drove to the middle of nowhere back in July, disembarked and spent our family time exploring a little known fire trail. It was completely spontaneous, unplanned and almost uneventful, but it was somehow just lots of fun. (Plus, the boot of our Discovery seriously does lend itself to being the best portable nappy changing table ever, which is handy when you have three kids in nappies.)

What car is your better half obsessed with?

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The wild, wild west

Sadly, brain still in holiday mode so once again point form it is:

1) No Target today.

2) Road trip instead.

3) We went out west.

4) Rick waved at the driver of a black Defender and gave him the thumbs up. I attempted to hide my face from view.

5) A car honked at me as I was taking photos near the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) base. Don’t be surprised if you see my photo on the national security’s wanted list.

6) James did a massive number 4 poo just ten minutes outside of Kurrajong. Massive. Three layers of clothes removed.

7) Angus had a meltdown in the car at about the same time.

8) This may or may not have pushed us over the edge.

9) Thankfully, a hot meal in a warm cafe at the Kurrajong village centre saved our sanity.

10) The boys got fed too. (Give us some credit.)

11) The cafe looked out onto the Great Dividing Range (I think). Very pretty.

12) We all got home intact.

13) Tomorrow – the zoo.

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Road tripping once more

Finally, after what seems like months of frustration, our replacement Discovery is finally ‘up to speed’ – literally. Without going into any technical jargon (after all, me no Land Rover speak), our new big car is at last travelling at normal power and speed. Sort of, anyway. Rick would say otherwise, but if you’re really into all that jazz, that you’ll have to talk to him directly. I’m just happy that now when I step on the accelerator, the car actually moves. Thank you, oh wonderful mechanic in Dural. Thank you.

Anyway, the up shot of all this is that yesterday on our day off, we actually went on a proper road trip once more. And it was good.

Rick and I had already dosed up on caffeine when we departed our home, so we were both feeling quite alert. The grocery shopping had already been done – which further enhanced our good mood – and the boys were happy too because I had a lovely bacon and cheese ‘tear and share’ for them to munch on (If there’s one thing I’ve learnt this year, having some sort of carbohydrate that you can easily tear and share with your kids is akin to having a baby sitter in the car.).

We drove all the way up to Terrigal, feeling the air on our faces along the way – bless our wonderful air conditioning system. James slept for almost the entire trip, while Angus and Pete were perfectly content with their cheesy carbohydrate sustenance and their in-flight entertainment otherwise known as Play School on DVD. Rick was ecstatic that the car was keeping above 100km/hr and as for me – I was just glad to be out of the house.

At Terrigal, we discovered a cafe that served Campos coffee, which brought back all sorts of happy memories of our two years in Newtown. After I gave James a feed in the car, we all walked to the beach for some happy snaps. There, we discovered that Pete does not like wind. Even with his hoodie on, he kept trying to cover his face with his hands. Later, Rick commented that Pete was “such a Chan” and I did not dispute this in the least.

On the drive back home, I even managed a ten minute nap in the car.

And that, my dear friends, sealed the deal.

Mirror mirror on the wall, road tripping on a day off is the best of all.

(Oh, and you know how Rick and I are obsessed with self-taken portraits with sunglasses, well we managed our first one yesterday since James’ arrival and – doh! – I couldn’t get my head to look smaller than his…)

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Driving into the new year

Ever since the purchase of our second big car, our family has taken to going on short road trips. It combines a few of our loves:

1) Rick loves the Land Rover.
2) Angus loves the Land Rover.
3) Angus and Pete love Play School (which they now get to watch in the Land Rover).
4) And I love air conditioning and sitting for extended periods of time (ie. not having to move).

I also love to snap photos of pretty places, and the Land Rover allows me to do this up high from the comfort of my passenger seat.

Basically, everyone wins.

So today, we celebrated the new year by going on a short road trip up north, and this was one of my favourite shots.

Happy new year everyone!

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The second (“big!”) car

When we got married six and a half years ago, there were three things on Rick’s wish list:

1) a Land Rover;
2) a dog; and
3) that I would come to love camping.

Six and a half years later, I’m excited to say that one of these three things have come true: We’re getting a Land Rover Discovery!

I’m not too savvy with the specs, but I do know that:

a) It is silver.
b) It is automatic.
c) It has a DVD player. (Bring on PlaySchool!)
d) It has air conditioning.
e) It has seven seats.
f) And it is big.

Actually, it’s huge. Let’s just say that when I get to third trimester, I will be needing a step to get in and out of the car. (One could possibly argue that I just have very short legs.)

Rick first found out about this 2004 Discovery about two to three months ago. Unfortunately for the dealership, it remained on the market. So they lowered the price and rang Rick every couple of weeks to tell him it was still available.

Last week, we finally got to take it for a test drive; in fact, we took it for a day-long road trip.

The verdict?

[click to continue reading…]

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