My Design For Life...

So.

Today I am throwing my life into a van.

I leave tomorrow, and I will be sleeping in Amber for the first time ever tomorrow night.

It wasn't possible to put up the hammock yet, as I was unable to get hold of the welder again before tomorrow - will do it when I get back to Kingston...

Until then I have been given a lilo by my sister. Very pink. But kinda comfy... it will do for the time being...

I have thrown down the carpet for now as well, but that should be laid properly in the next week or so, and I will start to be a very active member of freecycle.org in the immediate future... searching for a decent sofa bed.

If you havn't heard about freecycle.org its basically a free trade site where you can get free stuff and get rid of stuff you cant bear to see thrown away... great for getting things like sofas, fridges, freezers, bikes etc... you should definately check it out and see how big your local community is... in Kingston alone there are over 10000 freecyclers...

http://www.freecycle.org

Anyway, I expect it will be a little while until my next post; fresher's week coming up and all and
I will be settling in to the carpark... But watch this space.

Oh, and how cool is this view to wake up to after a nap...

My insides are changing. A kind of Ambulance Puberty?

Yes. She is blossoming.

Finally.

Soon Amber will be ready... for me to move into her? That kinda takes the analogy too far doesn't it...

Well, whatever, she is nearly entirely painted a lovely shade of blue...

And a trip to a carpet shop provided these beauties for laying in the not too distant future...

So needless to say, I am a little bit excited.

Currently trying to fit my life into a van... packing and all that, so, if you'll excuse me...

...Bug Catcher wants to fight...

Snails. Slugs. Blackfly... Paras. Tangela. Etc...

When they get near your greenhouse... This happens...

Though I did enjoy watching the ants picking up the blackfly and carrying it off to be eaten... go team!

But yes... Devastation in the greenhouse. Bummer.

Invisible Touch...

Wowser.

It's certainly been a while since I updated you all on the progress of Amber.

Well today is your lucky day.

This is the first of 2 updates which will come very close together as i have in fact come a long way since the last entry and i dont want to give you the whole shebang in one lump sum.

So, for starters, I finished priming the floor, then got a bit hunk of wood and marked it all out using the old torn out floor as a guide.

I cut up the new thinner floor (more headroom... less back ache... yes please)...

Next i fitted all the bits of newly cut floor into the Amber to check it was all snug and that my skills as a man were up to scratch.

My skills as a man who does DIY and man stuff are average.

The floor fitted ok. It could have been better. But at least I did it. With no help. Yay.

Next on the agenda was weatherproofing the wood, so that it didn't just start to rot at the first sign of moisture... This was a thrilling process of multiple coats... maximum waiting around... maximum coffee intake.

We also got to play around with the engine... seeing as we had pulled out an old heater when taking out the original floor... we had to re-tube lots of things up in the heating system... and an air pipe for the air suspension that got welded through... but a trip to the engine supply shop down the road and we had all the parts we needed... Rafal once again jumped under Amber and worked his magic... she purred like a charm. I literally got goose bumps from revving the engine...