Spending the cost of the van....on seat covers...latest investment!

Trevor's been in the family for many years now, and you'll know that in that time there's been the need for relatively frequent constant welding jobs to keep him together and to keep the rain out (always a work in progress that issue, as we discovered on our recent trip to Yorkshire!).

Although these patchwork sessions did the job, they weren't the tidiest in other ways and our poor front seats took the brunt of the welding splatter when welding all around the screen. They were pretty nasty to start with and had some of that horrible vinyl covering which your skin sticks to in hot weather (never nice to peel your thighs off the seat). Having said that, the seat covers were basically shredded and pitted so frankly most of our backsides were on bare foam rather than the cover.

Not the most inviting seat!

So as a treat we decided to invest in getting the seats reupholstered. Our local seamstress who lives literally around the corner had just completed seats for a VW camper and did a fab job so we had faith she'd give us some refreshed and replenished seating fit for Trevor!

Some of the foam was replaced during the process, and we chose a cherry red leather (swit swoo) as the new covering.  It looks absolutely awesome now, we were delighted with the result and the chairs are a pleasure to sit in!

now then, that's better!

Latest outings - family friendly festival and the Tour!

We've had some brilliant trips in the van lately to two very different events. Here's what we've been up to:

Wychwood Festival
This was our first family festival and we were recommended this one by a friend who said it was great for children. They weren't wrong, it was a fab weekend and we all really enjoyed ourselves. Set on Cheltenham racecourse, the terrain was relatively pushchair-friendly and the festival was small enough to get round easily in an hour or so, perfect for little legs. Another plus of the small size was that we could get back to the van in just 10mins so very easy to nip back if we needed anything, or to take a rest in the middle of the day.

There was a great kids zone at the festival with a Little Tikes village, craft and music activities, literature readings and our favourite - the bug hunt arranged by the British Ecological Society which entertained our little troops for ages. Our son is still quite obsessed by finding and identifying creatures when we're out and about!

The bands were varied and great - the kids even managed to nap a bit whilst some acts were on (our daughter slept through the warm up acts but woke up in time to boogie to the Levellers). We particularly loved Bad Manners and the Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra, and the kids really enjoyed seeing Justin Fletcher on stage (lots of grown ups secretly enjoyed that one too!!).

think I'm enjoying Justin Fletcher more at this point!!

The campsite atmosphere was dead friendly and our kids were in and out of new friends' tents all weekend. We even saw another Bedford CF on site so managed to have a nosy round that and compare notes with the owners - marvellous!

Le Tour de France in Yorkshire
The tour whipped through Yorkshire the other weekend and we decided relatively short notice to go up north and camp up in a friend's Mum's field in North Rigton (amazing pub there to check out - the Square and Compass - if you're in the area). We had to make a stop fairly soon after starting off as Dave realised he hadn't reconnected the alternator so power would have been an issue! Luckily the dash mounted voltmeter was reading low so gave the clue. It had been disconnected to avoid damage when welding the wings up.

standard!!

It was pretty rainy on the Friday night (and we had a bit of rain seeping in, but not enough to worry about) but the weather was fab for the Saturday. We used a new (to us) trailer to cart the kids down to Pool then into Harrogate for the finish.  Hard work for my husband lugging them round all day, but we're expecting child number three so I gladly waved my virtual pregnancy "Get out of a job free" card - happy days!

by 'eck there were some big hills!

The finish in Harrogate was heaving but really exciting (although our shoulders were aching from having the kids sitting on them for so long that day!) and it was well worth the effort of going up there to be involved in something so spectacular.

The journey home wasn't without incident; some kind of electrical fault had occurred which meant we had to jump start to leave the field, and fairly soon after this manifested itself in a more serious way as the indicators completely failed.  Cue me frantically winding the window up and down and sticking my arm out all the way home - luckily the weather was good, wouldn't have liked that job in the rain!!

This problem is yet to be resolved - another one on the constantly evolving 'to do' list!