American’s Guide to Speaking British Barmy BritainThese pics I took with my mobile phone so they aren’t very good but it give you a general idea of what it all looks like. I still have much to do to it to put more of my own personality into it. But here goes………
The Conservatory
Lounge 1
Lounge 2
Lounge 3
Dining Area
Kitchen 1
Kitchen 2
My Bedroom 1
My Bedroom 2
My Bedroom 3
Guest Room
At last I have sorted out unlimited web access while actually in my caravan and no using a hotspot.
Using a mobile signal modem and for a reasonable amount of cash per month I am now able to have complete web access without having to use other peoples comps when I visit them.
This last week has been very productive for me as, as well as sorting out web access I have had the decking put up around my caravan giving me my own personal outdoor space.
I am now well setttled in the caravan and getting web access has been the icing on the cake. I have had quite a few visitors and an occasional overnight guest in the way of grand kids and a nephew. I have also tried out the indoor swimming pool and although it is very small it is space enough for me to have a good swim around to give me some decent exercise. What with the swimming and the cycling I should be very fit within a small space of time.
I am over the moon with my new life so far.
I am here once again at Sarah’s. This time I am animal sitting for the W/E as Sarah and Dave have gone to Hastings until tomorrow, They will be dropping Jess off at her Dad’s as she hasn’t seen him now for 5 weeks where she will spend the night with him, then tomorrow they will pick up Aimee from her Dad’s (also called Dave), pick up Jess and all drive back together.
An update on me and my van, lol. I have managed to find nooks and crannies for all my bits as the van believe it or not has more storage space that my house had in the way of fitted cupboards. I had chucked away everything that I hadn’t used or looked at for a year or more before we came down here.
All is cleaned and fresh as I want it except the windows as I thought I would do them as I buy and put new nets up. I was laying in bed last night thinking how to change the bedroom by getting rid of the brightly coloured holiday type coloured curtains in there and putting up more basic or elegant type ones.
Big problem there in the way of the headboard for the bed. As I expect you all know they put a permenant fixture type headboard on the walls of a caravan which at the moment matches the curtains and has all colours of the rainbow in. I have to figure how to get it off the wall, recover it and then put it back without damageing the wall. It will be the same in the guest room as well.
The windows also have pellmets which I have always hated which will also need recovering or replacing somehow as well. Mind you those shouldn’t be too much problem to sort out but I do think I might have to go buy a cheapish sewing machine if I am going to make a good job of it all.
I have taken some photos of the van with my mobile but stupid cow that I am forgot to bring the disc and the lead with me today to transfer them to the web. Mind you photos taken with a mobile don’t really turn out that well so I think I will borrow Sarahs didgy camera and take them all again. I will then take more when I have done up the van again.
I am now feeling so much more comfy over there and getting used to being on my own again. I think it was more the getting used to being on my own that is the hardest rather than the fact I am living in a caravan.
It’s actually very strange because it’s sort of like having staff to wait on one. The chap comes around everyday to empty the dustbin and actually replaces the bin liner. Another chap comes around picking up any rubbish that might have found it’s way onto the grass. And yet another chap comes cutting the grass. Oh the bliss of not having to cart rubbish out to the pavement once a week for the dustmen to collect. Having the beauty of all the greenery around and not having to cut grass ones self. All I need now is someone to do my shopping and cooking, lol.
I haven’t yet taken my bike over there on a permanent basis yet, as I have to go buy a cover and a chain and padlock for it before it is safe to leave it there. It needs a special cover because of it’s size which I can only get from the manufacturers although I have been ringing around to there retail outlets to see if they can order me one. Because of the slow speed they all work at down here (talk about the bloody Spanish, lol) it’s taking them a while to get back to me.
That bike is the best thing I have ever bought. It’s a dream to ride and gets me from A to B in a quarter of the time it takes to walk. I love it. To top it all it’s keeping me fit and strengthening my legs. Mind you it gets a few stares from passers by, lol. I have yet to take Bayley out on it for a decent distance as I have only given him a taster of it buy cycling around the garages at the back of Sarah. I thought if I first take him a shortish distance and then give him a lovely walk at the end of it he will start associating the bike with fun.
All in all I am now certain that I have done the right thing by selling my house, moving to Dorset and living in a caravan.
