Empty Pockets

It has been a very expensive week. About three weeks before we picked up the new Territory, the Zafira we've had since mid-2004 decided to start making some strange noises. It went for some investigative work at a local service vendor and after they could only come up with a "don't know, mate" I then took it to a Holden dealer who confirmed the root cause was from the engine. If you were sitting at lights, idling away and then turned the aircon on, you'd think a Hercules aircraft was coming in to land because of the over-revving to compensate some other issue.

After all my travel recently (which I still haven't blogged cos I am a fazy lucker) I finally managed to get the previously reliable beast back to the local Holden dealer for some further investigation which basically involved taking the engine apart. Luckily it wasn't as bad as we'd speculated on previously and it will just involve some replacement of parts to do with the balancer-thingymijig. (Hey, I ain't a rev-head so give me a break). Although it wasn't technically as bad as it could have been, it's still $900+. To make it worse, one of the engine mounts needs replacing too so that's another $250ish. It's still under the two grand I was preparing myself for, so in some sick way, I don't feel too bad about it.

So with that bill ready to be paid this week, I also did my tax return last week and found out I owe the tax office $800+. Not happy, but it looks like the company I work for will pay the immediate expense and then get it back from me over 12 months.

Today I bought a lottery ticket which I'll go and check now. In the meantime, anyone want to buy a Zafira?