I walked into the spare room where we are staying last night
to find Mick trying to crimp the lip of the draw on the filing cabinet next to
his mattress….it’s time to leave England. We haven’t climbed in over a month,
not a great average for a year dedicated to climbing. Any hint of a tan that I
managed to accumulate in my brief Aus summer stint has gone…and my strength to
body weight ratio is severely degraded by an indoor inactive English winter lifestyle…and
my Nutella binge the other day to commemorate the death of the almighty
inventor of the blissful substance (RIP Ferrero).
The interior decorating of the Van is complete…with Royal
Blue carpet for the floor, baby poo coloured insulation on the walls, and a
hideous floral curtain, we’re all set!
Apart from one thing. The van is now apparently un-roadworthy!
In the UK they have this stupid mandatory road worthiness test, called an MOT,
and can fail you for any number of ridiculous things, such as a tiny bit of
body rust, or the hand break not pulling tight after three clicks. We were a
tad concerned about our van passing it’s test, especially when the indicators mysteriously
stopped working on they way to the MOT place, and then when the mechanic couldn’t
get any of the doors to unlock (there’s a knack to it), and then when the
mechanic couldn’t start it (there’s a knack to that too). But failing us for a
rusted seal which would cost 750 pounds to fix it (that’s about a 1 million AUD at
the moment with the way the dollar is), well that was just hurtful England.
Anyway luckily we’ve found some dodgy bloke in Chatham (aka dodgy-ville), who’ll
do a cash job on the weekend for a lot less. Let’s hope we still have a van by
Sunday!
