Waiting.

We are waiting for the DVLA. If I’d known it would have taken this long, I may have been tempted to stay employed for an extra month, so much for the DVLA’s advertised fortnight turnaround.

However.

With the change in season, we’ve been soberly reminded of the need to head south, or be prepared to wrap up warm or be able to get dry, or be able to dry what we take with us ... heading south is the better option (on the matter above one of my jackets let me down ... drizzle; heavy drizzle soaked through to the liner, only two years old, I have a Nikwax wash to do).

I’ve been tinkering with the motorhome, little tweaks that make a difference to comfort convenience, best use of space. I made a new hatch in an existing locker to make grabbing gear less of a chore, I’ve fitted some Elastic net pockets to the rears of the passenger seats for flat grab and goes, I’ve put an elasticated floor to ceiling net behind the drivers seat to prevent any loose objects finding their way forwards, or out of the over head storage area backwards while we’re driving. I’ve re-fitted the central heating controls and grabbed back a few inches in an offside upper locker. I’ve made a neat webbing strap and clip affair to hold the waste water tank while we’re in transit. Added in a couple of handles as coat rails (the long slim D shaped ones you find on kitchen furniture). I replaced both of the internal cab door openers, a few grommets here and there, a dipped beam lamp and so on and so forth.  

A friend of mine very kindly donated a day and a half of his time, to assist in the fitting of the spare wheel holder on the back door, and the fitting and bolting through of the safe. I must also say that same said friends wife and children provided company, dinner, drinks and entertainment for the thirty six hours Amanda and I were at their house doing what was originally estimated to be a two or three our job. Our super new stereo with Sub-woofer tweeters and all has been installed, so for the first time we have radio, CD, MP3, Bluetooth, handsfree phone etc.

We discovered that we can’t have towbar fitted, without going to the expense of buying in the towbar kit, then taking it to a fabricator to make custom bars to take the load over the Glide-rite air suspension system metalwork ... but of course before doing that we would have to sod about speaking to Glide-rite to make sure that’s ok ... someone dropped a long unheard phrase into my head a few days ago `Ball Ache’, that’s what finding out about towbars is, and who needs it.

In small chunks we’ve taken our remaining furniture to the lockup, so we saved on a man and van, there’s just a double divan and a mattress remaining and they will fit exactly as and when our last day at my brothers comes. We are there, we are ready to go. Our clothes now sit in two heaps in our temporary bedroom. Our final load the van items are in a table/safe heap on a table, and in an activities and accoutrements heap in my brothers lounge.

This is a different kind of frustration, this, I imagine is what it’s like  waiting for a visa, or a date for an operation, or to get a letter saying you got a job. We have said that we may just bail and go up the road to a campsite not more than eight minutes from here, and just get Dave (my brother) to text us when post arrives, it would be the last strand of the umbilical. We’ll see what Mondays post brings and then make a decision.