Sarah and the girls arrived back safely in the UK last Sunday. Beverley and I ended up driving up to meet them. We got up there fairly quickly but had a heck of a job finding them after we parked up.
I stayed the night with Sarah and then officially moved into my caravan on the Monday. Jess wanted to come back and spend the night with me which she did. She also ended up spending Tuesday night as well so it wasn’t until last night that I spent the first night alone there.
It’s taking a bit of getting used to after all of us living together for the last year. Not only getting used to being in a caravan but getting used to being on my own again. It’s very cosy there though and I was surprised to find my first night alone there I slept like a baby.
My Bayley also seems to like it very much. Usually he is like an old man plodding along beside me when on our walks but taking him for his walks there has given him a new zest. He has started running around rather than walking and where he normally likes to plod along on the paths around a park he is actually tearing around on the grass. I have a job to keep up with him.
The chap came today to instal an amplifier on the TV aerial so that not only could I get a better reception but so that I could pick up all the available channels properly. Works like a treat now.
I am still pestering them for a date when they will be in to instal the decking around the van but everything seems to move much slower down here and no one seems to have any sense of urgency. Still waiting for a phone call on that one. It will be so much more convenient to have decking as I wont have to watch when I open the door that Bayley doesn’t decide that he wants to go for a walk alone. The decking will have a gate at the end of it so as long as people remember to shut that when they come visit it will be quite safe for him to go in and out as he pleases.
I spent this afternoon with Sarah and was going to go home this evening but decided to stay the night as I have to be here fairly early in the morning to dog sit all day as she, Jess and a friend of Sarah’s are going out for the day and wont be back until late. So have now managed to get a bit of time on the comp as they have gone to bed.
Aimee was picked up this morning by her Dad and driven back to Hastings to stay with him until Sunday where she can meet up with some of her friends there that she had to leave behind when we moved down here.
This is the last entry of the month. New month tomorrow and hopefully bringing us nearer to our summer.
On a footnote:- Today would have been my 40th wedding anniversary if I had stayed married.
My girls are flying back in from Kos tomorrow and Beverley and I are driving up to Gatwick at 6am in the morning to pick them up.
I expect that once they get home they will all want to have a couple of hours kip as they wont have slept since last night. I will take a ride over to my caravan while they do this and them come back to Sarah’s for the evening and move into the van properly tomorrow when Sarah can drive the bits I have here at hers over there for me. She can drive while I ride my bike over.
From then on for a while I wont have my own access to the web until I get something sorted with wireless. Which hopefully wont be long. Mind you perhaps it will do me good to have a rest from the web for a while as it’s very addictive.
The TV reception over there at the moment is not good but I have the chap coming in on Thursday to fit me up with a large amplifier so hopefully after that I sould be able to get all channels brilliantly instead of just a few.
I’m off to bed in a short while for a 4.30am rise in the morning. Yuck.
Sarah, Beverley and I drove out to buy nearly all the stuff I needed for the caravan. This included all one needs in a kitchen including microwave, steamer, toaster and so on.
We also stopped off at tescos for me to do a complete shop of all the basics and also food for lunches as I will be spending a few hours each day for the next week over at the van emptying boxes and giving it all a general scrubbing and you can bet your life it will take me through the lunch times.
Beverley drove me back to the van to drop everything off and she stayed with me for 2 hours while I cleaned and bleached all the cupboards and shelves while Beverley unpacked all my kitchen bits and put them away as each cupboard became ready.
We were both on a time limit due to Beverley having to pick up her son and me having to get back to Sarah’s ready for dinner and to look after the girls while she goes out tonight but after sorting out the kitchen we even managed to get all the cupboards and shelves in the whole caravan cleaned and unpacked 5 boxes of the rest of my stuff.
I’m afraid we have to come away leaving the van in a bit of a mess with folded up boxes and packaging everywhere but we got more done than I thought we would in the time allotted including making up the bed ready.
To tell the truth I hated leaving it to come back to Sarah’s. I do wish that I could move in directly but it will have to wait until Sunday or Monday week until Sarah comes back off of holiday and takes back the care of her animals.
Oh well, not long to wait now.
