Hot and Muggy

A native Brisbanian admitted it was hot and muggy this week. Temperatures have been in the high 20's Celsius for the past few weeks, and we've had a few tropical rain showers throughout this time. Even so, there's been no significant change in the water levels in the dams.

I've been planning to buy a car or truck. I'm a bit tired of using public transport all the time ... there just isn't enough mobility to do the things I'd like to do in a reasonable amount of time. Getting to the nearest park takes about 3 hours by public transport. By car, the same journey is about 30 minutes. On the one hand, I've thought about buying a small car just to get around in, put a bike rack on the back, and have at it. On the other hand, I drove a pickup for a lot of years. After looking around at some of the used cars and trucks around, I'm thinking very hard about buying a Land Rover Defender. It's a classic old SUV...all those movies about Africa and Australia with people driving around the bush...that was mostly done in Land Rover 110's or Defenders. It turns out there's more than a few Defenders around Queensland; they seem to be favored by tour operators and station owners. I've found a few around the area at reasonable prices, so I may just go ahead and buy one used.

Once I get a vehicle of some sort, my next big ticket purchase is going to be a sea kayak. Dragging a kayak around Australia will be a whole lot easier in a Rover. Then, sometime in the February/March timeframe, I need to find a new place to live. Although it's convenient to live in downtown Brisbane, I don't really have much to do here when I'm home. I'm not into bars, clubs, restaurants or shopping. Taking walks is a pain, since it's not really people friendly and you can't really see very much. So, I'm thinking I'll look for a smallish house out in the suburbs and drive or take the train in to work during the week. I'm a little concerned about the houses around here, since they're relatively huge -- three bedrooms is very common. I'm having a hard time filling up a two bedroom flat. But the trade-off is that I'll have a back yard, a veranda, a garden, a place to park the truck, some peace and quiet, and room to breathe.

In any case, I'll see if I can find a picture of my dream truck. When I do, I'll post them here in the blog so you can see what I'm talking about. For some reason, I find the Defender is just a classic truck ... I never found one in the States, so I think I'm going to take the opportunity while here in a Commonwealth country and drive a classic.