Caravan Diary, Day 31

Unbelievable. We have been more or less happy campers for exactly a month now! And we haven't killed anyone yet, or had any major nervous breakdowns. Result!

Today has shown glimpses of what lies ahead. Big progress (suddenly the door between the hallway and the sitting room is blocked up; tomorrow we'll get the new doorway slightly further towards the dining room) and even more dust (our smoke detectors don't like it any more than we do; I might need to find a bag to tape them shut tomorrow to stop them from constantly alarming). So stage 2 has begun with our builder doing his first full day. Boy, what a difference it makes when you suddenly see structural changes. Amazing!

Dad has worked wonders restoring the old potting shed and making it useful again. It'll never look like new, but I reckon a lick of paint and we'll still get years of grow-your-own fun out of it. Shall we have a quick poll? What colour do you think we should paint the woodwork? (I won't promise that I'll take any notice at all, but I'd like to hear your  ideas)

Right then, we've got a crack-o'-dawn start tomorrow to clear the rooms upstairs for the plasterers. Night, night, all!

Caravan Diary, Day 29

Gosh, we're only a couple of days short of our first month living gypsy-style. Who would have thought we'd still be relatively sane at this point?

This weekend has had three major items of news:

• Opa Matten has arrived (complete with a car packed to the rafters with sanitary-ware from Germany (and tools - one can never have too many tools!) and his arrival has really upped productivity levels in the Schäfer household. It is becoming obvious that it takes at least three adults to get anything of any significance done. Two to do the work and one to watch the kids. Short of three and you're always stuck with something that you'd need another pair of hands for...
• The weather has been so kind! That must have been the third weekend since day X that was fantastically, amazingly sunny. We've enjoyed the garden including re-potting our first courgette plants and a big BBQ. Ooh, and the first ever pudding with home-grown rhubarb. Lush! It has generally felt like a bit of a holiday - despite all the work.
• Another friend's birthday party where Willem was shy and moody and didn't defrost until it was nearly time to go home. What is it with the child at the moment? It's really hard to take him anywhere because he seems to be having a really difficult time for the most part... Well, let's hope it's just a short phase...

Next week is set to become a big one: plasterers, builders, roofers - they're all starting next week, so hopefully that'll mean upping the pace. Watch this space!

Caravan Diary, Day 25

Right, tonight for the very first time in all these weeks I am afraid. Afraid that this relentless rain might finally wear our 70s trooper down. 'Cos if it does, we do have a problem!... I am lying here and not only am I listening to a thousand-fingered drumming of the raindrops on the roof. No, I am also hearing a suspicious drip-drip-drip somewhere. I have been trying to work out where it's coming from, but so far to no avail. I am praying that this is good news, although I'm not yet entirely convinced...

Caravan Diary, Day 24

I really wish we would at last get a handle on this bleeming dust!!! Day 4 without anyone generating any fresh dust and we're still nowhere near winning the battle. Although, Willem obviously thinks it's ace: everywhere I look I find that he has written his name with his finger.

Caravan Diary, Day 23

Picnic with toys

A bank holiday weekend characterised by good intentions, zero follow through, fabulous weather (against the odds!) and sheer indulgence. All's well in the Schäfer household :-)

I can report that the loft is now empty. Cleared by two nice young blokes; one quiet and one trendy, who went about their business efficiently and still spent a good two hours until the job was done! Both seemed as bewildered by the large selection of beheaded Barbie dolls as we had been.

I got five whole hours of child-free bliss on Friday night when I went to the Stratford Comedy Festival with Kedi. I haven't laughed as much since we saw Dave Gorman at the Warwick Arts Centre yonks ago. It was brilliant! The evening was gilded with nice dinner afterwards. What else can a girl ask for?

The highlight on Saturday must have been the SKY engineer's visit. Not only can we now enjoy an unbelievable choice of channels (which I am sure we will never fully explore. I am usually happy enough with BBC1 and 2 and Channel 4...) and have a clever SKY box thingamejiggy, no: bribed by constant supply of chilled apple juice, he also ran what feels like several hundred yards of extra cable into the bedroom, which means my planned sewing/craft corner will have entertainment of the audio visual kind. The guy was also super-good with Willem and involved him in the setup by letting him terminate cables etc. He felt like a proper grown-up :-)

This is the life!

Sunday was spent almost entirely in our garden enjoying the unexpected sunshine. We must have left the house for something, but it's just a very hazy memory which must have got wiped by the copious amounts of Pimm's and lemonade that accompanied our barbecue in the evening.

Mats - very happy with his ball

And then there was today, which was under the zodiac of boys' toys: Hendrik went out and bought us a lawn mower, which was duly tested and deemed more than adequate. And then we scoured Coventry's shops for football goals for Willem, which we were just about able to try out before the weather turned chilly. We are all fantasizing about a summer party now, at which we can have an inaugural little tournament. Does anyone know when the weather's going to be good in July/August?

The list of things we DIDN'T do this weekend, despite best intentions, is long and includes stripping the wallpaper in the staircase and hallway and fitting the newly procured carpet in our caravan (I decided to give the local economy a boost on Friday by buying an offcut at the little carpet store round the corner. £30 to do the whole camper. I say!).

Whatever! There's a whole week without tradesmen ahead of us, who have all disappeared since it's half-term. Surely Mats will sleep at some point so I can get on with yet more wallpaper stripping?...