When I concluded last night’s diary entry by saying that Mark had almost finished the camper van I was speaking metaphorically.
I had a busy morning emptying rubbish bins and washing things and making sure the house was tidy enough to be left, and then got my stack of camper van things loaded into my taxi ready to go.
In fact this took nearly an hour, and it was twelve o’clock before I made it across to the farm, which in any case is a tiresome journey involving getting in and out of the car to open and close gates. There are three gates, so if I haven’t got one of the children with me that means getting out of the car six times.
Mark doesn’t seem to mind this in the least, at least he never arrives grumpy and complaining about backward rural hillbilly country, I think he quite likes getting in and out of the car and looking at the sheep.
I am not interested in sheep, and I was wearing flip flops, and so by the time I arrived at the farm I had got muddy bare feet and an irritated demeanour, which was not helped along when I looked at the camper van and realised exactly how nearly finished it absolutely wasn’t.
Of course I had forgotten to take into account Mark’s cheerful natural optimism when assessing the state of the camper van, and I think I was not entirely prepared to discover that it had a big hole in the side, no door, a hole in the other side where the water heater should go, the water heater in pieces on the floor, and dust and mud and plumbing bits everywhere.
His sister turned up then, and laughed. She is going away as well, and wanted to make sure that we didn’t want to be disturbed if anybody died or a family crisis hit whilst we were away. We all thought hard, and after a while agreed that there was no crisis more important than having adventures in the sunshine and that we would not be coming back even if the farm was swallowed up by an unexpected sink hole and our taxis along with it.
After that I set about cleaning it up, which in fact turned out to be entirely satisfying, cleaning something that is really dirty is much more rewarding than just touching up everyday dust spots. It was absolutely filthy, because Mark has been grinding and welding and sawing and generally doing messy things, and it was coated with black dust, which I had to wash off.
It took me hours and hours, slowed down a bit by having to keep stepping around Mark who was plumbing the water heater into a locker, and swearing: but in the end it was clean enough to start packing it, so I could start to bring all the things in that I have been diligently organising over the last few weeks, which was ace, beds made up with fresh sheets smelling of the garden, pots of herbs in the shelves, nice soap and handcream in the bathroom, and tins of home made biscuits and meringues and fudge.
In the end I left him to it to go to work, because I have still got to earn enough money to go shopping, and he called later to say that he was struggling to fit the new door to the gas bottle locker and would be late. I was not surprised to hear this because it looked to me as though he had got at least two weeks’ work to finish before we could set off, but he is quite adamant that he is nearly finished now, just the hole in the roof to mend and the doors and it will be if not as good as new, at least as good as a tatty old one.
It will be absolutely fine, although it may be getting quite late before we actually get round to going. Fortunately Asda in Kendal is open for twenty four hours a day, and so we won’t need to hurry.
I found an email from Oliver when I got to work. It is only the second time this term I have heard from him, the first was when he ran out of Nesquik. I have copied and pasted it below in case anybody is interested in the sort of letters children send home from boarding school after a long absence. It is very lovely to hear from him, and I can be quite sure that every word is heartfelt.
mum hear are my games you need too bring 1 red dead redmption 2 call of duty1,2and advanswarfear. mum love you but I need to go bye 🙂
Nearly going now. By morning we will be on the road.
