Alright, hands up all those who thought we were going to sit around and do nothing today, with ‘The Beast’ sitting forlornly alongside the van while waiting for spare parts to be delivered? Yep, just as I figured, there’s a few of you. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. We weren’t going to let a little matter of an incapacitated beast slow us down.

I was up at the sprightly hour of 8:00AM to organise a rental vehicle to ferry us about for the next couple of days. A couple of phone calls later and I had a car lined up for us and a taxi was on its way to deliver me to the hire company. As it turns out, we could have a little Nissan Micra for 2 days for $80.00 or if we took it for 3 days it would be only $75.00. Scratching my head, I asked what would be the result if I hired it for 3 days, but returned it after only two. “Oh, we can’t give you a refund or anything,” was the worried response. Hmm, well I guess I’ll just have to be contented with the $5.00 discount and an extra 100Km travel allowance for free then. The daily rate for the car hire, ended up being less than the cost of the 15 minute taxi ride to pick the hire car up.

With all of the paperwork out of the way, I climbed down into a bright green Nissan Micra, which was quickly and affectionately nicknamed ‘Kermit’. I then had to get the hang of having the controls in all of the wrong places compared to what I have become used to, and off I went. Out of practice at piloting a car with three pedals and a wiggly gear stick, I think I might have made the car appear even more Kermit like than its bright green duco suggested, as we hopped and jumped down the road for the first 50 metres or so until I found second gear.

Kermit joins the brood.

It was then a quick trip back to the caravan to pick Bec up, for our planned day of shopping around for a satellite TV system. We need something to keep us entertained as we cross the Nullabor in a few short weeks time. One issue we hadn’t particularly considered was what we were to do with the dogs for the day. The car hire company has strict rules about animals not being allowed in their vehicles. The caravan park has a policy of not allowing the babies to be left alone in the van while we’re out. They do however have a couple of dog runs, where we can leave them for $20.00 a day. We had hoped not to have to leave them alone in a strange environment, for fear that they would fret, but our options today were otherwise limited.

I am sure that if they knew this morning what was happening, they wouldn’t have followed Bec so willingly down to the front office. We left them with their own beds, blankets, water bowl and a few treats, but they were still to be confined in a small concrete covered yard for the day. Not something that Alvin will take too kindly to. He is fussy at the best of times about where he goes to the toilet. He’ll pee on every tree if you let him, but for anything more substantial, everything needs to be perfect. He held on for 2 days last week, when grass was in short supply and the only option would have been to relieve himself on the sand! So a day in a concrete pen might well be his worst nightmare. Bethany on the other hand won’t care where she is, but I am sure will worry frenetically that we won’t be back for her. It was a tough decision, but with our limited time here in Perth, was the only one we could make.

The dogs were left behind with an office full of staff all fawning over them, except for one Asian girl who if not for the tough meat of older dogs would have had them for dinner. I’m still not 100% sure that she was joking either. Then we were off.

There were four addresses we had listed, for retailers of satellite TV systems, and our plan was to visit them all to see what was on offer. What we hadn’t planned for was the utter confusion that struck us the moment we walked into door number one. They naturally suggested that their system was the absolute best in terms of pretty much everything.

Then we found door number two. They naturally suggested that their system was the absolute best in terms of pretty much everything. Hang on a minute, how could that be, when system number one was obviously the best?

Then we found door number three. They naturally suggested that their system was the absolute best in terms of pretty much everything. Hang on a minute, how could that be, when system number one and two were obviously the best? Need I go on?

In the end, it came down to a mixture of price, recommendation from a few locals, friendliness and knowledge of the staff, and for me at least, the place that had the fanciest signal meter. So we found ourselves, after several hours of gazing confusedly at all manner of equipment, back at door number two, Access Antennas & Satellites. Not that our decisions and quandaries were over however, as we still had to decide between two set top boxes. After another hour of fidgeting from one foot to the other in front of a shelf full of boxes, it pretty much came down to a coin toss as to which unit we would be taking home with us.

The basic signal meter.

The you beaut fancy meter, also know as a marriage saver.

Finally, the deal was done. Despite enjoying the zippiness and ease of parking with ‘Kermit’ today, as we lugged our crates of peripherals out of the store, I was suddenly wishing I had the cavernous size of ‘The Beast’ into which to pack our haul of goodies.

With the back of ‘Kermit’ piled high, we had just enough time to head into central Perth to check the factory outlet centre, one of the places we had hoped to get to yesterday. It didn’t take us too long to buzz around to our favoured stores, before darting back to the caravan park. We needed to be back before 5:00PM, to get the dogs out of storage!

Alvin was quite matter of fact about our return, much like an elderly relative who’s been left alone at a disco. Very much, “Oh, thank you, it’s about time you returned.” Bethany was as animated as we had imagined, yapping excitedly in a high pitched voice that told us she was glad that we had remembered to come back for her. Also as expected, they both made very good use of all of the patches of grass between the office and the caravan.

Some of our haul.

Back at the van, we were unfortunately unable to try out our newly purchased gizmos, as the receiver won’t be able to be registered until tomorrow. So look out then, as we spend the day, and maybe the day after, doing nothing but watching TV, courtesy of signals beamed all the way down to us from somewhere deep in outer space.

If we lay here like furry pillows, maybe they won’t board us out again!

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.