the slow inexorable demise of the kitty car

So the NRMA guy came yesterday and discovered there were more serious problems than a flat battery, "which was probably cos you left something on" (I hadn't, but he obviously felt, as a male mechanic, it was in his job description to patronise me). There is a leak in the radiator cooling system and a loose alternator belt, so the car is in danger of overheating at any given moment and also the battery isn't charging properly.

So I took it to Angelo at Kingsford Garage this morning and he promptly fixed those problems. But when he rang to tell me he'd fixed them, he said "I've just discovered something even more serious - you have no brake fluid." Apparently there is also a leak in the brake-fluid-containment-thingy. Which is going to cost a few hundred dollars to fix.

I knew there was a reason I didn't own a car...they are money-suckers. But in actual fact, if I had bought a car for myself, I probably would have done a bit of research and bought something that was made in the last decade that would be unlikely to have all these kind of old-age problems.

I'm just grateful the car held out while I was up at Katoomba and I didn't get stranded on a highway somewhere!