Adventures: Change of idea: I love driving my van and it works perfectly!

Adventures: Change of idea: I love driving my van and it works perfectly! It's easy and fun to drive and nothing is wrong with it...

I had a bit of an annoying two days. I feel a bit like Huck Finn after he touched a snake skin, although I don't really believe in bad luck. And I should add I have not found any dead blokes or silver dollars.

Yesterday someone scratched a word on my van and all down the sides too, but the lovely man next door got it off with some tcut. Then today I was driving Jasmine to her friends house when there was a massive bang and my driver side window smashed itself to tiny bits and showered glass all over me. I admit, I literally screamed! Like a stupid blond in a B Horror film. Then I pulled over, talked calmly to my daughter, brushed off the glass and drove my daughter to her destination, drove home and cried from delayed shock! So I guess I messed up when I told my friends, "can I stop driving now?" Please wish me lots of safe successful driving to fun places I intended to be! Thank you!

The window is all fixed now and it's looking better inside. I've been working.

In five days it's my birthday, I will be 41, and I'm ether "sleeping on my stepdad's floor at 41 with all my family and a total wash out in life" or  "shedding all the complexity and going after the truly worthwhile" depending on how you spin it and if I've had my coffee or not! You can make up your own mind. 😂🚐

Living in Spain: pirates, salvage and ice-cream!

Living in Spain: What Can we salvage from our Chevy? And history with ice cream!

So the broken Chevy arrived in England today. Dumped outside my mum and stepdad's house by a huge truck. My mum was quick thinking enough to film the unloading so at least my two year old was happy!

The classic car garage in Rouen quoted £4,000 to replace the transmission unit but you can get them reconditioned on eBay for £400. There may also be something wrong with a piston but even that could be fixed according to our mechanic friend in Spain (who we made two days too late to ship the van here!). We need to catch a break with this van as it is ALL our savings.

It has lots of good points. Low milage, undersealed against rust, five new tyres and two new batteries (normal one and one to run laptops, kettle etc.) clearly a huge part of the quote is labour. So if someone wanted to fix it themselves, (not us we don't have the skill set) they could get a great van cheap. Do any of my friends know anyone interested? Or even know what I can charge for it broken? Any advice is welcome?

On another topic, back in Javea, I keep thinking about the fact people have lived here since pre-history. All the beautiful greenery around here is kept alive by black water pipes that loop round every tree. The palms don't grow in the sand like that without them. So when people first came here it must have been a brutal, baked place. Broken red earth and caucus plants, scraping salty rocks to find something alive to live on. Today it is raining. Those people from pre-history would have willingly handed over the last of the dried lizard meat to the gods for such a gift! English kids will be familiar with a day off for snow, Scottish kids will be familiar with wishing they got one, some kids here got a day off for rain! (I have been corrected, power cuts as a result of rain).

Even when the people here developed farming and irrigation their existence was still tough, pirates so molested the town by the sea, that the townspeople got together and had a meeting, where they all sounded like the villagers in computer games; "hrmm! humph! hrmm" as a result of the meeting they packed up the whole town and moved it two miles up hill, and inland, and built a wall around it! Me and my kids have done the "attacking pirate walk" up the hill to the old town and my nine year old will tell you, the last thing you want to do when you make it to the top is fight anyone, even if they are not behind a meter thick wall, ice cream is in fact the only way to recover! Please note: you may want to check a few dates and such if you are planning to repeat my history lesson in an exam - also don't say anything about computer games!

I have been teaching my kids to make rubbings and have included a rubbing of the city's coat of arms. We got it off a drain cover! Although it can also be seen on the court house wall. Also a shot of part of the wall that still remains in the old town and the face my daughter makes to any pirates that might survive the climb! Towns people 10, pirates 0!

Mountains from the balcony.

