Its all in the timing

Im in my second to last year of doing a BSc Psychology degree with the Open University.  For anyone who doesnt know about the OU, this is a university which offers a selection of courses which can be done remotely.  I get textbooks in the post, and everything else I need is online.  I decided to do my degree with the OU for a number or reasons, one of the main ones being cost.

If I had gone to "regular" university, I would have spent £3000 for 3 years on tuition fees, plus all my accommodation and food costs on top of that.  At best I would probably have been able to work about 3 shifts a week in a minimum wage job.  I would most likely have walked away at least £15 000 in debt.

So...I chose the OU way.  I chose to work full time in a well-paid job (that I never should have been given, but thats a different story!) so it will take 4.5 years to complete my degree.  I walk out with the same British Psychology Society recognised qualification which would enable me to work in the industry.  I have lived at home for most of my course so my living costs have been negligible.  Im not entirely sure on the exact figures for my tuition fees, but it will probably total around £5000.  I will walk away with around £40 000 in savings.  My choice to do a degree with the OU was the foundation of my ability to consider making my travel dreams a (not too difficult) reality.

Wow.  Way to make a good choice Anna.  Wrong.  It wasnt a good choice.  It was a poorly thought out choice.  Lucky for me, I just happened to make that choice in the right place at the right time.  I learnt today that the OU are putting up their course fees (along with every other university in the country).  This wont affect me but for new students their tuition fees for an undergraduate OU degree will now total £15 000.  

OK so this is still not at the level of "regular" universities - who are putting tuition fees up to something crazy like £8000 a year (thats £24 000 on tuition fees alone, before you even consider living costs!), but it has certainly significantly narrowed the gap.  And honestly, aside from textbooks, someone who marks my essays and a room to take an exam in, the OU doesnt exactly give me much input.  No way is that worth £5000 a year!

So yeah, I found the perfect loophole in the system, in the perfect time, in the perfect place for me.  It was all in the timing.  So much of life seems to be like this, our chances are bound up with the fleeting moments in which they are available.

Life, it would seem, is all in the timing.

These are the days...

These are the days that I will remember all my life.

Summer days with the kiss of sunlight on skin.

Days spent with my Mum on Lake Ullswater kayaking.

Memories of moody blue skies and water that will merge imperceptibly together with time just like the lines between water and sky.

Perfect memories of an imperfect world, of days when simply being alive was more than enough to satisfy, what more can we ever ask of this life?

Gap Year resources

When I was doing my A-Levels my school had lots of leaflets and resources available to us from companies who organise gap year projects.  "Great!" we all thought, and some people signed up for such projects.  Teaching in India, trekking in the Andes, conservation projects in Borneo - awesome experiences.  

I am not trying to suggest getting involved in those companies are a "bad" idea - they are great projects, you get a bit more support and peace of mind knowing that in theory someone is responsible for you, and I would like to think they only take on projects which have decent ethics and sustainability.  

But in reality, a lot of them are far from the cheapest option.  The people I knew who went on organised trips ended up working at least half of their gap year in some dead end boring job here in order to finance it.  To me - you want to be spending as much of your gap year as is humanly possible actually out there having fun!  After all, it might the only chance in your whole life you get to experience that kind of freedom.  

Companies like this seem to charge at least £1000 for a 2 week project, though they do seem to be better value if you go for a lot longer. But there are in fact a lot of far far cheaper, or even free options out there.  Here are some of the resources I have either used, or intend to use on my future travels.

Project options (Im sure there are loads more sites like these out there...get looking!)

Workaway

Se7en

WWOOF

HelpX

Camp America ... read more about my experience here

CCUSA

Accommodation options

Hostel World

Hostel Bookers

Couchsurfing

I spent 7 months travelling on my gap year...and I spent less than £4000 including flights.  And if I had wanted to, I could probably have done just as much fun stuff for half the price if I had chosen cheaper countries and spent more time doing voluntary work.

Camp America...such fun!

So the moral of the story is, dont just blindly trust that the options you are given at school are necessarily the "only" options...or even the "best".  You have the freedom to completely choose your own path, probably for the first time in your life.  Use it wisely!

