I hope Number One Daughter doesn’t mind, but I have borrowed her camper van.
I have not borrowed it in the sense of taking it anywhere, of course, regular readers will be fully aware that it is going to be rather difficult to take it anywhere at all for some time to come.
I have borrowed it in the lovely sense that whilst we are busily doing things to our camper van, I can use their camper van as a site kitchen and wash room and generally handy area.
I had this inspiration at weekend, because we have been dying to get back to the camper van to start working on it. We dived enthusiastically out of bed at about eleven this morning and went to Booths to buy lots of nice things so that we could take them over there with us.
I can’t tell you how lovely it has been.
Of course the first thing that had to be done when we got there this morning was to give it all a good scrub. You might remember that it was abandoned in something of an undignified hurry, and actually you would be forgiven for imagining that the explosion had actually taken place in the fridge.
Obviously during the van’s rather unglamorous journey between Calais and the Lake District its stability had not been sufficient to ensure the smooth passage of the contents of the fridge, which had been splashed about everywhere. The same was true of the sink, which had got the washing up from the Final Meal left in it.
It reminded me of the sort of abandoned Neolithic village that architects discover and then spend years trying to work out what happened to everybody who disappeared leaving no trace of themselves except the forgotten Neolithic washing still pegged eerily on the line. After that there is always an idiot with long hair and a beard who insists that it is clear evidence of alien abduction.
As any architect will tell you, the passage of time leaves its mark, especially the passage of French sunshine on to left-behind food in an enclosed space, and everything had become rather horribly black and sticky.
Mark got the electricity plugged in and refilled the water tanks whilst I swept the floor and scrubbed everything until everywhere smelled clean again. He thinks that it will probably take him about a week to mend their van, when we have managed to get a new engine to put in it. This is jolly good news, and he is going to have a look on the Internet to see if he can find one.
Once the fridge was clean we connected it up and got everything working, and I cooked dinner.
I can’t tell you how lovely it was to have the time and the facilities to cook. I haven’t cooked all summer, apart from things like sausages so that we can eat them cold later, and horrible fish fingers and things that the children like.
Whilst we got on with things the dogs charged about. Roger Poopy was overjoyed to rediscover his long-lost sister, whom he hasn’t seen for almost a week, and with whom he played delightedly until they both collapsed on the step and fell asleep.
As an added extra happy thing, my friend Kate chugged down the drive in her little car just as I was making a start, and I had the huge happiness of having a companion to talk to whilst I chopped onions and celery and beans and peppers.
Mark put some more patches on the outside of our camper van whilst I simmered brown rice and coconut and chicken, because you might remember that we are trying to improve our general Health and Well-Being.
I listened to stories of Kate’s summer, which were wonderful, she took all her clothes off and painted herself blue for a photography project in Hull: and went to London to see Phantom of the Opera and to the Edinburgh Festival. As well as all of those adventures she had buzzed off to a three-day camping in the rain festival with Elspeth and the children, which I am sure they all enjoyed very much, but which made me think privately that there were worse things than having to work all summer.
After the camper van, and Kate, and eating real cooked food, in the evening we went swimming.
I collapsed into my taxi afterwards with the splendidly happy glow that comes from being stretched and exercised and steamed and scrubbed with ice.
It has been a very nice day indeed.
Best of all, we can do it all again tomorrow.
