Moose on the Move!

The first night we arrived we dropped our bags in the room we had been allocated at the youth hostel (we were the only two in a room with fourteen beds) and went for a wander in the town centre. It seemed immediately like a cool town - and not just because we were shivering. Lots of really old buildings and little alley ways and at night it looked especially magical.

We headed back to the hostel and were looking forward to having the room to ourselves, but it was not to be. We opened the door of the dorm and were at once surprised by the startled looking face staring back at us from under the doona of the first bunk. Accompanying the wide eyes was a shock of straight but disheveled black hair and a thin face. We both said 'hi' (as is commonly acceptable in youth hostels) and received no response. After a moment more of staring at us the doona was promptly pulled back down over her face and she disappeared. But we could still hear her. As we readied ourselves for sleep we could hear her talking quietly in the bunk around the corner, she was not speaking clearly or loudly enough to make out what she was saying but she was definitely having a conversation. But with who? We decided that she had a mobile phone under the covers with her and was just speaking to a friend. Early the next morning (around 3am), she was once again having a conversation and this time she was speaking more clearly. Chris was awake at this stage and says that it went on for quite some time and she was talking to someone and laughing about something. He ended up having to get some ear-plugs out of his bag to get back to sleep. We figured at that point that there was nobody else - she was holding up both ends of the conversation on her own... We think she spent most of the following day sitting on her bunk and talking quietly to herself.

The next morning we decided to call around to a few car yards to see if they had what we wanted. By this stage we had mostly abandoned the idea of getting a camper van and were instead trying to find a station wagon (known as an 'estate' here). Of the ten or so car dealers that we called in the Oxford area none had more than one estate in stock and none were in our price range (which was admittedly quite low).

We decided that the following day we would hire a car to go a bit further afield to look at a few things we had seen advertised in the local Auto Trader.

So that night we went to the movies to see 'Robots', if you like animations, or Robin Williams, it is worth going to have a look at!!

That night our eccentric room mate was at it again but we felt a little safer because there were a few more people in the room. Apparently she was talking for a couple of hours that night and had greeted the new residents in the room with the same stare-from-beneath-the-doona that we had received.

Wednesday morning we headed down the road to Thrifty to pick up our hire car. They didn't like the fact that we were not English and wanted to see our passports, return tickets. OK. Except that we had left our return tickets in London. So we told them that we didn't have return tickets because we are going to be here for two years. They liked that even less. Eventually the manager of the store relented and let us take the car - as long as we left our passports and credit card details with them. When I joked and asked if we would get our passports back she turned and in all seriousness said "If we get our car back." I guess they have a lot of people 'borrow' cars for longer than intended...

We drove all over the country-side that day, to Woking (pronounced woe-king), to Reading (pronounced red-ing), to Slough (pronounced slaow). This last was the setting of the series shown on ABC TV 'The Office' (very funny but painful program to watch) and it must be said that the city looked very much the part.

We had no luck what so ever that day. As we discovered later, the magazine we were using was almost a week old so all of the vans/cars that we went to see had been sold. One guy rubbed it in by proclaiming that he could have sold it ten times over by now! Great, thanks.

We decided that evening to move to the YHA just down the road. They were a little more expensive but a whole lot cleaner and they had common areas that were non-smoking (unlike the place we had been staying at previously). As we were chatting to the guy working on the front desk and telling him our woes (they always seem lessened when you tell someone else) he mentioned that there was a car for sale up the street from where he was living which was just around the corner from the hostel.

So after dinner we went for a walk, and about three blocks from where we had been staying we found Rosie. Only we didn't know for sure then. We tried calling the number on the window advertisement but there was no answer. So Chris left a message on voice-mail and we waited.

The following morning we got a call from the guy saying that we could go and have a look at the car that evening after he got home from work. Cool, so we had the whole day to do the touristy things that we hadn't been able to do because we were stressing out about cars.

We spent some time wandering through the farmers markets that was on in Glouchester Green, we went to the Museum of the History of Science and into the Sheldonian Theatre from the top of which there were awesome views of the town's spires and green fields. It was a really lovely sight.

We visited the Bodleian Library (or one of it's halls) and were delighted (Chris somewhat less so) that it had been used to creat the 'hospital' in the Harry potter movies. Actually there are a lot of settings around Oxford that were used in the Potter movies and lots of other TV shows.

We also went into the church of Saint Mary the Virgin (...as opposed to Saint Mary the ?tart?). The architecture in it was fabulous and the stained glass windows were beautiful. We had a bit of a late lunch in a small cafe and basically enjoyed the day and being tourists.

That evening we went and had a look at the car. It was a Renault Espace with seven seats. It was full of kids toys and junk. But we took it of for a test drive anyway and decided later that evening that we had found our car!!! Yay. At last. We could sleep in the back, it had room to carry our gear, we could take other people on trips, it was new(ish) and didn't have too many miles on the clock.

So, Friday morning we went and paid for the car. And then began the saga of finding and buying insurance. We had made a few calls from London already and knew it was going to be difficult. A lot of companies say that you have to be a permanent resident and that a visa isn't good enough. A lot of companies say that you have to have a British driver's licence (which seems odd because all we have to do to get one is to send in our Australian licences) and in some cases have held it for a year.

Remember I said that we had found a £2000 campervan in London that we liked? Well the only insurance quote we could get for that was (fully comprehensive) £2500. More than the car cost to buy!!! Ridiculous.

The thing with insurance and cars here though is that you have to have it. It is illegal to drive a car without it. So even though we had paid for the Renault we couldn't move it because we weren't yet insured!

Eventually we got it sorted out and found a place that would insure us with our Aussie licences, being on a visa and that didn't cost both arms and both legs (just one of each).

Then we took Rosie for a drive!! Ahh the freedom of having your own car!! We were instantly happier. Even if she is a tank to turn, the peddals are close together so you keep stepping on the accelorator when you go to break and she smells like other peoples kids and cigarettes. She is ours!