Swoosh rattle

Did you hear that? It's the sound of February hurtling past us.

Today was something of a Day of Days in that we finally were reunited with Willow. Not for long, but it was tender and emotional just the same. We collected her from DMM, paid the very reasonable (I suspect he knocked at least £50 quid off in a combined 'sorry I was shit about getting it done / sorry you are mental enough to think that will get you past Hampshire, let alone all around the country' discount) amount he asked for in return for a new battery and a key operated switch so we can jump start it. He had left the passenger window open though so that seat is sodden (maybe there was a bit of 'sorry you'll get a wet arse' discount in there too.). Ady drove it along to HBM and the kids and I followed behind

I've never really looked at the back of the van and certainly never driven behind it so it was pretty exciting watching her go. The kids and I were in very high spirits and Ady said he'd really enjoyed driving her, both from a 'hurrah we'll be off soon' point of view and I suspect because she actually started and went and felt reliable. Even in very heavy rain.

HBM *promised* to have her bodged sufficiently to get an MOT and back to us by next Wednesday which gives us a whole week to pack her up, give her a good clean inside and out and spend time stroking her and being glad she is back.






In other news we have a van hired to move furniture booked for the week after next, much of the house is boxed up and we have plans to get more done over the weekend and I really enjoyed taking a phonecall from Sky TV this afternoon asking why we have cancelled our subscription and replying that we won't have a TV so we really won't be needing Sky. This week's top well wishers and 'I wish I could do something like that' are our dentist, the bloke at Sky TV customer services and a little old lady at the library who invited me to come along to their pensioners reading group as a guest to one of their meetings and when I told her why I couldn't agreed our adventure did sound rather more fun that debating The Grapes of Wrath!

We're all really enjoying watching One Man & His Campervan which I know has had some rough reviews but simply couldn't be more timely for us. A bloke *loving* campervan living and foraging or buying local to feed himself using basic cooking facilities and seeing fab places around the UK.