Dear Milli
mmm... orange juice, and a croissant, courtesy of Soph'...
followed by table wine.
Costume time! Kirst cut out the CSI stencils I had printed out, and filled them in on the back of each CSI suit, with marker pen. I struggled a little (sleep deprivation) to write STANDON underneath. We cordoned off our camping area with the tape & hopped into our costumes. It proved a little difficult drinking, while wearing masks. Determination reigned within our group, and through sunshine & torrential downpours, we stood our ground - this time in front of the main stage... for hours, while we waited for the verdict on best costume. Yeah - we didn't win, but we were blatantly great, and posed for many a picture.
Uli and I clambered back up the hill to cook some pesto pasta in Ambi. Uli even toasted pine nuts and tossed them in. Yum!
Danced a little more & then headed to bed at 1.30am. Brian had worked out that I'd been awake for 41 hours. Time to crash!!!!
Dear Milli
Caught up with an old Geordie friend, and lay on the grass, chatting and munching, while enjoying a pint. Glorious weather. Spent a lot of the afternoon hanging out in an old 70's tent, sitting on a sofa, drinking Bacardi & Red Bull, and trying to save a ladybird from a chewing gum incident, while listening to obscure tunes being strummed away on a Spanish guitar.
The early hours were spent in the Cow Shed nightclub, and the padded cell. Met some weird & wonderful folk, from all walks of life. Many hugs and compliments were shared around. Met an American dude who looked remarkably like Woody Harrelson*. I lent him my bear hat, that was sweated on profusely... but hey, it looked good on him.
So, there was much dancing to be done... but bed time slowly came around at about 5am... but could I sleep? No chance! I could hear the music all night, so tried to stay as still as poss., so Uli could at least get 40 winks.
* Did you know that his full name is Woodrow. Is that a reasonably common name in the States? And... he's only 5'9" - I thought he seemed taller.
Dear Milli
Arrived at Standon. Just managed to find the last remaining decent spot for Ambi - superbly flat, with a great panoramic view of the festival. Ours neighbours seemed pretty sound. We were a little disappointed to see that we weren't the only ones with CSI tape (although, at least ours was official!)
Was a bit of a mission getting the tents & gazebos up - we found a plot near the toilets & tepee showers. Cracked open the beers, and a few bottles of white to help us stay sane. A couple of randoms came to join our festivities... but I decided to retreat back to Ambi for an early night at 1.30am. zzZ
Dear Milli
Some poor person had rolled their car on the motorway, so we were diverted down back roads for 1.5hrs. We could see the Pont de Millau tantalising us in the distance, but we were lucky enough to drive through some lovely, scenic villages on the detour.
Finally arrived in Sete, and drove through the centre of town, past the fishing port and found a beachfront parking space for Ambi on La Corniche. Had some scrummy scallops (Coquilles St Jacques)
at the beachfront bar, 20 metres from Ambi. Obviously Uli didn't have any - he's still a bit scared of seafood. He did, however, share a mighty fine bottle of local vin blanc with me.We tried hailing down a cab to take us to the festie. Little did we know that they have to be pre-booked. A lovely couple stopped, and laughing, offered us a lift. Aparently it was obvious where we were from, as only Londoners hail cabs. Uli had to sit on the fitted kid's seat. The festivities on the harbour front were wild, and Laurent Garnier played a set. Met some sound people... and talked campervans with an Australian, who hires them out too.Danced through the night & on the way back to Ambi, stopped off for a swim - in the sea, at 5.30am. WOW!
Dear Milli
So far, so good. Uli got ferry times wrong, so arrived 10mins late. Luckily for us, the good 'ol ferry was running seriously late.
Finding diesel in the vicinity of Dunkirk, with a loaned Tom-Tom, proved to be a little tiresome - could be something to do with the fact we had no idea how to work it. Eventually we pulled up to a teeny place on the pavement. A lady filled Ambi up - €87.00
Stopped for dinner next to the palace in Versailles. Proved a bit of a nuisance winding our way through the narrow streets without such a beast of a van - but we managed... and found FREE PARKING! The food wasn't anything special. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
A gargantuan storm broke out. We decided to chase it down past Orleans, and parked up in an Aire with stunning views across the Auverge volcanoes. Used a lorry to protect us from the wind and rain.
Dear Milli
Packed up & rearing to go.
Caught up with a few friends (for a haircut in Covent Garden - it's going to be hot in the South of France) to say farewell. Brian's been given two sets of keys. Yay for Brian! The Panther's going to be seriously chuffed with her new flatmate.
Dear Milli
Leisure battery replaced. Time to get prepared for our adventures in France. Uli's got most of the route planned. He's having to work late most nights to make sure everything's handed over efficiently.
WHO'S GOING TO LOOK AFTER PANTHER?
Been looking into getting a cat sitter for an hour a day - apparently they'll even water the plants. 17 days @ min £10 = £170. Ouch. This holibob's getting more & more expensive by the day. Oh well - it's a one-off! Uli's going to ask Brian before I book these cat sitters in. It may be nice for him to be closer to work & have a place to himself with a crazy little cat.
Dear Milli
The gist of the feedback:
Really cool parking up with everyone eying up Ambi... until a converted postal van pulled up next door. Bed comfy. Leisure battery doesn't seem to hold charge very well.
Dear Milli
Ambi (and her makeover) have ventured off to Glastonbury. Yay for Ambi! What a mission!
Uli sorted out the mechanical side of things - new breaks etc. He plumber her in as well - with a little guidance from my dad. Even mum had imput, with providing black-out material & adhesive velcro to cover the skylights at night.
