Who needs the surf when you’ve got two wheels?

Surfing lessons have been put on hold for this week, seeing as Sydney is being deluged by bursts of rain and thunder to boot. It has given us the chance to look into getting a campervan, there’s quite a few for sale, but they are all at least 18 years old, and the sellers gleefully tell you how many repairs have been done in the past few months (from oil changes to engine changes!). I’m sure that is meant to fill you with confidence that it will be reliable, but my first car (a lovely brown Ford Sierra, “the shed”) was like that, and it just makes you wonder what is next to go wrong!
To get me around in the meantime, a cheapo bike from K-Mart seemed the ideal solution. With the big box already balanced on the trolley, the prospect of waiting a week for them to build it was too much, I mean how hard can it be to stick a wheel and saddle on a bike? Shoving a spanner and allen key set in the trolley, I found a quiet corner of the multi-storey car park. 50 minutes later, and without looking at the instructions (pfft, they’re for amateurs) the bike was done, albeit with flat tyres meaning a walk home (well they felt hard when prodded inside the box…). It’s also my first bike ever to have a side stand and a bell, maybe I should get a nice little wicker basket for the front too…
Today after the rain stopped, I took to the roads. With spanners in pockets just in case my handywork wasn’t all that, I toured the coast line around Bondi, and found some more great beaches, like the one in the photo (no, that’s not from Fiji, it really is Sydney Harbour), and also discovered it’s not so great living at the top of a steep hill…