New Carsville

We are now the proud owners of a new - as in brand new, for the first time ever (for me (not that it's mine)) - Mazda 3.

Wahey!

And, at the same time, Parp!

We picked it up the day before yesterday and yesterday we dropped off the Hyundai off to Ric and Cate after spending a couple of happy, for which read hellish, hours vacuuming the dog hairs that the professional cleaners didn't manage to get off the upholstery.

We took it on a little spin after getting it up round Samford and as Nicole says it feels like coming home from an automotive point of view. No more clunky second gear and no more dogs on the back seat. Having said that, no more Eloise in the middle, the car seat goes on one side, so no more Squeaky in the rear view mirror which is a pity.

But overall we're really happy with it, it drives really well; very smooth, quite powerful (to the point where you really have to keep an eye on the speedo in case there's any cops around) and very very quiet.

Are we exhilerated? I suppose you could say that, not that we would admit it. We're not really the exhilerated type.

And there is the small matter of the debt that we're now in. Ah ha - the debt that Nicole's now in.

And we have to do 15,000km a year to get the tax break as well, which although not high as such in terms of the average mileage we're used to in England, puts us in the ironic position of actually having to do miles so we'll probably have to use the car in preference to cycling or whatever, but we'll see how we go on that one.

So what with two-year courses and so on, and not wishing to put dogs through unnecessary air journeys, it looks like we're here for at least the medium haul.