The van has proved its worth this autumn, even though we
haven’t been travelling at all. In a case of atrocious timing, I (Rob) got an
offer of some work with my old company in Coventry at just about the time we
moved down to Cambridgeshire, and for the last four months of the year the van
was my little mobile bedsit from Monday to Friday, when I would shuttle up and
down the A14 between Coventry and Cambridge for a weekend at our new home.
I had a choice of Camping and Caravanning club small sites
(CS’s) by various farms and stables near Coventry, in attractive countryside
that is surprisingly rural given its proximity to the West Midlands metropolis.
I was just a few cycle miles from work, and settled down happily to the
lifestyle. After spending a year in it, the van was a familiar home from home,
and I loved stepping straight out onto a grassy field and seeing the autumn sun
rise through the trees, as well as the bike rides down country lanes to my
office in the suburbs. I kept myself busy with an evening class in Greek,
carrying on from where I left off when we caught the ferry from Igoumenitsa
last February. Gradually however, as the nights lengthened and the temperatures
dropped, the dark winter evenings began to feel a little too long, and I was
glad when the Christmas break came.
Home from home in a Midlands field
