And so it begins..

Wayne and his attention to detail and my lack of curiosity (at times) is going to annoy both of us I’m sure.

This new car of ours has a display in the dash where it lists all kinds of helpful information, including the fuel economy. I know I said I wouldn’t be writing another blog until we were on the road, but this (for me) is something that I want to remember down the track..apologies if boring to everyone else.

When we purchased the car, the previous owner had told Wayne that he had also done a trip around Australia and the car was great on fuel, averaging around 11km/1000 ltrs ? (Does that sound right or make sense?) without the van on and around 15km/1000ltrs with van on. That being known to us now, Wayne is bent on keeping it at 11 or below and is obsessed, and I mean OBSESSED.

Driving towards the city last weekend, we were having a conversation and in the middle he cuts me off saying ‘Griffo, I’ve got it down to 10’.. I said ‘oh great’ and continued on talking….then… ‘griffo, i’ve got it down to 9’ and again I reply with ‘okkkkaaayyy’ and then I stop talking because he’s on a roll. He eventually gets it down to 8 where it remains for ages (whilst on the freeway anyway). He’s a dork plain and simple, but a lovable one.

Then comes the ineveitable question to me. ‘ What’s it at when you’re driving’ ? mmm let me see.. about 15/17 (really more like 21). REALLY he shouts, how’s that possible ? I have no clue how that is possible. Here comes the lecture ‘ you’ve got to NURSE the pedal and just cruise up towards the speed, no need to fang it straight away – I don’t think I’ve ever FANGED anything just to be clear – he is clearly baffled by this and it’s hilarious to me, not so much to him. He then tells me that’s the reason we are going through more fuel than we should be.

SO for the next week, I’m driving around being 100% distracted by the display that shows the fuel economy, or should I say MY offensive fuel economy. I managed to get it down to 17 which I thought was pretty good, but not good enough. It got to the point that I was hardly looking at the road ! I made the point that perhaps the reason he got it down so low because we were on the freeway and when I drive I’m mainly driving locally and stop/starting all the time. This was not the reason, until it WAS the reason. Something clicked in his wonderful brain and he gave it some thought.

So, I’m now back to driving the car and looking at the road and not being distracted as much, until I see those silly stickers of families stuck on a car in front. I sit there and count how many kids, how many parents, animals etc.. Trying to figure out if that’s a boy that has the tennis racket in his hand, and the girl who is wearing a tutu. If anything is distracting, it’s these. I really dislike them and if Wayne comes home with those for our car (I wouldn’t put it past him) my mission will be to maintain the fuel economy at my average of 25km/1000ltrs .. or whatever it is !