When every breath is precious

Sally is my love.  She is beyond precious.  I know she is "just a dog", I respect her as a wolf-sister, and I dont treat her as if she were human.  But she is my love above and beyond all others.  I dont expect anyone who has never owned a dog to understand.  She is worth the world to me.  No human has ever, will ever, or could ever give me the kind of love she offers.

There is never a judgement, never an angry thought, never a let-down, never a betrayal, never even indifference.  She is simply incapable of anything but sweet dependence.  I know she doesnt love me as a conscious decision, nor out of some noble inner goodness.  It is simply how she has evolved, how she has been bred, how she has been taught to behave.  But that doesnt matter.  Her love is enough.  She is enough.  Although she is not beautiful, nor intelligent, nor valuable, she is enough.  When she pushes her head into my chest when I hug her, hides her eyes from the world in the safety of my arms, that is more love than my heart can hold.

But she is so mortal.  I watch her slowly ageing, track each grey hair, each stiff stretch in the morning, and it terrifies me.  The thought of life without her makes me cry every single time it crosses my mind.  Just writing it down brings tears to my eyes.  She is my best friend, my comfort and my joy.  She is the reason I get out of bed each morning.  The bond we have is unbreakable, trying to verbalise my love for her makes me feel as if my very soul is being torn in two.  And yet she will not be here forever.

At night she sleeps on my bed.  I wrap myself around her in the dark, she relaxes and begins to dream.  I lie awake, feeling her heart beating through her warm fur, listening to her breathe, feeling her ribcage rise and fall with every precious breath.  Every breath, every heartbeat, every moment, I try to engrave into my consciousness to sustain me for the future.

When every breath is precious, love is heartbreak.

Strangers in the moment

Royal Crescent, Bath

I love it when a total stranger makes my day.

I was driving down to Bath, it was my birthday, it was way too hot in the car.  I had just stopped at a service station on the M6 and I was about to pull back out onto the motorway, when I saw him.  A hitchhiker.  Early forties, tall, tanned, floppy sun-bleached hair and less baggage than most people would take on a trip to the supermarket.  He looked like he belonged on an Aussie beach not hitching his way out of a dingy service station.

As a girl on my own, there is always the mental calculation of "Is this person a rapist...murderer...car thief" to be gone through before picking up a hitchhiker.  All to be done at lightning speed before you have driven past the hitchhiker.  No-one has ever failed my calculation, and I have yet to pick up anyone who was either a rapist, murderer or a car thief.  Although sometimes I have taken so long to make the decision that I have then had to turn around to go back for the hitchhiker!

So I picked him up, his name was Ben.  He was an ex-pat who renovated property in France (hence the tan), he had also lived in Hong Kong and various other awesome places.  He was also in the process of looking for a van to buy to take back to France with him to convert into a camper.  I literally would have created an identical person if I was in the business of genetically engineering myself a random car journey companion.

Between the combination of our rather sketchy knowledge of English Geography, my sat nav and a few phonecalls to his sister, we worked out that my destination of Bath was only about 20 miles away from where he was trying to get to.  Pretty perfect for him really!  

So we drove and chatted for hours.  He was charming, funny, interesting, sweet and full of great stories and useful advice.  We swapped life stories, travel tips and van dreams.  I was genuinely sad to see him go when I dropped him off in the centre of Bath.  

I didnt get his number, his email address, or even his second name.  I will never see him again.  But that doesnt matter.  He was the perfect stranger.  He made my day.

Slipping

Me in Bath...summer school was awesome!

Im back from my Open University summer school in Bath now - had a great time.  Just had a 14 hour sleep (yes...fourteen) to catch up on some serious sleep deprivation due to rubbish university accommodation and too much fun.

However, this trip, and my recent trip to Turkey and Greece, have got me thinking about how certain elements of my life on the road are most definitely not sustainable long term.  As my master plan is to embark on long term travel, I really need to get these issues resolved before I go.