Sarah and I went over and paid the remaining monies for my caravan and early this evening the family rallied round to help shift my boxes into it.
Beverley, Sarah and my nephew Gary in 3 cars moved it all over in one trip. We then spent an hour or so examining every nook and cranny and just general having a lovely family chat with us and all the kids altogether.
I have to stay at Sarahs for the week while she is away on holiday so I will pop over to the van for a couple of hours each day to clean it and sort all my stuff out ready for me to move in properly on Sunday week when Sarah gets home.
I still have no idea when they will put the decking up but I had good news from the site today. They had the cables laid on monday ready for wireless broadband. So it looks like I wont have to go long without my own comp again.
Once I am in an settled and have all neat and tidy I will be taking some pics to put on here.
At last I finally received a phone call from the site to say my van will be ready for Thursday. Of course it had to happen when I have a busy day. First a hairdressing appoinment and from there Sarah wanted me to go with her to the herbalist for an ear candle appointment.
I will have to go pay the rest of the monies for the van later in the afternoon and check the van out now it is in situ.
I wont be moving into it until Monday week as I have to be at Sarah’s all next week to look after the animals while she is in greece. She will be coming back Sunday week.
But I can use the time she is away to move my stuff in there and give it a good scrub down as it wont feel like mine until I have done that. Then on Monday week I will be able to walk through the door with everything in it’s place ready for me to take up residence.
I can’t wait.
Ok, update.
My caravan still isn’t ready but they have made a start on the extra concrete base although everything has stopped for the Mayday weekend. So fingers crossed for me moving in there by the end of this coming week.
Sarah now has her broadband fixed which I have just finished downloading the broadband modem to, and fingers crossed, I haven’t yet been kicked off line yet so perhaps now it’s using the broadband modem that problem is now fixed.
Sarah has today had them come in and install cable TV which is good news but the bad news is they haven’t installed it properly so it’s not working for this evening. They are going to have to come back and fix it. Which means that there is still only 4 blasted channels to view in this house for another day.
I am getting very frustrated now about living out of carrier bags and boxes between Sarah’s and Beverley’s but hopefully it will now only be a few more days.
I am having a peaceful morning as I decided not to go off to Poole with Sarah and Bev. They are only popping over there to change a skirt that Sarah bought last week anyway so I’m not missing out on anything.
I could wander round and visit my sis I suppose. I’m still thinking about that one though, lol.
It seems funny after all these years to have the family so close round me again now.
Our family Bar-B-Q went off great last night although the weather wasn’t as warm as it has been. It had rained earlier in the afternoon but cleared up by dinner time so nothing was spoilt.
This afternoon I have to go round Sarah’s to help her put up some flat packed furniture which I think will probably take up all of the weekend, lol. It took nearly 3 hours yesterday just to put up a media unit.
Even the expensive stuff comes flat packed now. Unless of course one spends £1000s, lol.
If you have been reading my blog you will know that my girls have settled into school now and are actually enjoying it after some very nasty teething troubles from Aimee at the beginning of the week.
I am so relieved that all 3 of them are enjoying living down here.
I phoned the caravan site today and they say that the van will have the extra base added and all hooked up by the end of next week. I can then get in and give it a thorough spring clean. It doesn’t really need it but you know me, it wont feel like my own until I have been round with masses of soapy water and bleach, lol. So by next weekend I should be moving myself in there.
The decking will be added over the next 3 weeks or so but I don’t mind waiting for that although Bayley wont have his own space in the fresh air until that is installed.
As soon as I have the caravan sorted I will take some pics and post them. I am so looking forward to living in a caravan. It must be the Gypsy in me, lol. I know Mum will be popping in and out from the other side because it’s the sort of thing she would have liked to have done, love her heart.
At the moment I am staying with Bev as it does give Sarah space to get the girls into a routine of living all by themselves again without Nan continuely around, although Aimee is a bit peed with me and keeps asking me to go back with them. I will be spending the weekend with them though and come back to Bev’s on Sunday night. I just want to avoid living with Sarah during the week as it seems that Aimee has been behaving herself more with just Sarah. Sarah doesn’t stand for any nonsense, whereas I am much too soft.
Although I am frustrated about having to wait to get in the caravan I am enjoying myself tremendously now my girls are also happy.
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