One of the most annoying things about having a blog is that when I have a "blog" moment i.e. when I suddenly feel inspired to write something, its usually when I'm either a) well away from a computer or b) I'm busy doing something else and you lose the moment *sigh* Then later on, when you have the chance to sit down, and write, it just doesn't come out exactly the way you want it to. Hmmm, that sounds like what was happening when I was thesis writing during honours....

Anyway, the strongest blog moment I've had this week was when I had my basic car maintenance session this week. It was the first practical session i.e. where you actually use your own car rather than watch a very out of date (think 1990's) video. But it was the most educational session, as it pretty much put me "in the deep end" and forced me to think about what was being shown in that out of date video.

First panicky thought was "hmmmm, how do I open the car bonnet...." It pretty much went down hill from there. My saviour was my owner's manual, still in pristine condition in the glove box. Lo and behold, it contained a dummy's guide to the inside of the car which helpfully pointed out:
the engine (the big black thing)
the oil dipstick (which stood out as a yellow stick right next to the engine)
the other dipstick to check automatic transmission fluid (the red stick, which had a sticker on it which said "Do not remove - fluid should only be replaced by an experienced mechanic"....hmmm which is what I'm doing *lol*)
the battery (the big box with screws in the top)
the coolant for the car (which had a big yellow sticker screaming WARNING, WARNING DO NOT OPEN IF HOT! It looked very scary!).

The one part where the manual did not help was when I was looking for the plate that tells you when your car was manufactured - the origins of its birth, so to speak. Normally, its found inside somewhere under the bonnet of the car but after some frantic searching and thinking "oh great, I bought my car from an illegal, dodgy dealer..." to my great relief is was on the passenger side door.

There was a lot of other stuff, but those were the things we were focusing on - we were learning about the weekly checks you're meant to do on your car to make sure it stays healthy :P who has time to do those every week?? I can't even to manage to wash the car on a regular basis, which is also a "weekly" check.

The other funny part of that session well, there was two things. First thing was that we were doing all this stuff in the South car park at the university. If you've ever been down there, its kind of spooky and dark. So its even darker when you're trying to peer inside you car. It was funny though, watching people stare at us strangely as they picked up their cars - like some kind of car rally. Rah Rah Rah! The other funny thing was the guys in the class trying to not so subtly check out each others cars. They would try and explain all the different features of their car, but you could tell they were talking about 90% crap, 10% fact. I don't mean that in a mean way though. Obviously, they don't know much about cars else they wouldn't be doing this course. But it was funny watching them check out each other's cars. The classic had to be my neighbours car, where he had written on the back bumper of his car "Watch where you are driving you idiot" Short and sweet. It made much more sense when you saw the massive dent in that back bumper.

But I'm saving the best till last....I told someone that my car had done 100k's but when I looked again, it was actually only just above 11k's. Oops.

I'm looking foward to the next practical session though. I'll learn how to change a tire on my car. Just need to find that spare tire first....