Day +68: Car Troubles

After a long week, none of us wanted to go out today. But, we didn't have a choice. The front passenger side tyre needed to be replaced, or at least have a qualified tyre specialist to look at it, as it had been getting increasingly flatter every time we drove the car. This morning, it was completely flat.

While Jonathan replaced the deflated tyre with the emergency tyre from the boot, I looked up a tyre retailer to visit to purchase a new tyre.

Jonathan did some more research after breakfast, and decided we should head to Kmart Auto at Castle Hill instead. His reasoning was that Kmart Auto was in Castle Towers, a large shopping centre that could keep all of us entertained while we waited for the tyre to be assessed. There was a chance the tyre could be patched and repaired if the puncture was only small, which would cost a fraction of what a new tyre would be.

Very carefully, we drove to Castle Hill and checked in with Kmart Auto. Glenn, the store manager, booked everything in for us and told us it would be a couple of hours. We went to the shops and wandered around for a while, with Sean happily sleeping in the pram while we had some lunch.

I found the most fabulous dumpling place at the Food Court - Lok Lok Dumpling Bar. I love dumplings, and this place offered xiao long bao - little parcels of heaven made of pork mince, encased in wonton wrappers that when steamed, created a gorgeous slurp of broth within the parcels. I loved trying to pick up the dumplings without breaking the wrapper, dipping them in a little bit of vinegar, and putting the whole thing in my mouth in one tasty bite. Of course, I would always tried to be careful and anticipate the hot broth that would inevitably spurt from the dumpling, but more times than not, the broth would burn my tongue. It was a small price to pay for eating these delightful morsels.

The xiao long bao from Lok Lok Dumpling Bar was good, but it wasn't worth the 15 minute wait while being served by inept staff. Oh well. I may give them another try, if I was ever in the area again. After all, it was the beginning of lunch time and the staff seemed new and unsure of how everything worked.

While we waited for our tyre to be fixed (yes, the puncture was small so they were able to patch it up for next to nothing), we explored the shops. Castle Towers was a very large shopping centre and we knew we wouldn't have time to look through all the shops. We went to the toy shop, Target and Kmart, and that was pretty much all we had time for in the end. Glenn called us to let us know the car was ready, so we trekked back down to Kmart Auto to collect our car.

Ever the salesman, Glenn noticed that our car was overdue a service, and asked if we'd like to book it in. Jonathan felt that Kmart Auto was our best bet, as I could wait for the car in the shopping centre, instead of being stranded at the Volvo dealership while the car was being serviced. After some discussion, and a thorough check of our warranty conditions - I was afraid that using a non-Volvo repairer to service our car would void the warranty, but upon close examination, we only needed to take the car to a qualified repairer - we booked the car in for Tuesday at 10am for a service, wheel rotation and realignment, and away we went home.

In the end, it was just as well that we took the tyre to Kmart Auto. Now we can finally get the car serviced, and I get to wander the shops at Castle Towers. Talk about two birds and a stone!