But that time has hurried right past, thanks to Delta. Mellow now.

ATGANI, with us inside, coulda been making tracks into SA’s top right corner and QLD’s bottom left corner about now. (Had we actually been on the road, I’m sure we would have bolted across the QLD border soon after the maskless limo driver surfaced.) Instead, our “finished” van is proudly displayed in a sales yard at Erina, or is more probably languishing in the muddy paddock out the back. As well as ATGANI, there must be a big handful of other vans there, ready to be paid for, ready to be picked up but unable to do either of those things. Not a perfect business model, I think.

The time will come soon when we will be confronted with accepting a non-contact delivery without a person-to-person handover… and to stump up our money. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet, but it can’t be far off. Given that we’ve never ever had a caravan before, that the documentation supplied appears to be rudimentary and that we know nothing other than that you attach it (somehow) to a strong vehicle and tow it, even I foresee issues! However, we also have some pics of the internals now, which look fine, and we have a bonus storage box between the back bumper and the van – unspecified, free and heavy!

In further news, ATGANI is too long to legally stay on the streets of Cremorne Pt for any prolonged period, so it will have to be delivered to our chosen storage site up near Berrilee (think Berowra Waters). Our guess/hope is that it will live there when and while we’re allowed to travel more widely in Sydney, maybe October. Then we can put our junk in it and try a few things out (eg. does the fridge chill champagne adequately?). With extreme luck, we’ll even be able to undergo our towing instruction. Unsurprisingly, our September 4WD training at the Toyota LandCruiser Club’s facility near Goulburn has been cancelled. We’ll probably get bogged.

Eventually, maybe November, we’ll be allowed out of Sydney into some or all of NSW. And we’ll go! My estimate is that QLD and VIC are zero chance of opening to us much before Christmas Eve, if then. So we foresee a peripatetic period in NSW, almost certainly returning home to Cremorne for the school holidays and finally setting out on the big trip some time after that.

In the meantime, good news abounds:

• Our major privation is that the golf club is over 5km away, so no golf nor boil-in-the-bag curries
• Nilgiri’s takeaways are excellent
• The flat is not let (thank goodness) and we’ll stop trying until after New Year – maybe not even then
• Our sadly-unable-to-attend cleaner can access disaster payments. Hooray
• I’ve mastered the priority order for suits in bridge (but why are spades favoured?)
• Lesley is knitting up a storm
• High petrol prices don’t worry us, ‘cos we’re not driving anywhere
• Frenchy’s is within 5km so we can still walk there and get good coffee
• There’s nothing left in the cellar except truly good wine – a bit less than there was!
• There are more ATGANI pics in the Gallery tab

So, in summary, things are OK. What (else) could possibly go wrong?