Two Warrants, a Wash-down, and a bad case of Wind

It was a busy old day, with not one, not two, but three trips down to the local garage in one day. First it was to get warrant of fitness for the caravan (last 12 month warrant as next year the van will be six years old); then it was to take the Landcruiser down for its six month warrant of fitness, which meant leaving the vehicle with the garage all day so that they could do the WOF at their convenience; and while the Landcruiser was away it was a chance for me to wash down the caravan after travelling in that heavy rain last week.  We have been advised that it is better for the environment if cars (and caravans, for that matter) are washed on grass.  The soapy water then soaks into the grass instead of getting into the drainage system.

She always sneaks up on me with her camera

After finishing the caravan it was then time to finish washing down the house.  I had started this the other day but I was suffering from bad hay fever at the time and had to leave it due to the bending and reaching affecting my balance.  It’s all done now so all I want is some fine weather to be able to start painting the house.  Painting is not one of my most enjoyable tasks and I would really like someone to come and do it for me but that’s not likely so I’ll have gird my loins and get stuck in.

Jenny took me down in her little blue car (she calls is Lazuli) – why I wonder?) on the third trip of the day down to the garage to collect the 4WD.  Oh by the way both vehicles passed with flying colours so we can now hit the road knowing our vehicles are safe. For our overseas readers all vehicles under 4500kg in NZ have to pass a 6 monthly warrant of fitness, which is basically a safety check to make sure the vehicles are in a road worthy condition.  For vehicles over 4500kg they have to have a Certificate of Fitness which is a more stringent test as these vehicles are considered commercial. Needless to say the COF is more expensive than a WOF which annoys the larger motor home users as they are neither carrying the loads or doing the mileage (no equivalent metric word) of a commercial vehicle.

The wind has been rather fierce lately, and blew especially hard last night.  We woke up to find a branch snapped on our tree in the front garden.  There were branches big and small all over the street, I noticed.  Lucky none fell on top of the caravan.

Oops, it’s broke

So out with my trusty hand saw to trim it off – then I dragged the whole thing around the back and cut it all in more manageable pieces to get rid of it.