Beautiful Bath

1. Diet.  At home I eat super healthily - when Im on the road I eat pretty much anything that is offered to me.  While Im great at not buying rubbish food from supermarkets at home, when Im away I eat food that I would never dream of eating at home.  And so much of it!
2. Skincare.  I have badly behaved skin, so it is really important that I look after it.  This is partly linked in to item one as my skin likes me to eat well.  But it also involves taking the time to cleanse it properly, do face masks, exfoliate etc etc.  It will forgive my abuse for a couple of weeks...but over a longer time period I need to get this sorted.
3. Exercise.  At home my workout schedule is pretty much sorted and I am very good at committing to it. On the road...not a chance.  Im not that keen on doing yoga or situps and stuff in front of other people, it can also be hard to find a suitable surface to do things on.  But I rapidly start to notice the difference when I dont work out daily - and its not a great difference.
4. General girl stuff.  All the normal stuff like doing my nails, shaving my legs, taking makeup off at night, taking vitamins, plucking my eyebrows etc just slowly start to slip... until by the end of a few weeks I do kind of start to look as if I lived under a bush.  Not great.  Especially as I would like to find my future husband out there one day!

The not-so-beautiful Bath university campus

 I guess everyone has things which slip when they are outside their usual schedule, but I know that nailing these sustainability issues will make my long term travel experience a lot easier and help me transition into a nomadic life without losing myself along the way.

Im from Camp Sonshine

www.campsonshine.org

Game time!

In 2007, having always wanted to visit America, I participated in the Camp America program.  This is a company which matches you up with an American summer camp, pays for your flights, helps you out with your visas and stuff...and its almost free!  You pay for your visa and police check, and they get to keep the majority (but not all) of your wages from camp.  So basically you get about 3 months in America for free!  And as you have a working visa - you will probably have a couple more months after camp which you can spend doing whatever you like in America.

Getting dirty

 I would recommend this to anyone.  Its not easy, I can honestly say that camp was the hardest thing I have ever done - and I was only at a day camp so I wasnt even on site 24h a day.  But if you get placed at the right camp for you, in the right role for you, it is just the best experience.  I was part of the Wilderness program of a Christian camp in Maryland called Camp Sonshine, with groups of 10 - 11 year old girls.  We ran wild in the woods, built fires, went on awesome trips, did great outdoor activities and just had so much fun!  8 weeks of 6am starts and 14 hour days forced my 18 year old mind and body into new levels of endurance and maturity.  I learnt how to push through exhaustion, smile when all I wanted to do was cry, run in 40 degree heat, and love more than I ever had before.

Me and my girls

The kids were great, I still miss them.  The camp staff were so incredible, I made lifelong friends there.  I had never lived amongst a group of Christians before - it was an unforgettable privilege.  Everyone loved my "accent" and constantly asked me to pronounce words for them.  I vividly remember talking to one girl camper about how far I had travelled to get to Maryland, when she looked at me with wide beautiful blue eyes and said "You must really love us".  That's the moment when I realised that I was touching the lives of these children forever.  My heart broke right there.

Wildernesssssssssssssssssss!!!!

I didnt think being a camp counselor would be even half as hard as it was.  But neither did I anticipate how rewarding it would be.  And now...I dont remember the bug bites, the poison ivy wounds, the knife cuts from making bows & arrows that I still have scars from, the heat or the exhaustion.  All I remember is the love.

Thank you Camp Sonshine

If you ever read one book...make it THIS one

I read it for the first time when I was seventeen.  This book changed my life.  This book shaped my mind. This book guides my heart.  This book guards my soul.

It is elegantly simple, innocently human and just absolutely wow.  I can honestly say that there is line after line, paragraph after paragraph, chapter after chapter that made me stop and completely re-evaluate my life.

This is the gift I give to those I love the most, to those who are hurting and turn to me for help, to those who need guidance in this life, to those who love life.  Rich or poor, adult or child, Christian or non-Christian, hardened cynic or gullible innocent, there are levels of this book that will appeal to anyone.

It is the perfect image of how our relationship with this tattered imperfect world should be.  It is an infinitely purer image of how faith should be than any thousands of years of religion has produced.  It is the wisdom of a child.  An amazing child.  A human child.  Anna.

I urge you - if you ever buy one book again in your life, if you ever borrow one book from a library again in your life, make it this one.  It is life-changing.  It doesnt preach, it doesnt lecture, it is genuinely perfection.  It is love in book form.

And yes, it makes it all the better that my beautiful mother chose to name me Anna because she too had fallen in love with this book, with this child.  She hoped that her redheaded child would at the very least share the love of life her redheaded namesake possessed.

