The Adventures of Brenda - Part 1
"Right. We need to actually go somewhere in this van before it takes root in the garden. Tomorrow we're taking her out for a drive."
I'd stated my case. I'm not sure I've ever seen Ali looking quite so contented as she has over the last few weeks since Brenda, a fourteen year old converted Renault Master van came into our world. While I grumpily traipse off to work each morning (although there are only 42 such mornings left in my life now), she steadily and patiently transforms Brenda's previously dark and gloomy interior into a bright space that greets the visitor with a cheery white welcome. I'm forever finding her on YouTube looking at other people's conversions for space saving innovations and interior furnishings. Even on her very significant birthday this week she turned down the offer of a swanky hotel lunch from her sister because she wanted to finish painting the cupboards. She's got a project and she's happy. I'm allowed to wash and polish Brenda, drive her, pay for her to be kept roadworthy and not much else. Oh yes and I was allowed to pay for the purchase of her too. I feel privileged to be involved, albeit in a rather prosaic manner.
But the downside of all of this up cycling business is that the fact she looks like an artist's workshop, full of half empty paint tins and brushes and goodness knows what else has meant that taking her for a spin hasn't really been on the agenda just yet. Add to that, she seems to me an awfully big van. It's going to need some more practice before I can refine the seventy-three point turn required to set her in the right direction without knocking the front porch down. Helpfully she's got a reversing camera, but it's still a whole new world for me. Until last year my only vehicle was a tiny city car barely larger than a skateboard.
So last weekend, after an eventful period of attempting to jump start her we were off on a mini adventure. Ten minutes later we were home again - we'd forgotten our masks in all of the excitement. It meant turning right at the end of our lane twice in quick succession, a hair raising experience designed to terrify even the most seasoned HGV drivers in the land. An uneventful while later we arrived at Ladock Wood. I was confident the large car park wouldn't be chock full and I could park quietly without drawing attention to myself or maiming anyone else's vehicle in the process. We tried not to look too smug as we sipped our tea and hunkered down on those lunchtime veggie sausage sandwiches - made right there by our very own hands on the two burner gas hob. What a liberating experience that is. And then for a while we wandered through the eerie silence of Ladock Wood, coming to rest in this peaceful sheltered glade. Here we could feel the warm sun stream through the canopy as we idly lost ourselves in talk of future adventures that might take us further than the twenty odd miles that had brought us here. I'd stumbled across this far flung corner of the woods in May - there will be a more rewarding image from here in the autumn with a bit of luck. I have the composition - I just need the light and the russets and golds that the next season will bring.
And then we pushed onto Newquay. There's another story to tell here, and it involves tourists, errant Herring Gulls, celebrity chefs and eye watering prices - not for the first time in this feed. It's difficult to avoid them in Cornwall. Difficult to avoid campervans too for that matter - you could sense some people looking nervously at us, wondering whether we were going to park on their doorsteps for a fortnight and put Black Sabbath on the iPod at full volume each night before leaving the place knee deep in detritus as a parting gift. Now there's an idea.
What I'm looking forward most of all though, is taking Brenda down to the big field at Godrevy on a Tuesday afternoon in October when everyone else is at work, where we can make our lunch and sit and watch the colours change over the sea. I've got a feeling we'll be doing that a lot when the big adventure starts.
About to head off grid for a few days soon. No signal, no WiFi, no electricity. Have a great weekend everyone.
The Adventures of Brenda - Part 1
"Right. We need to actually go somewhere in this van before it takes root in the garden. Tomorrow we're taking her out for a drive."
I'd stated my case. I'm not sure I've ever seen Ali looking quite so contented as she has over the last few weeks since Brenda, a fourteen year old converted Renault Master van came into our world. While I grumpily traipse off to work each morning (although there are only 42 such mornings left in my life now), she steadily and patiently transforms Brenda's previously dark and gloomy interior into a bright space that greets the visitor with a cheery white welcome. I'm forever finding her on YouTube looking at other people's conversions for space saving innovations and interior furnishings. Even on her very significant birthday this week she turned down the offer of a swanky hotel lunch from her sister because she wanted to finish painting the cupboards. She's got a project and she's happy. I'm allowed to wash and polish Brenda, drive her, pay for her to be kept roadworthy and not much else. Oh yes and I was allowed to pay for the purchase of her too. I feel privileged to be involved, albeit in a rather prosaic manner.
But the downside of all of this up cycling business is that the fact she looks like an artist's workshop, full of half empty paint tins and brushes and goodness knows what else has meant that taking her for a spin hasn't really been on the agenda just yet. Add to that, she seems to me an awfully big van. It's going to need some more practice before I can refine the seventy-three point turn required to set her in the right direction without knocking the front porch down. Helpfully she's got a reversing camera, but it's still a whole new world for me. Until last year my only vehicle was a tiny city car barely larger than a skateboard.
So last weekend, after an eventful period of attempting to jump start her we were off on a mini adventure. Ten minutes later we were home again - we'd forgotten our masks in all of the excitement. It meant turning right at the end of our lane twice in quick succession, a hair raising experience designed to terrify even the most seasoned HGV drivers in the land. An uneventful while later we arrived at Ladock Wood. I was confident the large car park wouldn't be chock full and I could park quietly without drawing attention to myself or maiming anyone else's vehicle in the process. We tried not to look too smug as we sipped our tea and hunkered down on those lunchtime veggie sausage sandwiches - made right there by our very own hands on the two burner gas hob. What a liberating experience that is. And then for a while we wandered through the eerie silence of Ladock Wood, coming to rest in this peaceful sheltered glade. Here we could feel the warm sun stream through the canopy as we idly lost ourselves in talk of future adventures that might take us further than the twenty odd miles that had brought us here. I'd stumbled across this far flung corner of the woods in May - there will be a more rewarding image from here in the autumn with a bit of luck. I have the composition - I just need the light and the russets and golds that the next season will bring.
And then we pushed onto Newquay. There's another story to tell here, and it involves tourists, errant Herring Gulls, celebrity chefs and eye watering prices - not for the first time in this feed. It's difficult to avoid them in Cornwall. Difficult to avoid campervans too for that matter - you could sense some people looking nervously at us, wondering whether we were going to park on their doorsteps for a fortnight and put Black Sabbath on the iPod at full volume each night before leaving the place knee deep in detritus as a parting gift. Now there's an idea.
What I'm looking forward most of all though, is taking Brenda down to the big field at Godrevy on a Tuesday afternoon in October when everyone else is at work, where we can make our lunch and sit and watch the colours change over the sea. I've got a feeling we'll be doing that a lot when the big adventure starts.
About to head off grid for a few days soon. No signal, no WiFi, no electricity. Have a great weekend everyone.