06 December, 2011

Lessons Learned

A car is not critical. Until it is critical.

As you may have read in the previous post, Erika was involved in a car accident. Thankfully nobody in either car was injured and Erika was not at fault, so it isn't going to cost us anything financially.

WA not only stands for our state name, Western Australia, it is, we are told by the locals, also an abbreviation for Wait Awhile - the unofficial state slogan. Being the most isolated capital city in the world, it takes some time to get things that you need... like auto parts. So, while we wait for car parts - hopefully we'll be back on the road by Christmas after a three week delay - we are doing a lot of walking and biking (push biking in the local vernacular).

This has taught me some important lessons:

1. As the comedian said, EVERYWHERE is within walking distance if you have the time.
2. Living on the top of the hill makes it easy to bike nearly anywhere... coming home... not so fun.
3. There is a strong correlation between exercise and weight loss

Some of the ways in which this has impacted me :
> I have to leave the house 15 minutes earlier in order to bike to the train, but Erika now gets to sleep in.
> I sleep better.
> I can only wear a set of clothes once (as opposed to hanging back up a "clirty" shirt - biking up the hill home makes me sweat
> The kids can't go to evening activities due to the distance involved, it being dark for the ride (sometimes on the side of the road) and the time involved.

We may have figured out a way to get a rental car finally (living without credit cards is nice, but sometimes you REALLY need them), so we can become a bit more of a NORMAL family again.

My only real concerns is what to do if there is an emergency. James caught a Red Back (an Aussie Black Widow Spider) in the kitchen the other day. If he had been bit, I could not throw him on a bicycle and a recent train accident saw a man wait 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive after he had his leg severed by a train... and that was minutes from the hospital and ON the large freeway.

Not our typical Aussie post - apologies. Was just on my mind.

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