I love sharing my name with Anna.  This book transformed me.  Read it.  I beg you.

This week I'm loving...

1. Scheduled posts!  Ive totally just discovered these when I was writing my recent book review of My Exile Lifestyle...and man do they make blogging life good.  I think they massively increase my writing quality - I do always proof read for spelling and grammar, but with a scheduled post I come back the next day and proof read for ideas as well.  Also if I have already written a scheduled post for the second half of the week - theres none of that "Aargh I need to write!" panic.  And best of all, when Im not around to write (like next week when on my university summer school) - I can relax safe in the knowledge that my posts for that week are already written!  I can see me using this feature a LOT when I am travelling.
2. Baby badgers!  Stopped on my home from work today to watch a baby badger snuffling around in a field.  Broad daylight, maybe 10 metres away from me, not a care in the world. Awwwwwwwwwwwww.  I love Cumbria.
3. Summer school! Yay for 10 hour research days and visiting one of the most beautiful cities in England - Bath.  Looking forward to meeting lots of new people.
4. Gratuitous Sally pictures.  As she is ageing her mortality terrifies me more and more...but her Einstein-style eyebrows are super cute!

Dog days

Summer is lavender picking time!

I am delighting in summer.  These are the days I am madly in love with England and with life.  The land throbs with life and colour and basks under the watery sun stretching itself across the glowing blue sky.

I just love it so.  Picnics in the garden, taking the dogs swimming in the river, soaking my skin in the sun's rays.  Mmm heaven.

Floss doesnt think much of gathering lavender

Today I learnt that yoga is about ten times better outside!  Cant think why I didnt think of this before, but its great!  Its just so much easier to reach that calmed, connected, centred state when you are merging your consciousness with the birdsong and the wind in the trees.  And the feeling of your feet and hands grounded into the soft warm grass is just delightful, suddenly the fact that you are merely an extension of the earth and inextricably bound into the slow spinning passage through time and space becomes blindingly obvious and perfectly satisfying.

Perfect and sweet smelling decorations

If English summers were always like this, instead of the odd pearl of a floating in a sea of grey and rain, then I might even consider staying here.  I know its crazy that I am basing my life plan on the weather...but I just love summer...

My Exile Lifestyle Book Review

Colin of Exile Lifestyle's new book is out today!  I was privileged enough to get my hands on a pre-launch copy as I am one of Colin's trusted inner circle of gurus and confidantes (not really...I'm just on his mailing list).  Having been a fan of Colin's excellent blog for a while, I was keen to get my hands on his latest offering.  And at $2.99 (less than £2)...I thought....why not!  I think his plan to price this book low is a great idea, I am always really reluctant to part with more than £5 for some unknown book.  Doubts like "what if its only 20 pages long?"..."what if its all pictures?"..."what if its utter rubbish?" creep in and stop me from parting with my hard earned cash.  But £2?  Thats's like buying Colin a coffee, and a cheap coffee at that!  And yeah, I would be happy to buy Colin a coffee for the chance to have a chat with him about his awesome life, so I bought the book.

And I wasnt disappointed.  I got 168 pages of new and interesting stories, musings and insights from a person whose lifestyle and attitudes inspire and encourage me in my own "alternative" dreams.  This is a book about Colin and his life, it doesnt directly "teach" or explain "how to" do anything, and it isnt really about business.  It is more like a month's worth of coffees with Colin - these are the answers to the questions you would ask him, the stories he would tell and the conversations you would have!  

Colin is an American nomad...he moves to a new country every 4 months - which is chosen by the readers of his blog!  How awesome is that!  In between all his international travel adventures he manages to find time to run a branding studio, an independent publishing company and various other projects.  This committed enthusiasm to life and all it holds is definitely reflected in his new book.

There are stories about journeys, places, people, events, relationships, moments in time.  And even the odd "aha" moment like...

"Every finish line is a horizon, not an ending."

There are musings on life, love, travel and self.  Insights into who Colin is and why he has chosen the path he has.

And to me, that is really satisfying. By necessity, blogs offer a snapshot into someone's life without often exposing their thought processes, their insecurities, their humanity.  This book takes the Colin from Exile Lifestyle and expands him in your imagination into a more rounded and real person.  It feels like getting to know a new friend.  I like that.

