For a fledgling travel and van blog couple, we have really let the side down this year with our lack of posts and Lulu updates!
6th February 2021
This was the date that we last hit the ‘PUBLISH’ button and that blog included NO travelling at all! Well, not unless you count Tesco and LBS Builders Merchants…………which we don’t!
In the last six to eight weeks though, so much has happened in our lives – not all of it good, but all of it has changed our lives (like so many others), forever.
We seemed to get through the crappy month of February and its cold, wet, dark days pretty much unscathed. That is until it all started hitting the fan on 23rd.
Two of Kev’s colleagues phoned in sick with Covid symptoms, on the same day. The company fogging machine was deployed, very quickly being squirted around the office and the business of the day carried on. Both colleagues tested positive,
On the 25th, Kev and a further 4 colleagues also tested positive. Over the next few days this tally went up to 14 either positive or isolating cases………..out of a staff of 29. The branch and Kev’s remaining colleagues soldiered on, dragging staff from other branches to cover the needs of the business.
A good job we’ve got two sofas
I obviously had to isolate at home while Kev was sick. I took a test – negative! Phew, dodged that one!!
I started feeling ropey on day four of isolation and by day 6, I too had retested and this time tested positive! Bugger!!
For both of us it was a fairly mild experience compared to others. We had headaches, mild fever, coughing and tiredness. Our two sofas became our best friends for 10 days. We were like a pair of bookends watching YouTube, Netflix or just sleeping!! Six weeks on and the lethargy and tiredness is still with us. We are improving day by day but it is a slow process.
Kev returned to work three days before me, at the end of our isolation periods. At the time of writing this we have both now had our first jabs and are looking forward to getting our second jabs in a few weeks.
Kevs world falls apart
On the third day of Kev’s isolation, on Sunday 28th February 2021 at 11pm, his phone rang and his whole world started to fall apart.
It was the call that we had hoped that we wouldn’t get. It was Llandough Hospital informing us that Alan, Kev’s dad, had taken a turn for the worse and that we should come to the hospital straight away.
We obviously couldn’t go. So Kev spent a frantic 30 – 40 minutes trying to get hold of our son, Jack, to ask him to bomb down the M4 to Penarth, to be with Alan. We just could not get hold of him
At 11.50PM Kev’s phone rang again. Private Number. It was Alan’s doctor informing us that Alan had just passed away.
A few years ago it was found that Alan had developed COPD after a lifetime of inhaling wood dust and a smoking habit that he only kicked five years ago. In the past two years he had had a shunt installed to drain fluid from a growth in his brain. This fluid drained straight into his stomach – something that he said had ruined his appetite and his sense of taste. He had a fractured pelvis from a fall before Christmas and while in hospital since New Years Eve had contracted and beaten both Covid-19 and Pneumonia. In the end his heart just failed. It was just too weak to go on and he just peacefully slipped away. Alan was 84.
A whirlwind couple of weeks
The days that followed are a bit of a whirlwind. A constant blur of funeral directors, emails, phone calls, pension providers, banks, building societies, ministers,, long lost family members and bereavement services. On top of his dose of Covid, being an only child, all of this fell on Kev’s shoulders.
Alan’s funeral was held at Thornhill Crematorium, Cardiff on 23rd March 2021 and due to lockdown restrictions was a very low key affair with just 16 mourners attending. Kev had also written a very moving eulogy for his Dad which the minister read on our behalf. We had arranged for three of Alans favourite pieces of music to be played during the service:
- ‘Autumn Leaves’ – Nat King Cole (on arrival)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnp58oepHUQ
- ‘Morning has Broken’ – Cat Stevens (for reflection) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5sSEkZ86ts
- ‘The Rose’ – Bette Midler (to say goodbye)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeJHmFMK59s
The music pieces were tough choices but Kev did well.
We now have to arrange the internment of Alan’s ashes so that he can be reunited with his beloved ‘Ginny’ – Janette, Kev’s mum, who we lost 16 years ago.
Plans and Changes
So now, with our lives altered forever, we are more focused on life being too short and also well aware of the fact that we need to make small but significant changes (for the better as far as we are concerned).
We do have a plan formulating that we can’t say too much about yet, but we do not think it will involve full-timing in our van (yet!). It does involve Lulu though. We’ll tell more in a future blog – so watch this space.
We will be adding more and more content to this blog as we go and we promise to not neglect Lulu for so long ever again!
Boys and their toys
This years performance related bonus from work was very welcome at the end of March.
Kev treated himself to a new toy. He is (we are!!) now the proud owner of a Mountfield ride on lawn mower. I think he thinks that he’s back at Pilbach Holiday Park where he would be lost for hours when cutting our 15 acre site.
Kev can now get the lawns done in an hour, instead of 4 – 5 hours with our old, borrowed push along petrol mower. I haven’t used it yet. Come to think of it, I never got a look in at Pilbach either.
We have also updated / invested in some new camera equipment and we are just spending some time getting familiar with how to use a Canon G7X Mark 3 and a DJI Pocket 2. Our aim is to start our own Lulu Van Travellers YouTube channel.
