Meet Bessie

This is Bessie, our trusty 1981 Chevrolet Malibu.



You can read all about what it is to be a Malibu here.
If you search the Wikipedia article for "Iraqi Taxi", that's our Bessie.

When I first sat in Bessie I was struck by how much the styling of the dash, the controls, the keys, the steering wheel all reminded me of my Dad's Holden Premier (a variation on the classic Holden Kingswood). It was like I was a kid again :-)



Like all cars in Edmonton, Bessie has a power cord. (You can sort of see it dangling over the bumper in the picture above)
Unlike certain other Fowler cars, this is not because Bessie is electric - it's for her block heater.
When it gets cold (like -20 C or so) you plug in your car to keep the engine warm so that the coolant and oil will still flow freely when you go to start it.
They reckon that starting a car that is too cold will cause as much wear to the engine as a year's worth of normal driving.

So anyway, I think it is rather ironic that the car we left for Bent and Liz is a Subaru all-wheel-drive wagon with traction control, anti-lock brakes, and a special transmission setting for driving in the snow. I always wondered who really needs all that stuff on a car. I mean, I had to work really hard to make the traction control kick in on normal Sydney roads. But here in Edmonton, I can see why such features are so useful - mainly because Bessie doesn't have any of them :-)

Mark