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.