As we’ve mentioned many times we subscribe to and enjoy watching, many fellow vanlife followers and enthusiast’s channels. Each one has their own personality, style of delivery, outlook and each one has something to say. We’ve been watching for nearly two years and we’ve thought – we could do that!
We don’t know if we’ll be any good, any different or if we’ll get any views but then again, we don’t know if anyone reads this blog – so who knows!!
Couch to 5k to Couch Potato
Something else that we need to rekindle is our albeit very amateur attempts at running.
In 2016 I competed in a ‘Survival of the Fittest‘ 10k obstacle course in Cardiff. I have almost 30 ParkRuns under my belt and I also took part in the Swansea Half Marathon in 2018. In 2019 we ran the 10k Invincible course, with colleagues, in Pembrey.
Kev has also taken part in a few ParkRun events but started running properly in the summer of 2020. He figured that it was a whole lot cheaper that a monthly gym membership. He attended a Couch to 5k course held by Amman Valley Harriers. I joined him on the course a couple of weeks later.
We became ParkRun regulars and marshalling volunteers – well, as much as working every other weekend will allow. Both Kev & I entered into a couple of local 5k events and in February 2020 we competed in the annual Longleat 10k race. We joined Amman Valley Harriers and were regulars at the clubs regular run nights and twice a week we were doing between 4 and 6 mile social runs. Not always coming home last, I hasten to add!
Then we all know what happened in March 2020.
Furlough fitness (or unfitness!)
During my seven week long furlough, I ran nearly every day. The club were organising weekly virtual challenges which kept us all on our toes. At the time, treadmills were the new toilet paper and you could not get one for love nor money. We did find one but it had a 4 week lead-time on it. So, we paid our £600 and waited. We now have the worlds most expensive clothes horse in our spare bedroom! So, apart from a little treadmill work and a couple of 2 milers, that was the last time I ran.
Kev, on the other hand had not laced up a trainer since Lockdown 1 began. He would be the first to admit that the weight has piled on again and he has become the proverbial couch potato. We need to find our running mojo again, before Kev’s Cardiologist finds out what a ‘lard-arse’ he has become!
Travel Plans Amended…..AGAIN!
Our planned, amended, re-planned, re-amended mini tour to France now looks like it will be in 2022. Once again we are going to do a tour in the UK. It will be bigger than last years Yorkshire tour. Kev, ever the planner, has managed to book sites for virtually the whole two weeks or so. We will be taking in Gloucestershire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland, Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire and Herefordshire. We are looking forward to that one.
In the coming weeks we also have trips booked / planned to Brecon C&MC site and Erwlon in Llandovery. We’ll also try to fit in a couple of CL’s and Britstops as well, along the way.
We have a hotel booked in Tintagel for Kev’s birthday in September. We’ve booked a couple of localish CL’s for late September / early October. We’ve also booked a cheeky four nighter in the much lauded Willow Fields, Haxey in October.
When we return from our tour in July, our son Jack and his fiancé, Ebonie are finally going to be able to tie the knot!!
We are so excited and happy for them and for Elva, our granddaughter. We are still unsure as to where it is happening, we just know that wherever it is, we’ll be there – in Lulu!
Enhancing Lulu
We have been tinkering and tidying Lulu during this last lockdown, She now has a fully insulated sliding door and it’s ridiculous vent has been sealed up. So no more cold back for me!
Also to keep out the cold, I have bought and butchered (lovingly altered!) a pair of thermal blackout curtains to block off the cab area overnight.
To free up some much needed space inside Lulu, we have bought a Fiamma 320 rear storage box. It will fit onto our bike rack and provide storage for our boots, rucksacks, silver screens, Cadac and laundry.
Kev is also planning to install an external BBQ point somewhere on Lulu. He just needs to figure out the run for the gas pipe.
Lulu has also had all of her faded, 16 year old decals removed with the assistance of my hairdryer and a plastic blade. She looks much smarter now just being silver and black with a, not too intrusive, red ‘Trigano’ flash on each side.
Also, in May, we have the annual Tax, insurance and MOT due – s’gonna get expensive over the next couple of months.
Webasto woes
We are still having Webasto heater issues though. After its full service in December, we refitted it and it was pumping out the heat. Kev started it up every couple of weeks and all was fine. Until last weekend. Kev started it and ran it for an hour. He then stopped the heater to come inside for food and then went to restart it about an hour later. Nothing. All we had was a green light on the dial and the noise of a struggling fan. Not really knowing one end of a multimeter from the other we are going to have to take Lulu back into Shorts in Swansea. They will have to diagnose the fault and repair / replace the heater.
Happier times ahead
As we are all out or about to come out of this never-ending lockdown, we can all look forward to, hopefully, happier times. We can go camping, we can visit beauty spots, national monuments, historic buildings, museums and pubs! Lets just hope that everyone remains sensible. That the numbers do not spike again and that we can all breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy our travels this summer.
Oh! And just remember……………..take your naffing rubbish home with you, or just bin it!!!
Take care all, thanks for bearing with us & happy travels.
Mags, Kev & Marley
xx