My only criticism would be...there arent enough pictures.  I like pictures - although I appreciate that for less than the price of a coffee Im not going to get a load of unique images.  But Colin is a super talented designer - and he even has his own T-shirt store, so I would have loved to see some of his artwork in there.  And yeah, I admit it, he is pretty cute, so some more gratuitous Colin pictures wouldnt have gone amiss!

If you have never visited Exile Lifestyle, I really recommend you do.  Check out the archives, photo galleries, fall in love with Colin (as in his lifestyle, vision and writing, not literally...that would be weird and stalkerish).  And if you like what you see on there, I guarantee you will love the new My Exile Lifestyle book.

The scent of self-indulgence fills the air

Sally's opinion on working out

I am proud of my workout routine.  It has taken me almost 3 years to build myself up to this level of commitment, but now Im at the point where I actually want to exercise.

This is my weekly exercise regime - 

• 50 minutes swimming (breaststroke of course...dont like to get my hair wet!)
• At least 5 hours walking Sally (for the record my dog gets way more exercise than this per week - mum has her when Im at work)
• 700 stomach crunches (more if Im feeling energetic!)
• 1.5 hours yoga
• 1 hour weights (I use 1.5kg arm weights...Im no bodybuilder!)

And yeah I am proud of this.  It makes me feel good, and I am definitely the strongest and most flexible I have ever been.  I recommend increasing the amount of exercise you do to anyone, it is incredibly good for you and helps to counteract the negative effects of our modern lifestyles.  Research even shows that it can be as good a cure for depression as taking antidepressants.

I also watch what I eat, lots of fruit & veggies, lots of fish and lean meat, minimal carbs.  I drink loads of water and herbal teas, and hardly any alcohol (I know...boring right!).  I weigh less than 120 lbs...and yet....and YET...my body still doesnt look like the girls on tv!

I remember once in my mid teens when I was hanging out at my local outdoor pool where I used to volunteer in the shop.  It was a sunny day but the pool was empty as usual, and the lifeguard and I were sat outside sunbathing in our bikinis.  I can clearly remember comparing her stomach to mine and thinking to myself how lucky I was to have my teenage flat stomach stretched tight like a drumskin...and wondering why anyone would let their bodies change.  She wasnt fat at all...just human.  Her stomach looked like soft dough, not like the taut flat airbrushed photo-perfect image we are encultured into believing is normal.

And you know what, despite my 700 crunches a week - neither does mine.  And I think 700 crunches is a lot! What kind of fanatical dedication would it take to reach the standards that we are told to believe is "normal"? What kind of world do we live in - which teaches us to look upon religious, educational, sporting, political and most other kinds of fanaticism at best as an achievement for the minority and more often as something dangerous to be discouraged at any cost.  Fanaticism is not a concept we associate with normality.  But when it comes to physical beauty, nothing short of fanaticism is required just to be considered normal! What! Why! Thats crazy.  Yes its crazy and illogical, but its worse than that.  It is psychologically and physically damaging to our children, to our women, to ourselves.

Its one of my pet hates against Western culture.  I have vowed many a time that if I ever have a daughter, I refuse to bring her up in a culture that assesses her value based primarily on her youth and her appearance.

Rant over, time to go do some more stomach crunches.  Aah sweet hypocrisy.

Going backwards...or how to buy a campervan cooker

So I was all psyched up to write a super post about the shiny new cooker I had ordered for my van, why I chose it and what options there are.  But...then I realised that its actually been 2 weeks since I ordered it...and it hasnt arrived.  After a bit of a hunt around on Ebay I found that the seller I bought it from is no longer registered on Ebay.  I dont think this is a good sign.  But I have raised a Resolution Centre Case on Ebay and sent the seller a nice email after finding their email address via PayPal.  So we will see what happens.  Hopefully I will get my money back...although I really want my cooker! Sigh.

On to a slightly deflated cooker post.  One of the requirements to get the van recategorised as a motorhome (which is good because it makes tax and insurance cheaper) is having a permanently fixed in cooker.

