Thank you

For those of you who missed the first post this is my blog. 

I have spent my life savings on a motor home and I am currently driving around Europe in it. 

It’s called Millie. She looks like this.

I once heard decision making is like jumping into a stream. The decision to leap is difficult but once you are there the flow of the current takes you where you need to go. I currently feel like I'm in a huge river after taking what feels like 5 years of checking the temperature and holding onto the edge. For the first few days I was wondering if it was the right decision? is it pure lunacy? This morning I woke at sunrise surrounded by woodland and stepped outside to meditate in an open field, the rising sun kissed the dew on the interweaving network of long grasses and spiderwebs that lay around me while the sky blue was so open above me I felt it might consume me, a swarm of sparrows swirled and danced like a shoal of little black fish in the sky. It was so silent. It was so wonderful. I had been asking for a sign that I was on the right track. That was a really good one.

I now have a few thank yous:

On a more general note I would like to say thank you to the incredible response to this blog, from all personal emails, to comments on here and Facebook, the warmth, enthusiasm and support is incredible, humbling and the best kind of motivation. Thank you. Thank you for your wonderful suggestions as to where I should go; the more interesting communities, people or places to visit the merrier.

Now on a more personal note; thank you to the wonderfully generous stranger who let me stay at their house when my Paris accommodation fell through and Millie was locked in a car park. You’re wonderful. Thank you to the beautiful couple who got in their car in the dead of night when we were lost and drove us half an hour to the nearest free camp site. Thank you to another couple who very patiently taught me how to pick and prepare wild oysters, they were delicious. Thank you to the inspirational old Swedish man, the route you planned for me has been amazing! Thank you France for the incredible amount of ambigious or simply false signage, Millie has driven over 1000 miles this trip, a good 200 of which have been lost. Thank you to the man running the circus in Bordeaux who, again when we were lost, let us park on their site for free. Thank you to my friend Jon Whitten who accompanied me from St.Malo all the way down to Bordeaux, you are an incredible human being and it was an honour to be serenaded so much by you and your ukulele, good luck back in London. Finally thank you Paris for reminding me why I don’t like living in big cities.

How is it that people are so generous? Have they always been this way? Did I need to get into a Motorhome to see it fully or are they always like this? Are people like this in London and I just never noticed or is it just more difficult to do in big cities, easier to get dragged into tunnel vision. I don’t know. But I do know how wonderful a small deed feels when received. I wish I could package up how all these people have made me feel and send it to them, what a wonderful thing to receive that would be. They should definitely figure out how to bottle that.

The joy of a trip like this is that I wake up in the morning and if I like the place that I am in then I stay, if I don’t then I don’t. I’ve noticed each time that I try and think through logically where to stay it is never as nice as when I allow my gut instinct take the wheel. Yesterday was a wonderful example. I saw a wood that looked beautiful, drove into it and kept driving until I found a spot where I knew I could park safely. I was tucked in off the road on the edge of a field surrounded by trees and woke up to the most amazing sunrise. I think I will have to learn to speak gut a bit more fluently.

I have decided that in a past life Millie must have been an amphibian of some kind. I have found and fixed two exterior leaks, a leaky boiler and replaced a broken roof window. She is permenantly trying to flood herself. I thought I had finally waterproofed her until I arrived late one evening to find the living room had turned into a swamp. It transpires there is a gaping hole in one of the wheel arches and whenever I drive on wet road the wheel flicks all the water right into the living room via a chest of drawers. My friend Jon was a godsend, he not only found the leak, after having had no sleep on an 11 hour ferry, he helped me dry out most of the damage and put together a patch made of old bike inner tube. It still smells a little of damp and it completely destroyed an entire bulk box of 40 odd peanut snack bars but its now waterproof. I’m gutted about the snack bars, We scattered two of them in a nearby wood as an attempt to gain some closure, it kind of worked.

I hope you are all well in whatever you are doing and again a massive thank you for all the wonderful support, it’s amazing to know there is such a wave of positivity following me wherever I go. Be blessed and remember, never go quick over speed bumps when you have potted plants in the back of your motor home.