G1LBM    SSTV

After retirement from the Railways, I moved from Colchester down to Bristol in December 2009, I have to say its a nice diverse city I lived in the northeast  corner at Mangotsfield, over time I became a representive for the housing complex I lived in, With my dealings of problems for the residents I met a lovely 82 year old lady who is disabled and had a problem with her windows and over the months of sorting it out with the housing company, we became friends and as she is very outgoing and loves the outdoor life, I started to do things for her, She bought a car so that I could drive her about then she said one day about getting a motor home so the car was sold, and she bought the motor home below. We traveled around the UK going to places she had always wanted to see, I also noticed that her outlook was much brighter and when in the van she did more and walked a round the sites, but when in the flat she just sat in her chair all day.

Then around August, June said how long will it take to get a passport as I think I would like to go to the sun for winter, well I said only a few weeks, so we applied for our passports mine arrived within 2 weeks, but as June had cut her old passport up as she thought she would not need it any more it took until November a week before we were due to travel on the 27th November 2014. Throughout the summer of 2014,we looked at when and where we would go for the winter and settled for a rally at Benicassim in Spain which was being run by the Motor Caravaners Club this was a 6 week break over Christmas.  We had a great time June loved it, ( you can read a more detailed info in my Blog above. On our return to UK June then asked if we could go again but for longer, well the van was able although it was 25 years old it had only done 30,000 miles, but only 5Mts it was a bit tight to live in for longer than 3 months, so she had me looking on the internet at motor homes after about a week of being home from Spain she saw the Winnebago and said that would be perfect so off we went to Cromer from Bristol to see it and she fell in love with it so she bought it there and then. it is just a bit bigger at 10Mts with a Chevy 7.4Ltr V8 under the hood, but thankfully it has been converted to run on GPL. That was the end of February, by Easter the Winnebago was had its MOT and June gave up her flat to live in the Winnebago full time in the sun.

I have to say its a dream to drive, we have changed the car, now have a Honda Civic this is registard in Spain although it is a RHD car this makes it easy for MOT and road tax as well. We will now have to look for a twin axle trailer as the car is too heavy for our single axle trailer, we have time as we are not intending to leave here until next year. Also to get the Winnebago onto Spanish plates, as after April the MOT runs out and it is a long way to bring the van back to the UK for it, it would cost over £1500.00 to do a round trip with ferry cost and fuel included.

June has made up her mind that we will make our next site our new home for at least a year it is located close to major shops the beach and the view from our new pitch looks out over the bay, we will move to this site in July 2016. This will be good for me as once I have set up everything on the pitch it will not have to be taken down again for at least a year, its great out here as June is much more active as she said she feels warmer and her joints don't hurt like in the UK