Vanning It

I worked this morning. It felt a bit like winding down as I was preparing the Reading Group folder for next year and realised I only have two meetings before we go next year.

Davies was supposed to have YACs today but came to me quite upset to say he didn’t want to go. He said it was because it was a session similar to the one this time last year and also that last time he’d gone Ady and Scarlett had been a bit late collecting him and he’d really disliked the waiting for them. Not at all sure what that was all about but he was sufficiently tearful for me to not question it too much and agree of course he didn’t have to go. I have a feeling Ady has been slightly too enthusiastic about YACs and what may have been a passing interest for Davies has proven something with a bit of pressure for him. There is only one more this year and it won’t be worth signing up for next year so it will come to a natural break for the year with Davies being able to decide what he wants to do when we get back with regard to signing back up again or not.

Dad had arrived at home just before I left for work so he had breakfast with Ady and the kids while I was at work. Then they came to collect me in the campervan at 1pm when I finished. We needed to put petrol in and Ady had filled the kettle up and brought teabags and milk and mugs. We drove up to Sainsburys and put petrol in then Ady nipped in to get some soup for Scarlett’s first meal in the van.

We can’t get the leisure battery to work so can’t seem to get any power in the van when the hook up is not connected. I gave up on trying and boiled the water in a pan on the hob instead which is gas and is working perfectly. So we had our cups of tea and Scarlett had her soup in Sainsburys car park :). Felt like we christened the van properly 😆

After some debate we drove round to the people we had bought the van from to ask them just how the battery switches over. They were really pleased to see us and tried to work it out but couldn’t either. They didn’t actually have her that long but did remember using the leisure battery at least once to boil a kettle so we know it did work within the last year. They took our phone number and rang us later with the phone number of the people they bought the van from, also pretty local, who had said they were happy to be contacted to answer any questions :).

We left there and decided to collect the hook up cable and go over to my parents to plug in on their nice level driveway (unlike our very sloping driveway) to see if the fridge would work. I went up to the window and Dad was just sitting down. He sort of glanced at me and then away and then did a double take at me when I moved closer to the window. He said he thought he’d just caught his own reflection and thought how much alike he and I were looking in a ‘I looked just like Nicola then’ way and then realised it was Nicola! 😆 Ady says he can’t see it at all but I often look at photos of myself and see my Dad in them, infact a quick look at my flickrstream shows at least three pictures with ‘looking like my dad’ as the title. Not sure who should be more flattered / offended really – the 36 year old woman or the 72 year old man 😆 Or indeed if it’s only the two of us who can see it anyway….

Frazer was home so he had the guided tour of the van and then Dad and I sat in it and chatted while we tested the fridge – it works 🙂 yay! Dad did call on their next door neighbour who is a gas / electrician as he could probably work out the whole leisure battery thing and also look at the non working shower heater for us but he was in bed ill. Will have to take the van over there again to catch him.

Dad said he didn’t think we should sell the Sharan as it will mean we come back to no vehicle. Agreed that would be good but we can’t afford to have it taxed and insured and have no off road place to put it, also the money we’ll get from that will be paying Dad back what he lent us for the van. He said he will sort an off road space for it and not to worry about the money for the van until we sell the van :). He also made me promise that if we get into trouble while we’re on the road to let him know and he will rescue us with food / money / petrol / whatever. I knew he would of course but Dad is a man of few words and no grand gestures at all. This is the closest to a great big speech infront of hundreds of people giving us his blessing we’ll ever get so I was very touched :).

Both the kids are sniffly and croaky and clearly coming down with colds with Davies getting more fragile and emotional throughout the day so we came home for them to have dinner, hot bath and bed. I know we’re still quite a way away from it all happening but it is all starting to feel incredibly real and imminent. It was ace to be out in the van today :).