Smev hob

I would have loved to get a proper caravan cooker that embeds into the top of the unit, because they look super smart and neat, the controls are on top, theres no rattling around, they are easier to fit and they are also way smaller than free-standing camping cookers.  The best ones out there seem to be Smev...check out these little babies!

 HOWEVER, these things are expensive!  Even second hand on Ebay they are almost £100, and the new ones are even worse!  So despite how perfectly sized they are, and how awesome they would look in my van, I decided I really couldnt justify spending £50 more on a second hand caravan cooker than I could spend on a brand new camping cooker.

Gelert Economy Double Burner

So after much search to find the smallest camping cooker I could find, I settled on this one from Gelert.  I am going to be using Camping Gaz with my cooker (the other options are butane or propane) - as this is apparently the only type of gas you can get with standard sized connectors across Europe (crazy huh!).  If the gas bottle doesnt have a connector which matches what you have fitted - you cant use it.  Pretty much every cooker is compatible with all types of gas, you just have to get the correct fitting pieces so that it will connect to the type of gas you want.

So in my usual search for a bargain, I searched around until I found the best price.  And I found it.  On Ebay.  Sigh.

I would say I had learnt a lesson - but to be honest I have never had any problems before with anything I have purchased on Ebay - so at the moment I am still pretty hopeful that either the money or the cooker will make its way back to me.

Its just frustrating not to have my cooker yet! Ah well...

Aww...I love my Vee Dub

(And the second vehicle in the commercial is just like my van...yay!)

The dog, the girl and the wardrobe

Welcome to my wardrobe! (and yes I am devoting a post to a wardrobe...but you know what...I am super excited about my wardrobe)

I have built up the bottom of my wardrobe so there will be a 30 cm gap between the bottom of the sliding doors and the floor.  It has to have sliding doors because there isnt enough room to have ones that open outwards...eek!  

So the advantage of having doors that dont come down to the floor is that this way I can just stick stuff down in the bottom section there without having to worry about it being secured when Im driving...because it cant fall out when I open the doors.  Awesome! That big old grey boxy thing is the cover of the wheel arch - Im losing so much space to those things but it cant be helped.  Its still better than the really old (and super cute) VWs where the engine is in the rear of the van...imagine how much space you lose then!

Then I am going to have 3 of these brilliant little things inside the wardrobe...

These are great because they are made of fabric so super light compared to shelves, they are also nice and cheap (£7 each from Argos).  Each pocket will fit to the shape of the things inside it a bit and there will be no space wasted between them like there would be with plastic boxes.  Also the pockets will dip down when they are filled so the stuff inside wont slide around.  Stopping things sliding is a totally new consideration when you are planning a van - when you drive, if it can move then it will.  And the last thing you want is stuff breaking or falling out all over the place.

The storage pockets will go onto a rail and then be attached to the back wall to stop them swinging around...something like this...

To make the sliding doors I have ordered some runners for the kind of sliding glass doors you get on terrariums (is that the right word...I mean houses for snakes, lizards and the like).  Into this 3 pieces of 6mm ply will be slotted with finger holes to move them.  There has to be 3 because if there was only 2 it would not be easy to access the central hanging pocket unit.

And that, dear readers, is my wardrobe.  I suspect the world may not share my wardrobe-based excitement!

On the subject of readers, for some unknown reason my site traffic has increased by about 10x in the last couple of weeks.  This is pretty unexpected, Im really only training myself up for writing when I start to travel so I havent even given the link to any of my family and friends yet.  But its awesome, hi guys! I hope you are getting something out of what I write, I'd love to hear from you. Big love.

Bon Iver's new album...available now for your ears!

Bon Iver's new album "Bon Iver" is available now...and you can listen in full for free...here. Yay.  Listening time!

Its beautiful stuff.  And while there is no Skinny Love on here - which in a way is a shame - in another way I think thats a good thing.

I could praise Skinny Love and Bon Iver's earlier work for being written with the kind of passion and emotion that music is supposed to contain.  When music contains passion and emotion of that depth, it becomes so personalised that it can be almost impossible to relate to, impossible to understand.  But that's the way it should be, when you truly write from the heart nothing generic or universal can possibly come out.