I feel a little broken after laying the floor - we decided on black & white floor tiles (like lino). A sharper blade would have been greatly appreciated - never mind! All those corners & weird angles were such a nightmare - nothing seemed uniform. The dirt on the floor was pretty daunting as well - I thought it would be impossible to get it all off - it looked properly ingrained after years of abuse. FILTHY!
It must have been pretty amusing watching us amateurs part-filling the 120 litre water tank, using a garden hose attached to out bathroom cold tap. It ran all the way through the flat, down the steps, across the pavement and into the side of Ambi. We'd agreed not to fill it up completely as the extra weight would increase the diesel consumption.
To be honest, I think we'll both be glad of a little break from her.
Oh yeah - it only dawned on me, the day before she was off, that I hadn't bought any chemicals for the cassette toilet. Oops. Luckily they had access to 'crew toilets'.
Dear Milli
INCREDIBLE! 4 emails and 3 phone calls of inquiries - the first within 2 hours of te advert being posted!
AMBI'S OFF TO GLASTO!
The peeps taking her seem really respectable, and handily live around the corner from us! How convenient! This means the race is on! Ambi's got to look tip-top, and we've only got a couple of weeks - EEK! Best get on with it.
Dear Milli
Everything's scrubbed & painted now - white! white! white!
Uli's working on the shower lino - stripping it out & replacing it. Gosh it's tough finding lino - it's all so ugly! We would have loved tiles, but the weight (& budget) convinced us against.
We've bought clear sealant, so that'll be such an improvement on the previous tar stained stuff.
*NEWS* We've decided to rent Ambi out - we could do with a few extra pennies, and thought she'd be perfect for festival season. Writing the ad tonight.
Dear Milli
Carpet's up! Actually, perhaps that should be 'carpets up' - yes - the lazy so & so had decided to lay one carpet on top of the previous. YUCK! It stank! Don't you know there are reasons why people don't have carpets in their kitchens!
I've been going wild with the cleaning products. Who could have known that the oven interior was supposed to be silver coloured, not bronze (from the build up of grease over the years). I used an entire can of oven cleaner, over the course of an entire day! On top of that, I've painted the exterior of the oven with white (clean!) metal paint, the shower tray & the exterior ladder. With all those fumes, no wonder I went out, to see the England game, without washing the conditioner out of my freshly laundered locks. Ewwww!
I wasn't settling for any half-hearted efforts, so pulled the extractor fan out & scrubbed until every morsel of ick was annihilated! BTW - this was the first time I've ever bothered to wear marigolds to clean the inside of cupboards. Some people!
Dear Milli
So, the art festival was pretty magical. It was set in a rickety old farm house & barn. A group of young, contemporary artists had incorporated their work into their surroundings.
The wine was fab (came in directly from France - may be an idea for our trip!) & the music was quite bizarre - in the best, most unique kind of way.
Uli & I parked up in a nearby field and, in the dark, managed to tread sheep poo all over the carpet. Oh, did I mention that we had nothing plumbed in - so no running water... and paws covered in sheep poo. Mmm. Pleasant! Nice smell!
On the upside ; ) at least we managed to park on a slope, and being slightly inebriated, there was no way of moving it... so we just had to grin and bear it... despite sliding off the mattress.
The previous owners had made us aware of the fact that the side door was stiff & we'd need to replace the runner, but as there's access from the cab & the rear, surely that wouldn't be a problem. Little did I know, that the side door wasn't sealed properly, so it felt as though my left leg (I sleep on my front) was outside, in the field of poo, and the rest of me was being dripped on from the condensation.
Oh how Sunday lunch was appreciated! I even braved topping up my vino intake. Tut tut!
Dear Milli
Mae's invited us to a quirky little arts festival in the countryside. Trial run for Ambi, me thinks!
Despite our best efforts, we still haven't managed to rip the carpet up. We have, however, managed to replace the horribly aged, beige sink & taps, as well as the faux black marble (MDF) surface. Ambi now has a brand spankin' new sink & mixer taps - yep, we went all out on the taps! It all looks far less sinister!
Dear Milli
Uli's picked up our new (1998 - so in human years - pretty young... perhaps a little older in car years) baby. Apparently she's great to drive (Uli's never driven vans). I guess that's what we should expect from a Mercedes Sprinter Ambulance!!!
We've decided to call her 'Ambi' as she has 'AMBIENCE' on the front, where it used to say AMBULANCE.
She's filthy - why didn't we make more of an effort to study her in detail when we viewed her - I guess time wasn't on our side. The green carpet is revolting! That'll be coming straight up. The shower's a bit rank as well - the sealant has turned yellow & it smells manky, I think we're going to need to donate a hell of a lot more time, than we initially thought, to get her in tip-top shape.
I can hear my new nickname already: SCRUBBER.
Dear Milli
Wow - it seems a bit pricey renting a campervan, plus motorhomes seem to be really sluggish - Uli's been doing his research!
We've been checking out auction sites & have our eye on a few campervans that we could buy, but the only affordable ones need extensive work doing to them.
Do we have the time (or, more importantly, the pennies)???
Dear Milli
So after some (not much) deliberation, we've decided to drive down, so we can EXPLORE!
Uli's booked a mass of time off work. 17 days of exploring ahead.
CAN'T WAIT!
Dear Milli
OK - maybe we're a bit mad - went to view a retired Scottish Ambulance yesterday - the torrential rain wasn't going to stop us.
It was pretty grimy inside, but it's seriously cool, and properly kitted out with all mod-cons.
So yeah, as we were in the middle of nowhere, and had no tinterweb (pls excuse my choice of spelling!) connection, we had to rely on Soph' to place the bid for us. I GUESS IT'S HER AMBULANCE NOW!!!
Dear Milli
Uli & I have booked tickets for the Worldwide Festival in Sete (Southern France). Time to check out flights...
