The kids woke me up far too early this morning playing a loud game. As it happened I’d gone to bed fairly early (for me) so I didn’t mind too much.
Dealt with chickens etc. and bunged some cinnamon rolls in the oven (I’d made a double batch of dough a couple of days ago) and we breakfasted.
Ady came home and we went along to the mechanic to collect Willow. Both of us were nervous of a) a bigger bill b) a stroppy reception from the mechanic and c) it still not being ready, but all to no avail. The mechanic but was really friendly, charged us the mentioned 70 quid and wished us good luck, his son came and chatted to us about the plan too and sounded quite envious, the van started and Ady drove it out. We followed him in his car over to the other mechanic and despite very heavy rain it ran fine, Ady said he felt really comfortable driving it and very confident in it. The other mechanic seems to have gone into campervan renovation in a big way and had a traditional VW there that he is restoring, said he wasn’t all that busy at the moment so was pleased to have our van to do, promised to have it back for Wednesday at the latest and assured me he can get it through the MOT ‘no problem’. I am of course still poised to hear problems but keeping fingers firmly crossed we have now had the tense panicky bit just before we go that threatens the whole thing type part of the story necessary for a good story at the end of it.
Ady dropped the kids and I back home and came in for some lunch before heading off for the rest of his days work. We watched some Gastronuts and then I found a paint by numbers kit and showed Scarlett how that worked and left her to it with Davies doing some drawing and I did some sorting out in the spare room (Ady had been shoving stuff and it had gotten a bit muddled in terms of what was properly boxed up and what should be in other rooms but had found it’s way in there instead) and processed some laundry. Earlier I had condensed the contents of the two freezers in the garage into one and turned the empty one off. Little things like that bring home the fact we are leaving so imminently far more than the bigger things.
I spent some time creating an ‘About Us’ page on the blog. It now has a handful of signed up followers but I am very aware of how many more are reading it from people talking to me and from checking the stats. It’s not huge and it is mostly people we know but it is getting hits and links now from other people doing similar things, travelling, WWOOFing, off grid and self sufficiency type stuff so I wanted to put a little order in while I can still sit on a sofa and mess about with it for a couple of hours. I’d quite like to add another couple of pages in about how we came up with the plan and what we hope to achieve from it and about Home Ed and how that works for us.
I cooked the kids some tea, burgers which they’ve always previously turned noses up at but these were lovely 100% beef burgers from Tasha’s wedding and they both scoffed them and asked for more! I listed a few items on ebay which was the last remaining box of stuff we neither want to keep or take with us and we gathered up all the books from the library that we have finished with and can go back. Penultimate shift tomorrow…
Ady arrived slightly late so we paused One Man and his Campervan so we could all watch it together. We did bad, good, learnt:
Davies
Bad: I had a nightmare last night
Good:Extra excited about WWOOFing because we’re watching One Man and His Campervan and we saw Willow today.
Learnt: The reason football matches are played in two halves is because there used to be no rules so the first half would be played according to the rules of one team and the second according to the other team.
Scarlett:
Bad:Didn’t see Jack & Maisie today because Maisie is poorly
Good: Enjoyed playing with Davies
Learnt: Badgers fall from heights and hurt themselves by landing on their backs.
Ady:
Bad: passenger window left open on campervan and seat is soaking wet.
Good: really enjoyed driving the campervan 🙂
Learnt: an anagram of ‘astronomers’ is ‘no more stars’
Nic:
Bad: Didn’t cook enough dinner for the kids (did them burger and chips and suspected they wouldn’t like burgers so did one each, they loved them and could have eaten more)
Good: Feel so positive about the van
Learnt: that it takes an hour and a half to boil an ostrich egg.
Which took us to 8pm when a reminder about Human Planet came on. A speedy debate about suitability before bedtime took place and we agreed to give it a go rather than call bedtime so the kids stayed up and watched it with me. We really enjoyed it and they considered it very worthwhile and indeed kept up their end of the bargain and both went to sleep really quickly, including Scarlett without me sitting on her bedroom floor :).
Ady and I watched The 10 o’clock show which I really enjoyed tonight, felt it had found it’s stride after a wobbly start. I still don’t like Jimmy Carr though.