Living in Spain - get your mittens on!

Get your mittens on!

We are in Spain, Javea or Xabia. Why has it got two names? Javea is the Spanish, Xabia is the Valencian local dialect.

The city has an astonishing 50% non locals but you can spot the locals by their mittens and furry boots! It's only 19 degrees here and a bit windy too so they are in winter clothes next to the tourists and expatriates of various places in their summer dresses!

The mountain that dominates the view is El Montgo but so far it shows no signs of going anywhere. People have lived up there since prehistoric times.

Benedorm is near here and you can get a bus if you fancy some people trafficking or prostitution! We will give it a miss. Ibiza is so close you can see it on a clear day. I've heard that despite it's club land reputation much of it is unspoiled and lovely. We are planning the four hour boat ride. My daughter will love that, she loves boats and the sea.

My kids love it here, beach, beach, beach and more beach. It's taking all my will power to do some homeschool when I want to spend all day on the beach too! The Spanish look on, shaking their wooly hats on their heads - crazy tourists on the beach in November.

The fun thing about going somewhere new is that even mundane things like going to the supermarket become mini adventures "What might be in this packet labeled all in Spanish?" "What is this crazy looking thing?" Tim bought an amazing looking fruit and we were all excited to try it, it tasted like slightly too dry apple with the addition of many huge, very hard inedible seeds! So not a huge success! However the strange melon we bought was amazing!

The city seems half empty to me, (I'm used to rammed Sussex) and very spread out, what is all this land for? between buildings? between the cycle paths and the road? beside the car park...? The answer is nothing, it's just space, land is not at a premium here.

The city also is half empty for winter. People own flats here and only stay part of the year, many apartments in our building are empty, that always saddens me, so much wealth in the world and so much poverty.

The cycle paths I mentioned are everywhere and often tree lined! We want bikes to wiz along the front to harbour or sandy beach. We are looking in the second hand shops.

We are flying back for two weeks at christmas if anyone wants to see us. We will be emptying our stuff from the broken van and selling it for scrap and freezing because of acclimatisation...so a pretty depressing christmas plan! 😂

I wrote, was it really only a week ago? That I may have led my little family down a blind alley...well this beautiful sea was at the end of it! Perhaps a little crazy courage and a leap for change is not so dangerous after all!

Europe by campervan - what now???

Europe in a campervan.

So what happened and what will we do now?

Well the Campervan was worth about £4,000 and expected to make it around the France, Spain and Portugal. The transmission now needs replacing and a piston is not working properly. The bill just for the transmission is €4,000 so it's not worth fixing. The piston not working could also mean a new engine!

Thank goodness the breakdown cover will pay to ship it home. The broken camper is currently stored in Pissy poo-vile, in France, I didn't make that address up!! So I let my kids watch so much screen time while I got that van ready that my son started calling me "Mummy Pig" from Peppa Pig and now it's bust!

Its going to my mum's street and we will have to ask her to take out our gear then we can sell it "spares or repairs", someone fixing an old Chevy can use it, good buy Sparkle.

What will we do? The short answer is live in Spain! My friend has given us her flat while she is away. There is something we are doing to help her - it's a great two-way arrangement, but as she didn't mention it on facebook, nor will I. Suffice to say we are not living on charity.

We have agreed to be here until June. We will see Spanish summer too.

We need to save, keep paying debt, homeschool and MAKE A NEW PLAN!!! I have not given up on touring this peninsula seeing everything.

Living here will also present problems we have not had to deal with before. Firstly we all need to learn some Spanish, but what will we do when someone is sick, buying unusual things...

If my friends are interested I could still blog about the challenges and joys of learning to live in Spain?

Secondly once my poor husband gets a minute (he has somehow managed to keep tutoring on Skype throughout this crazy time) we will make a new plan.

I am open to ideas and input from my friends, as long as they don't involve towing a caravan! What a terrifying idea! We don't want to pay for hotels, or even camp sites every night, so some sort of van that can use the Airs  makes the trip less so so so much cheaper. What could I get? What would we need to save? Who could source a good one that might not break!??

We are all enjoying our time here. We are happy.

Thank you again to all my friends for the floods of love, help and support. ️Xxxxxxxxxxxx 

Europe by campervan, not anymore!

Europe by campervan.

Well not any more.

The van that cost more than £1,000 a night to sleep in for three nights! Argh!!

It's official the bill to fix the van is approximately the same as we paid for her. Both the garages that recently did work are not to blame, the guy who sold it to me is not to blame, it was just bad luck, it could have gone for years, it didn't.

All day on the phone to insurance and grange and UK family.

We are not going to tour Europe in a camper - at least not just now - but we are going to live in Spain until June, after that there is no plan as yet.

We had to snatch some stuff from the camper as they stood over us waiting to load it on a truck to go to "Engleter" where we have to sell it for parts! But we are flying to Spain, via Paris to live till June.

So we did launch!

We will avoid English winter!

We are worldschoolers!

However the camper was a financial disaster. Good and bad!

