Home is where I park it

Here is a little slide show movie I made with all the photographs I have of travellers past and present. Hope you enjoy :)

Here's a video I made a little while ago, only just got round to uploading it to YouTube. The quality is not always great but it's just a bit of fun! Brilliant soundtrack from The Defekters :) Thanks for looking :) xxx

Sometimes I despair at Social media as I'm not sure we are using it to our best advantage. I think some people 'sharing' and 'liking' really informative political posts feel they are doing their bit to spread a message but don't do anything else. While sharing information is essential we must remember that nothing beats getting together and actually trying to make positive things happen. Social media can be a great tool for networking, joining together like minded people and raising awareness of issues locally, nationally and globally. Often though we may be preaching to the converted if our friends mainly have the same views as us! That's why I wanted to dedicate a post to a group set up in Stevenage called Creative Change. Creative Change is a creative initiative raising awareness on a range of issues important to sustaining communities and rebuilding our tribes.While they use Social media as a platform to spread the word they are also out on the str...

Well blog readers I have not done so well this last couple of weeks. I have not weighed myself yet but I know if I have lost anything it is negligible! The last time I was at work I did really well with the exercise and moderately well with eating. I then went home for 2 weeks where I walked for half an hour every day except 2 days but not so good with the eating then as my partner is mad about biscuits and I always find them hard to resist when we are watching a movie in the evenings! I have now been back at work for 11 days and haven’t done much exercise, I did a couple of hill walks and an aerobics session but 3 out of 11 days is not so good. Some of it was circumstances, I just had to do other things in my break times, some was just lack of motivation. Some other days I did walk a little but not really enough to count as an exercise session! It has seemed so cold and yet two years ago when I was power walking most days I started in the January so it must have been c...

Last week an amazing thing happened, we moved into our new home on wheels! We bought a 7.5 ton lorry back in April and have spent until now converting it into a home. It has been very hard work, very stressful and very expensive! After building two previous homes in vans we were pretty sure what we wanted out of our new home. We wanted something fairly new so as it would have good fuel consumption and wouldn’t be a rust bucket! Although we have the disadvantage of it having a massive computerised system which could prove to be a nightmare the bottom line is that all vehicles are going that way and so unless you want to have an old motor you just have to suck it up! We know next to nothing about mechanics anyway so if something goes wrong it is going to the garage. Parts are also quite expensive but as this is going to be our forever home maybe they won’t be so bad in 10 years time! It’s just a personal choice really of weighing up an older vehicle with likely higher mileage and possib...

So I have started my second attempt at getting fitter and loosing a bit of weight. It is now a week since my start day on 4th October and I have exercised 6 out of 7 days which I'm really pleased about. I kept to my plan and have done 4 power walks, the last two being 2 miles in 30 minutes, 1 20 minute aerobic session and today as I had shopping to do I just walked as quickly as possible around the shops and a couple of times up and down the car park. It was only a mile but at least it was something! On the exercise front I am really pleased and know that as long as I stick to it I will be walking for an hour most days getting in 4 around miles. On the food front it has not been so easy, temptation has been in my way and I have had a few biscuits and cake :) And still I just can't seem to reduce my portion size. I need to put more effort into this. Today I weighed myself for the first time since July (then I was 11st 5lb or 73kg) today I am 11st 8lb or 73.8kg. I need to loo...

What a great time we had at Something Else in the Dean! My review is up on my website HERE please do check it out. Thanks :)  

Following on from writing about places to visit and park up in Spain and Portugal I have written a bit about travelling with dogs. Please be aware the advice here is based on my own research and my own experiences. I have travelled to and from Spain and Portugal with dogs since 2010, also going through France, Holland and Belgium. I have also spent 6 months volunteering in a dog rescue centre in Portugal. This is just a guide, please make sure you get the most up to date information on Pet Passports from your vet and the government website. If you are thinking of driving to mainland Europe and want to take your dog, there are a few things to take into consideration. It is much easier to travel with some animals thanks to the Pet Passport scheme but this all needs to be thought about in advance. All dogs travelling within the EU must have a Pet Passport and cannot travel into another EU country within 21 days of their first rabies vaccination. It is a ...

Trying to get back to the healthy diet and regular exercise that I was doing so well with last year has proved difficult. I started well at the New Year 2015 as we all do with good intentions and felt that I was doing brilliantly I even lasted past the month which people find hard. In March I broke my arm and that set me back a little with the exercise but maintained the healthy diet. As the summer went on it became harder to go out power walking as I was mostly power walking in my breaks from work which are always 2-4pm, the hottest part of the day. I don't do too well in hot weather and although we didn't exactly have much of a summer it was warm enough for me not to enjoy the walking at all. In October I took 5 months off work and travelled to Portugal and Spain with all intentions of maintaining a healthy diet and doing power walking as much as possible. Well you know what they say about best laid plans? The biscuits and cakes are the problem, there is more choice than ...

Following on from the last post after writing my list of places to go to in Portugal I thought I should follow it up with the same about Spain :) Some park ups and some cool places to visit and a few tips for newbies on the road in Spain :) Some of the best things about Spain and vehicle living/travelling are: Police usually relaxed, (even though they look scary and put on a stern face). I haven’t heard as many people getting fines as in Portugal. Make sure you are legal and carrying all the necessary things like warning triangle and high viz jacket though. The rule is no free camping within 1km of a campsite, the reality is you can get away with being nearer most of the time. Be friendly and polite and move on as soon as asked. Lots of amenities for van dwellers in areas where van dwellers dwell! Laundrettes, waste water/toilet disposal and water are common place and only cost a few Euros. Fiestas! Every day is a fiesta day ...