It's a Silver MPV, Not a Red Van

MyRedVan is back, even though it's not red and it's not a van.

I've bought myself a Citroen Picasso now that Mrs is due back at work. Coincidentally it cost me exactly the same amount as I sold Tyrion for.

On the outside it's a bit rough and ready - a lot like Tyrion was - but on the inside it's cosy, comfy and a pleasure to drive. The chap selling it made a big deal about telling me that although the airbag warning light is on, there's nothing wrong with the airbags, but I didn't take much notice of that for two reasons:

Firstly, there's no way he could possibly know that there was nothing wrong with the airbags.

Secondly, the light he pointed at was not the airbag warning light, it's a symbol that indicates whether the rear door child locks are on or not. I wasn't going to bump up the price by pointing this out to him.

The climate control display...

I forgot to mention, it's got climate control!

The climate control display wasn't working but I found a video on YouTube that showed me what to do:

Thanks to this chap I pulled my dash to pieces this evening...

And after fitting three little bulbs that I picked up from Halfords at lunchtime...

I now have a working climate-control display.

I'm not sure how it's going to work yet, but I'm pretty sure that it's big enough for my little bed, and with the Speedway season just about to start...

End of the Line

It is with much regret that I have to announce the demise of My Red Van, Tyrion Vannister. Due to the arrival of our new daughter, the cost of keeping two vehicles on the road is unsustainable - and as only I am working for the time being, it is also unjustifiable.

Tyrion will be advertised on Gumtree shortly. I have removed everything that I added - curtains, unit, electric hook up, etc. and disposed of them. I will be selling it as a Kangoo car and not as a micro camper. This is mostly because the quality of the work is, as I have said on several occasions, not of a standard that paying customers would expect. It is also partly because I don't want to see it driving around locally with my curtains and unit in.

My short foray into the world of micro-campers has come to an end.

Gutted.

MOT Test

It's that dreaded time of the year; the MOT test.

I dropped Tyrion off at Jaggers, where I bought him about a year ago (a little over to be honest, but if you don't tell, I won't) and hopped on a bus into work. That was on Friday morning. Friday afternoon they delivered the verdict, two anti-roll bar bushes and two ball joint dust covers. Oh, and a number plate light bulb.

I've had to wait until today to collect him because they were booked up and couldn't get him ramp space, but he's all sorted and parked back on the front where he belongs. He drives a lot better now - seems more solid at the front and the noise I was used to hearing from the front suspension has disappeared, so clearly the work was worth doing. We're two hundred quid lighter now, but thankfully we don't have to do that again for another year.

First Night

Once I was parked up and plugged in I decided to stay there for the rest of the day. I popped a can of Carling, set my phone to work as a wi-fi hotspot and settled back on the bed to watch some speedway on my laptop.The electric hook up worked perfectly. I used a four-way plug so I could run my cool box, charge my phone and laptop and boil the electric kettle when I needed to.

It took some effort organising everything for 'camping mode' as during the trip my bags had sat on the bed and on the tiny bit of floor space in the back. I piled them up on the front seats to get them out of the way and make some space.

I made lunch mid-afternoon but this was a bit tricky. With the worktop full of laptop I had nowhere to make sandwiches. I ended up having to balance the bread on my knee to put the margarine on. At that point a tray might have been useful - and a plate definitely would have been. That's two more things on my 'must remember for next time' list.

At bedtime I played with the curtains a little and changed the way the front curtains overlap the side ones. This made them sit a lot better over each other and ruled out gapping. I used a couple of magnets on the sides of the back door windows to close the very small gaps here - these could be sewn into the edge of the curtain if I remember when I have a bit of spare time.

Getting changed in such a cramped space was actually much easier than I expected it to be. The difficulty was getting to what I needed and stashing the clothes I took off. All in all, between struggling to make a sandwich and fighting to find space for everything it quickly became clear that there isn't enough space inside to do everything.

Once I was settled in bed I was warm and comfortable right through the night. I woke at one point in the night and found it was quite cold out of bed, but wrapped in the quilt I was as snug as a bug in a rug.

Parked Up and Plugged In

I left the house at six thirty this morning. I made two short stops on the way - one for coffee and one to use the toilet. Traffic was very light, as you might expect for a Sunday morning, and I made it to King's Lynn in around three hours. I had plenty of time to get a MacDonald's breakfast.

