New Car Baby!

Yea so as you may have guessed, despite my pessimism of my own TradeMe browsing habit, I have just bought a car.  Feels good.

So now I’ve got to find some other way to procrastinate.  While not spending money I totally don’t have.

I may have overstepped my mark budget-wise slightly on the price of the car though.  So I pretty much have a full month to survive on my overdraft.  Now normally this would not be a problem as all I have to do is not buy stuff.  Unfortunately with a new car comes the cost of registering under my name, leading to me realising that I had an illegible drivers license. 

So how do you solve this problem?  By throwing $38 at it and having to endure a three week wait the replacement license arrives.  Meaning that every time I go out to a bar, town, or just to buy beer from the supermarket I have to bring my passport which surprise, surprise is going to need to be replaced soon (another $100 or so). 

Buuut I think I can survive until payday...unless

The Great Car Hunt

So I need to stop going to TradeMe.  My plan at the moment is to save up my money for a big-ass OE adventure (hence my previous post), but in the meantime I’m saving up for a car in time for summer. 

Originally I was hoping to get about $6000, but thanks to my rather weak will power and other factors I don’t think I’ll hit that mark.  So in the meantime I’ve been eyeing up TradeMe to gauge what car I can get for, say, $4000-$5000. 

Introducing my problem:  I’ve begun seriously looking at cars within my current price range.  While this isn’t all bad, it’s shorter than I’d planned for – think midget playing basketball short.  The decent cars I find within my price range are usually out of reach in the auction’s last hour, where bidders (or is that bastards?) boost the price up another grand. 

But what would happen if the car I’m currently looking at stays within my price range and I (somehow) win the auction?  What else do I have to pay for?

Well there’s insurance ($60-odd a month I’ve worked out).

Petrol.

Registration (for the minty fresh Jap imports).

Okay, so maybe aside from rego I’d be all good with the initial cost.

But then I hear all these horror stories about people getting a seemingly mean car that turns into a total lemon.  Take my dad’s car for example.  He bought it about eight or so years ago and it worked great....for about 5 years.  In the last year the air suspension has seized up completely, the doors have decided to enter their rebellious teenage years and now refuse to close properly and then there’s the automatic transmission that just plain prematurely changes gear at the most inappropriate of times.  While the first of these isn’t exactly a necessity, the other two are just a complete pain that makes me not want to own a car.

However, my need for a car is constantly on the rise now.  A car would enable me to get to my friends' places at night without having to fork out the cash for a cab, or worry about having to pick up my parent’s car the morning after. 

It would also aid my health and safety.  Instead of dodging stressed out mums and BMW drivers on my usual running route round the neighbourhood, I could easily take myself to places where all I’d have to worry about are murderous speed-walkers.

Complete with bijon frise grenades.

Procrastination's a bitch

Okay so procrastination’s a bitch.

Sitting at home on a crappy August’s day with an assignment due in the coming days my brain should be going into work mode, but ahh yeah nah. You see I should be at the uni library in town, my fingers pitter-pattering away on the keyboard being constructive in the development of my assignment. But there’s one problem: I can’t be bothered to brave the rain to get there.

So, here I am sitting in the kitchen listening to the radio, a copy of Real Groove tantalisingly close, and the internet calling out to me.

And Kung-Fu puppies!

To be honest it’s pretty good that I even got this far. Hell I’ve already done a wee bit of my assignment; the notes are all around me, conveniently covering up the newspaper. But as I said before, I’m impressed I got this far today. A party the night before coupled with a cold bearing down on me made getting out of bed this morning a tough task. Also, I couldn’t help but have a little blast on the PlayStation this morning too, it was just there. Staring at me. Willing me to play. “Just one level monsieur! Shoot a few bad guys before making your mind up, please I implore you monsieur!”

Yes, I’ve decided that my PlayStation is French for today. But the Xbox will always be its fat American cousin, spitting tobacco juice into the bucket, wheezing loudly whenever it has to do any work.

Do you see what’s happening now? My imagination’s spiralling into a hypnotic state of overdrive where I can get carried away with anything that pops into my head.

It’s almost three o’clock now, the day’s practically done and I just got a text from a mate telling me to come round to for a few beers before the 21st tonight. The thought to say “bugger it, I’ll just do this tomorrow” certainly does come to mind, after all I can get (relatively) free parking in town on Sundays anyway.

I told you procrastination’s a bitch.