I am so sorry, but sleepiness is overcoming me and I do not think that I am going to write much.
I have taken Lucy back to school. This is not because she needs any more educating, we won’t know about that until the GCSE results come through. It is because she is required to make a personal appearance for Sports Day and the Fifth Form Party, and for Speech Day.
Also she is exhausted after some time doing a real job and was dying to go back to school to sleep it off.
Hence I did not go to the shed with Mark today, but stayed at home.
To start off with I scrubbed out all of the bits that we had taken out of the cab, like the glove box, which turned out to be full of bits of rust, anonymous bolts, menus for Chinese restaurants in other places, and the bits that hold the windows together.
I washed it all. I washed the door handles and the sun visors and the little knobs that go over the top of the locking bolts. I don’t think modern cars have these any more.
Then I pegged the washing out and took Lucy to school.
Once she was safely collapsed in her dormitory with a towel over her face and a Do Not Disturb sign I went back to the farm where I helped Mark piece the doors back together..
We stayed there until it was too dark to see. Then we put the lights on and stayed there a bit longer.
We had hoped to have the camper back on the road for Speech Day on Saturday, but a misadventure with a seized brake calliper meant that we had to spend a very lot of time fixing brakes rather than nailing the van back together, so we now know that this won’t happen.
I don’t really mind that.
We had planned to finish work at three in the morning on Friday night, and then load Oliver into the van and drive to York.
This is a very big ask for an elderly camper van’s maiden voyage.
Also, there are absolutely no circumstances under which we could have got the van properly ready. There is still no bathroom, no gas, no water and no carpet.
There are no curtains up at the windows yet. I do not wish to imagine getting up at the last minute just outside Lucy’s very expensive school and frantically trying to get up and dressed without attracting any attention or looking ridiculous.
It will just have to be another few days. I would rather it was done properly anyway, because I have got a feeling that anything we don’t get done now won’t ever get done, and we will just live with it in perpetuity.
We worked until we were so tired we were getting grumpy, then came home and ate cheese and crackers. When we looked at the clock we realised that it was one in the morning, which was why we were so tired.
I have got to be up at six.
I am going to go to bed.
Have another picture of the shed.
