christmas (and our camper) is coming!

So the famous Coca-Cola Christmas truck was in our local town yesterday. I didn't go and see it as I was at work, but many, many people reported on Facebook that they did. The pictures from later on looked quite festive, when the lights on the truck looked more like the famous advert. I have to say though, that the Coca-Cola advert (you know, the one that goes "Holidays are coming, holidays are coming" as small children point at a convoy of festively lit trucks winding through a snowy landscape) has never been much of a Christmassy thing for me. Now the John Lewis one and the Three dancing pony on the other hand....

Christmas is well on its way nevertheless, and I am really looking forward to it. I've completed most of my shopping and planning for meals. My Pinterest Christmas board has been under construction since September! We have about 15 coming over on Christmas Eve for cocktails and canapes, and so far 8 on Christmas day. Paul is cooking Beef Wellington, which will be a real treat.

Before all that though, the most exciting news is that Paul is going to collect our campervan on Friday. We found Henry on Ebay and he is a 1974 VW Bay T2 campervan, with an original Westfalia interior. He is MOT'd until March and only requires a bit of welding and tarting up. Tremendously excited!

Here he is (picture from Ebay listing):

I'll put more pictures up when he gets here. For now though, the dream becoming reality!

respecting our elders

The camper purchase has been shelved for now on the basis that, as it is now practically Autumn, the weather is just going to get worse and worse and we have nowhere sheltered to store an aging and vulnerable campervan. Better still, if we wait until spring to buy one, we can save more money to buy a nice one. That's if we don't win one from Rosie's Rainbow Fund who are raffling a gorgeous 1971 bay window van.

Speaking of charity and concern for the elderly and vulnerable during the winter months, I have entered the Leeds Abbey Dash, a 10k run taking place on 17th November 2013. I'm running for Age UK to raise money for older people in Leeds and around the UK, as I fear that rather than being respected and valued, the elderly are often one of the forgotten segments of our society.

As I am by no means even a beginner runner (I can run for about 12 minutes on a treadmill before I need a sit down), this could prove interesting, and therefore is surely worth a sponsor, if only for the entertainment of knowing that the more money raised the more I actually have to  do this. Seriously, please do sponsor me on my justgiving page. It is a fantastic cause, and one I really do feel quite strongly about.

how rusty is too rusty?

So, Paul and I have decided to purchase a VW T2 Bay Window Campervan. Paul travelled to Portugal, Spain, France and Amsterdam for three months in one several years ago and loved it. He has since regretted it's demise and, as we are getting married next year, we thought that a trip through Western Europe in a VW camper would be the most perfect honeymoon.

I have read a (little) bit online and have concluded that I would be perfectly capable of completely rebuilding the interior of the van myself, with perhaps some help from Paul. I have found step-by-step guides to treating and laying a floor, and building a fold-down bed (which I now know, in VW terms is called a rock'n'roll bed - a good name I think for what is essentially a sofabed!).

This just leaves all the rest to consider when we buy our van.  Paul is confident that he will be able to do a lot of the work himself (from a manual). So, do we go for an eye-wateringly priced vehicle that won't need too many parts replacing or too much welding back together, or go for a rust bucket that barely resembles a van, never mind a something we might live in for a significant length of time?

I have reasonably strong feelings about the colour of the paintwork, and both Paul and I are now certain that a complete re-spray going to be necessary. Consequently I resent the idea of spending money on a van that already has a decent paint job in the wrong colour.

In reality it seems the best option for us is going to be spending a smaller sum on a restoration project, and doing as much work ourselves as we can. So the adventure starts - we are now trawling Ebay, preloved and gumtree to find our perfect van. Watch this space for details of the grand purchase.