I'm creating a drawing a day, for two years, just for the art of it (only 43 days remaining!)
Today's (and yesterday's) are the mountains from my balcony.
The close one is El Montgo, 753 meters high, 2,470 feet. That means it's not really a mountain in Scotland, mostly Scottish people only classify it as a mountain if it's over 3,000 feet, a Munro (after the climber who first listed them). There is a crazy sport in Scotland where you run up and down three Munros in the SAME DAY, as if tossing trees around was not a hardcore enough sport! I'm not planning on running up the Montgo, even if it is just a hill. The way it goes straight up from almost sea level would make it a brutal climb, and I don't think there are streams up there so you would have to carry a lot of water.

The mountain range in the distance is the Sistemas Prebeticos. We flew over them on the way down. I'm pretty sure some of them are the real thing!

I'm afraid I have completely lost track of where the art blogging ends and the travel blogging begins, hopefully my friends are interested in both. :)

#drawingadayclub

#createadrawingadayforhumanrights
http://www.youthforhumanrights.org

What are you doing still here? Europe in a campervan.

I'm taking my family to France, Spain and Portugal this winter in a classic Chevy van. For adventure, to break out of suburban middle class thinking, to learn languages, to experience culture, and to escape the rain - mostly the last bit!

I'm still here, however, getting rained on! We are becoming professional at waiting for garages to do work! All British people are already professional at getting rained on! We finally got a service and an oil change but the breaks need work, I'm thinking we might need them! We might leave on the the 1st or we might not!

I keep meeting friends who greet me with “What are you still doing here?” “I thought you had gone?” And even “I can't wait for you to go!” Then they realise what they have said and frantically try to dig themselves back out, “Oh! I do like you of course…” it's ok, I understand.

The people who bought our previous camper and then said it's not their van, when it broke down, have reached an all time high on their reaction, they actually lied to the DVLA and forged my signature on a government document!! Fortunately the DVLA were on the ball and sent me a form asking if I really did want to transfer ownership back to me! They (the DVLA) won't discuss if they are taking action but they will keep all evidence. The police gave me a leaflet to report fraud. Tim also got a nasty letter from the buyers, and some calls to go on a lurid TV program and fight about it in public! We said no!!! If they do anything else I'm going to open a fraud investigation and perhaps even press charges! I'm not a vindictive person, but the threats have been horrible, so It's quite comforting to know I now have them by the private parts if they give us more abuse! I wonder if they will Google me and read my blog!!? It sort of cramps my writing style so I try to assume they won't.

I've discovered that the little Chevy cars you see everywhere are called a Chevrolet Spark!! Can you believe my daughter called our big Chevy Van “Sparkle” without knowing that? It all makes sense to me now. I've been showing her the A team van and theme on u tube, hopefully she won't now think I can jump six police cars at a time in our van!

We have got rid of all our stuff except a plastic set of drawers each. Each of my kids has two drawers of clothes and two of toys. Three pairs of shoes each…

Today I put everything in the van and it does fit, just!!! It's going to be like living in one of my daughter's dolls houses (now given to friends) without being doll sized! However if we can cope with so little space, we gain all the space, if we can cope with owning so little, we can “own” Europe...  We have been getting rid of stuff for weeks then sudden shopping spree; all week I've been getting boxes, they contain things like the extra car battery (now fitted and ready to run all our devices without flattening the main battery), a cool box, a roof bag and a potty. For the first time in my life I have a pot to piss in!

We are really, really, really, nearly ready. If you see me you can say “I know why you are still here!” I think it sounds sinister, perfect for Halloween!!!

The pictures are us “test camping” at a Brit stop; a campervan only free stopover that you can sign up for and get a book of. It's about £35 for the book, which is your membership, then you can park safely and free all over the country in pub car parks, vineyards, Mannie houses… it's a brilliant idea. You can't bring caravans, or tents and you can't set up furniture or awnings, just sleep and perhaps have wifi, fresh water or some facilities.

On our test camping we learned; don't set off when it's already dark and be looking for turn offs to some tiny country manor house in pitch black except for the angry local driver up your bum because he knows all the bends and wants to go fast!! But on the upside the view was a complete morning surprise!

Also a picture of our “Pot to piss in!” and trying to fit everything in! Heaven help me on that!