Happy New Year.
After a fab family Christmas, which involved Sally cooking, brilliantly I might add, for 12, we decided we’d spend a quiet New Years Eve at our campsite in Maldon.
Our plan was for a chilled out evening for just the three of us. I had been thinking of a campfire with an outdoor starter of baked Camembert perhaps with the last surviving bottle from Saint Emilion. Mmmmmm.
The weather, however, had other plans and we actually ended up with 3 days of near constant rain around New Year. Although this effectively put paid to the campfire idea, the Camembert and wine was a-ma-zing.
There are always things that you can do in spite of the weather and we do try to not let it put us off our plans too much but when you live in a small space, it can be a real pain in the butt trying to dry two sets of coats and trousers whilst trying to catch a muddy wet dog with a towel before it jumps on all the chairs. Sometimes it’s just easier to sit things out…. or move!
It can get a bit frustrating being cooped up for long periods in a small space but we always seem to manage pretty well and use the time to do some admin bits, read books and to start having a good think about what we’re going to do in 2023.
For me, the New Year has always been an exciting time, unbounded by life’s usual constraints, to think about what I’d like to do in the coming year.
Our travel plans for 2023 have begun to come together as we’ve been talking about them. So we’re off to Montgenevre for the remainder of the ski season from mid-February. Before then we’re going to the West Country to see Bath, Bristol and Glastonbury with the surrounding areas which is somewhere we’ve never really spent much time in before.
Our longer summer trip is going to be Italy this year. It would be amazing to travel through the northern half of the country at least and I’m dreaming of a journey down from the Dolomites perhaps as far as Rome. Now is one of the most exciting phases of travel planning as we have a map with places we’d love to see but not much more than that!
If you were thinking that the timings of our trips seem a bit fixed then you’d be right. It’s because the Brexit ’90 in 180 day’ allowance really seems to dictate when we do things at the moment, particularly if we choose to do a ski season. Nevertheless, heading out to Italy after the busy and hot summer holidays is something we’re in the fortunate position to do and I’m sure we’ll enjoy it.
Considering some of the other things we’d like to do this year, I was struck by the effectiveness and fun of a challenge from 2022. Through October, I completed a sponsored event for Cancer UK, to do 100 Press-Ups each day for a whole month. I’m very supportive of the charity and am proud to have raised a little to help but I also found the challenge equally rewarding to undertake and complete.
It got me thinking for 2023. What other monthly ‘challenges’ could we set ourselves? Perhaps not the usual monthly charity or abstinence events but rather some things that are more inline with our van life that we might like to do more of.
Thinking more broadly than just physical challenges, I’m imagining a ‘Cook all meals outdoors in June’ challenge which I think could be fun. Anyway, more to follow on this and any ideas would be welcomed please.
For us, after nearly 3 weeks stationary, we’re on the move again. Saying goodbye’s to family for a month or so, our first stop is back to Welwyn Garden City to complete some medical admin bits and bobs. WGC is the last place where we lived in home that was made of bricks and it’s fun reminiscing around some of the places where we had spent so long dreaming of what our future would be like, now we’re in it.
After the town park up, next up will be a rural stopover near Cheltenham and then off to Bath to see if we can squeeze into a small city based site.
Thanks for reading,
Sally, Toby and Merlin
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