Once in King's Lynn I absolutely had to visit the speedway stadium. There were few people about and no sound of engines, but I'm betting they are full speed around there this afternoon, practicing for tomorrow.

From King's Lynn I drove to Swaffham. Thanks to the weather the pictures I took of the Butter Cross in the market place came out very well. I bimbled over to the duck pond where I used to play as a child. Lots of photos later I finally decided to head to the camp site.

On arriving at the camp site I found out that arrivals are supposed to take place after 2.00pm and the chap behind the counter was very keen that I understood that this is standard practice on camp sites all over the country. He must have been in a good mood because he let me book in early without an extra charge (although his good mood must have arrived fairly recently because it hadn't quite reached his face at this point).

Because I added an extra night to my booking it took him several minutes to work out which pitch I should be on. However, when I got to the pitch there was no electric. I drove back round to reception to ask about this and he explained that I should plug in on the next pitch but one. I explained in return that there was no way my cable would reach that far. He sighed and told me that it was standard practice to carry a twenty-five metre extension cable. Once he was satisfied that I now understood I had made another newbie mistake he gave me another pitch number.

So here I am parked up and plugged in. The cool box kept cool all the way here, it's buzzing away on the mains now and I have a few tins of beer chilling in there with the milk, margarine and Mars bars. I have uploaded some pictures to Facebook, texted Mrs and now have my feet up, alternating between watching Netflix and typing this out for the blog.

It is very warm and sunny, and very peaceful. I am relaxed and enjoying myself immensely.

Godsend

Yesterday I took a trip to Grimsby to take my son back to his mother but during the trip I became rather unwell with a migraine. I dropped my son off then spent some time with my eldest daughter on the beach. I was hoping the fresh air would help to clear my head, but it didn't.

So after I took her home I drove to Weelsby Woods, a large park near where I used to live, and parked up in a quiet corner of the car park. I closed all the curtains, shifted the driver's seat forward, set the alarm on my mobile and lay down in the shade.

It was rather warm at first, but with a side window ajar, the shade of the curtains soon became nice and cool. I did notice that the curtains didn't block out quite enough light (and my migraines are always susceptible to light) so I had to lie with my fleece over my head.

After an hour of lying in the cool and dark comfort of the van my migraine subsided enough for me to start driving again, although while I was there I took a few pictures.

If I'd been in a car I would have had to park up with my coat over my head, cooked by the sun, reclined in the front seat, which wouldn't have done my migraine any good at all. With Tyrion I had shade, comfort and privacy, and so recovered very quickly.

An absolute Godsend.

Ready

Tyrion is ready for his road trip. All of the curtains now have wraparounds on them (the last one was hand-sewn) and bundle up very tidily. The cupboard is stocked with food and water for the weekend - I just need bread and milk, which I will pick up on Sunday morning as I head out.

I have found my satnav cradle, which is a shame really because I've ordered another from eBay thinking I would need it before the trip. I have tested the coolbox working with the satnav and camera and the three of them do not overload the socket. This means I shouldn't have any trouble keeping cold things cold and battery-powered things charged during the trip. I have ice packs for the coolbox to help keep it cool when parked - at the site I will run the coolbox on the mains, but when I park up for the speedway or visiting anywhere else it will not be powered. I don't expect a few hours here and there to make much difference, but the ice packs might mean the difference between the milk staying fresh or going off.

I have checked the storage box and made sure it has everything in it I will need. I have spare gas, mess tins for cooking, teaspoon, sporks, cleaning cloths, a mug and a bowl. In the wash-bowl I have my gas kettle, electric kettle, washing up liquid and sponge-scourers.

Later this evening I will be packing a rucksack with clothes, towel, tea-towel and wash kit. My brew kit will be packed on Friday after work, as I am taking the small plastic tubs I use for coffee and sugar at work.

There's nothing more I need so as long as I remember to pack my speedway tickets, I'm ready.

Update: I haven't mentioned it here, but I also have toilet roll - there's a roll in the chair-back organiser and a spare in the storage box. I also have a 'waste water' bottle under the bed because I'm not trekking across the campsite in the dark looking for the toilet block if I need a wee in the middle of the night.