It’s been a mixed bag, the last few months..cyclone causing havoc ..well, not only locally, but the fact that it’s rare for one of those critters to come this far south for us Queenslanders. On the West coast of Western Australia, it’s a tad more frequent..one got as far as Perth..to all accounts. Flooded hitherto pristine farming land, with the unfortunate affect of putting salt water down wells..rendering them useless.

Alfred was our claim to fame. Warmer seawater to blame I’m told, occurring much further south than usual.

Yaas. Trees down everywhere, limbs broken, blocking roads, bringing powerlines down. Outages range from not affected, to ten or so days without power. We were luckier than some..with only a few days loss of power. Freezers kept food for the most part frozen..although we did eat our way through what was in there..just in case!

Naow, what I originally intended to write about..hub caps!

On a recent trip south, we lost a ..an hubcap. Subsequently discovered that the original hubcaps were rarer than hens teeth. A local wreckers yard didn’t have any. So, I looked online. American ones were available..although I didn’t want to wait for months, nor did I want to pay a ridiculous amount of money. But, a mob down in Victoria had one. Hooey!  Terms were different..to me at any rate..pay for it upfront, then contact the car yard and arrange delivery. Doubtless for more money, I thought. Who buys something online that has to be shipped, without being able to find out what the delivery charge was? Um.  At any rate, thirty dollars wasn’t overly expensive, and my poor little brrrm machine did look strange with one wheel being a different colour to the other three. I even wondered if Mr Plod would have an issue with that look, and even asked for An Opinion from a legal eagle in the family..was embarrassing! By the time the answer arrived, I was reasonably certain that it’d only be an issue iffen aforesaid brrm machine owner did something stupid in front of..mr or ms Plod. Anyway, I had bought said hubcap, and sent an email..which is probably still sitting in la-la land somewhere. A phone call sorted it all out rather smartly, and the car yard is rated highly. All up, $50, and it arrived in due course, expertly packaged, via a courier. A brrm machine with four wheels the same! Very good.

End of story?  Uh uh! Only a month or so later, we were driving down Wynnum maybe, and heard several clatters along the way..one of which turned out to be..ta da..another hubcap distappearing. Sigh! [Oh, that’s a mates vernacular…extra “t”..Poor old Ade. And poor old, followed by a name, means that person is deceased, and is my home towns way of talking about said..deceased person]

A quick check online revealed that nothing had changed, except that my now favourite car yard in Victoria Didn’t Have Another One. Um. A few weeks of driving around in a car noticeably different was enough. Aaargh! Local car parts firm had plenty, although not specifically for my little..brrm machine. Price for four new hubcaps..awesome..$50 for the lot! Last hurdle..replacing them.  These Toyota hubcaps have been designed to Not Come Out under any circumstance. Requires a decent screwdriver to lever them out. The new ones..look jazzy, dontcha think?

Only issue..the blasted things are designed to fit every wheel that ever there was, and it looked to me as if I’d need a boot load of them to keep up with ..a clatter every time I hit a sharp corner.  They were almost loose in their fit. Sigh! Answer..fencing wire and baler  twine is the farmers answer to most problems..so..I had neither, but some smaller gauge, readily available from the local mitre 10, twitching wire was, however, an acceptable alternative.

They almost look kosher!