So to praise Bon Iver for his individuality and honesty on one hand, then criticise for not producing the same thing time and time again, would be somewhat hypocritical of me.  Yes it is a new direction for him, but I think it honestly reflects his personal changes.  He is in a different place now, and so is his music.  

And it is beautiful.

Furniture fumblings

Me and my oh-so-useful friend (who owns all the useful tools and all the manly expertise that I lack) have been working on the van furniture these last few weeks.

We have just finished making templates of the furniture sides in scrap wood he had lying around.  Templates seemed like a good idea because the shape that is needed has a curved edge to cope with the weird wall shape that apparently VW think its funny to make vans with.  Cue lots of measuring and trimming and reshaping and swearing to get it right!

Cupboard with curved walls!

Anyway we made them fit in the end so it should all be downhill from here.  Next step is to decide where I want any shelves and partitions inside the units, then choose the colour I want to paint them (now that sounds like my kind of job!).  As the floor is black and the walls are carpeted in grey where you cant see the blue van metal I think Im probably going to go for a light green or blue.  Then its just a matter of cutting the plywood (think Im going for 9mm) to the right shape and then fixing it all together! Sorted.  

We are planning to do some neat little shelves on the outside of the units at the rear of the van because otherwise there would be quite a bit of unused space back there as you cant extend the units all the way to the doors.  Sneaking in extra storage like this will make a big difference!

Kitchen unit

Looking forward to posting pictures of the finished units!

newspaper map | 10000+ online newspapers in the world, translate with one click

newspaper map | 10000+ online newspapers in the world, translate with one click

Well this is fun...and it works!

Mmmm Benco!

I am a Benco addict...and proud.  A French guy at work introduced us to Benco...and the entire office is now addicted.

So addicted in fact that one of the guys recently went on a Benco run to France.  Now going on a wine or beer run to France is pretty normal...if you live on the south coast of England. But we live over 600km from France, and this wasnt a wine run.  This was a Benco run. But as you cant buy Benco in the UK...what else could we do!

Benco is kind of like Nesquik, or Milo...or any other kind of chocolate milkshake powder you can buy.  But better! Soooooooooo much better.  And by better I pretty much just mean more addictive. Nom nom nom!

I wish I had been there to see the customs official's face as he inspected my friend's Mini full of Benco as he arrived back into England.  Priceless.

A day in the life of...a dog agility show

This weekend was my dog training club's agility show, so as I have pretty much lived and breathed agility for the last 48 hours...here's a taste of what I have been up to. Ive had a really great weekend! So happy...and SO tired!

5.30 am ... Day visitors rouse themselves and their pack of excitable canines from their sleep to begin the journey to the show

7.00 am ... Weekend campers slowly wake up in their tents and caravans on the showfield as the morning chorus of barking dogs slowly rises up in the clear cool air

 

7.30 am ... The club who is holding the show swarm everywhere like ants, setting up the various show rings.  There are jumps to be moved to set up courses, boxes of snacks for the people who will spend the day helping out on each ring and endless steaming flasks to be filled for thirsty helpers

8.00 am ... The (human) competitors are out walking the agility courses.  These consist of various numbered obstacles.  Dogs must complete each obstacle in the correct way and in numerical order within a given time to get a clear round.

8.15 am ... The judges brief the competitors.  The judge is responsible for deciding whether a dog completes obstacles in the correct manner

8.30 am .... The first dogs are ready on the starting line and the classes begin.  There can be over 200 dogs in a class (they are grouped based on size and ability level), so the "rinse-repeat" flow of dogs through the ring has to be smooth and continuous

9.30 am ... As each class finishes, the course is changed for the next class and walked by the handlers, the presentation of rosettes and trophies occurs for the class which is finished and then the whole process starts off again

12.30 pm ... The rings fall quiet as everyone breaks for lunch

1.30 pm ... And they are off again!  As well as the ability level classes, there are also special classes for junior handlers and for veteran dogs.  The old dogs only get one run a day compared to the 3 - 5 a younger dog will get, but they love to still get the chance to participate in the sport they have loved for many years

4.00 pm ... As the last classes finish, everyone joins in to help take the equipment to pieces and tidy up the showfield.  

6.00 pm ... The very last tired and happy dogs and handlers finally leave the now deserted showfield - the show is over - until the next time!