Thank you so so so much for all the support!!! Amazing!!!!

This is really happening!!

Europe in a campervan!

They did it! A girl who's dolls house collection used to be literally findable on Google maps, and the man who’s CD collection affected the magnetic field of the earth, have got rid of enough stuff to live in a van! We'll only the first part is true, my husband still has his CD’s just in someone's loft! My husband no longer has a tent full of stuff that I put up in my mum's back garden as an act of desperation a month ago when we came to live on the floor still not having sorted it all!

The ferry is booked, the bike rack is fitted, we have grabbed the money stashed for birthdays or in hiding places to buy all the camping gear and storage boxes. This thing is real!

I'm sure it's a good idea, I just keep noticing how much running water we use, or thinking, what if the weather gets really bad on the way down? Well we should go, here is why from one of my hero's:  “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”― Mark Twain

I wrote this list a couple of years ago when I first started planning to live in a van and travel, let's see how reality measures up!!!

Reasons to get rid of our stuff, make our jobs portable, and explore Europe in a camper!

Meet new people.
More ocean in my life.
More mountains.
More time outside.
Draw and paint from life.
Learn new skills.
Learn languages.
Inspiration from new stimulus.
Teach my kids to be self reliant.
Educate my kids with doing and looking, not just listening and writing down.
Spend less than we make.
Less cooking (a little).
Less cleaning.
Less to regret missing when old.
Stay active/ fit.
Be more like my heroes.
Get out of repetitive lifestyle.
Quality time with my family.
The kids spend lots of time away from screens and wifi.
We collect adventures not clutter.
Easier to more fresh fruit and vegetables, salad and fish.
Shed middle class suburban ideas that are holding us back in our comfort zone.

Also from Mark Twain, this sums up what I most want my children to get out of it.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

Love and hugs to all our lovely friends and family. It's just a little trip till April, then...we will see…

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!

Europe by motorhome, we may need a different van!

I'm gutted, My motorhome has to go. We called her “Winter” after the dolphin that still swims eagerly with a prosthetic tail. Becuse it's got 16 dolphin stickers on it! You can watch Winter the dolphin live on webcam cam here:

https://www.seewinter.com/animals/webcams/winter-zone-cam-1/

Turns out the tail is a little too prosthetic for us! It has some rotten wood at the back which needs replacing and it's too much work for us as we need to go soon, before real winter comes and finds us homeless!

Fortunately the camper garage experts also say she's worth £5,000 even needing a little work, so I have definitely not wasted Tim’s money.

But we put heart and soul into her and we have now to find a newer van and get that all checked out! Also it's two weeks till we are homeless so we are probably going to have to camp on my mum's floor while we van shop! I keep going back and forth on sell or not to sell.

Also it turns out that the law has changed, and despite what you will read on line you cannot add seatbelts or seatbelted seats to a vehicle built without them and then get a UK MOT. I have it straight from the camper garage, so we have to get a van which was built with four seatbelts. Winter will be wonderful for a couple who can both be in the front.

So I need to;

Empty and clean my house by the 9th!

Sell Winter (the motorhome).

Find and buy a newer motorhome (automatic with four seatbelts).

Continue to parent a 9 year old and a 2 year old.

Move out and live on the floor!

So it's all pretty glamorous here at the moment.

Campervan: doing things I didn't know I could!

My current art form: campervan, or doing things I didn't know I could!

So we bought a motorhome (29 year old Mercedes) to travel Europe for a couple of years.

I've been weeping on poor Tim because I attacked all the damp wood with a claw hammer and then found the mess a bit overwhelming (classic Kirsteen, if I'm honest, throw yourself off to see if it's too high). Also my wonderful step dad paid for a service, but they were so disparaging about the rust, oil leak, tyres, pipes… that I've been going around expecting a wheel to fall off ever since! But we borrowed our neighbor's ladder and Tim helped me and I attacked the front of the van with a serious amount of sealant. It now looks like it lost a snowball fight with a mad artist but it's raining hard out there and my VAN IS NOT LEAKING!!! YAY!!!

Also I took out the great big seats myself, they are no good in a crash (which I won't be having) so we want to replace them with proper bus seats with seatbelts! I thought it was a job for a garage, but Tim sat on one and we ran over a bump and it collapsed! Yay! 30 minutes with a screwdriver and they are on the drive under a tarp!

Tim is referring to the camper as “My current art form” because any time Dylan sleeps and Jasmine is at a friend's house, I race out there and put new locks on cupboards, fix light fittings, lay flooring… but I think I've figured out what my current art form is, it's doing things I didn't know I could! Like driving it, let's hope that applies to driving it onto the ferry and down through France, Spain and another ferry to Morocco! You see we have a plan now, so it has an oil leak, so it's got so much rust it might not pass another MOT, well we are going to take it to Morocco and get LOTS of work done cheap! I'm calling it Moroccan Motorhome Makeover! Perhaps if their is money left we can have exotic carpets, curtains…

Here are some pictures of the huge seats I took out, and the huge can I drove, looking better!