Well it's been almost 3 months since I last put an entry on here, quite a lot has been happening, unfortunately most of it's been bad luck, and some not even related to the van (well, maybe the break up with me and Vicky was over the van, she didn't seem to want to go travelling as much as I did, preferring to be in one place for the rest of her life, that's just not me, being a forces brat ment I never lived in one place longer than 3 years, and when I was 14 I had lived more than half my life in Germany, so that lifestyle kinda rubbed off on me, and I want to see more of the world, we only get one shot at life, and I want to see as much of what the world has to show us as I can in my time here)

Some good news for once.. I finally got an appointment to see a physiotherapist about my back problems, I'd been on the list for almost 3/4 of a year, I got a phone call at about 9am one day (that's like the middle of the night to me :) asking if I would like to come to the physiotherapy department of the hospital in an hour, I had never got dressed so fast before, I got a load of exercises to do to try and alleviate some of the pain in my back, been told what I already know, having ankylosing spondylitis is for ever, all I can do is minimise the shocks my back gets and try and keep it free with gentle exercises, I was told golf is good for my condition (as well as swimming, I'm going to get hydrotherapy some time soon hopefully, I had started going swimming with Vicky, but she didn't seem to enjoy it she said afterwards, and we never went more than once a year :(

Back to the golf thing, I bought a couple of golf sticks about 12 years ago from a boot fair, I mainly used them to whack snow balls for dino to fetch, but 5 years ago I was going to the local driving range regularly, I'd had some basic lessons at school so knew roughly what to do, I went to the range tonight for the first time in 5 years, I think I managed to get about 5 of the 50 balls past the 150 yard marker, the rest mostly just bounced along the ground, or went straight upwards, missing the canopy over the tee area by millimetres (where they'd have bounced back at me, at about 100 mph :) dunno about my back, but my hands hurt now, found out I hit the balls further when I try to hit them a short distance.. why is that always the case? :)
Maybe if I'm lucky, my back can get better enough to allow me to get back into skiing, about 6 or 7 years ago I was getting into it, only on dry slopes, then my local one (well, Ilkeston, 35 miles away) closed down, the next good slope is at Swadlincote, a good 2 hour drive away, there's a small slope at Stamford, when I was last there it was winter and had been snowing, so the gates at the bottom of the artificial slope was opened and we could ski off piste into the field at the bottom of the slope, it's a lot easier to ski on real snow than the brushes on an artificial slope, one day I'll get back into that, again that was something I did at school, also did rock climbing, but I think I'll give that one a miss :)

Getting back to the van, one of the things I mentioned last time was getting the boost pressure enrichment devise top replaced, as the threads had stripped causing me no end of troubles, I said I was sure they had caught the diaphragm that in there, it's connected to an eccentric cone/pin, and as the turbo produces more boost, i.e. shoving more air into the engine, the diaphragm gets depressed by the turbo's air pressure, this moves the cone downwards, which is pressing on a pin that alters the fuelling of the whole pump, the more it's pressed down, the more diesel is injected as it's no good forcing more air into the engine if you don't add more fuel, it seemed like my engine was running lean.

She was also knocking a lot, not a con rod knock, the usual diesel knock, but the iveco engine shouldn't sound that loud, it sounded like I had 5 transit engine under the bonnet (anyone who's heard a diesel transit van drive off will know the sound) my ears were ringing every time I drove the van it was that loud.

I finally got pissed off with it and decided to take the pump off and have it re-calibrated.... again, I set about taking the pump off, not the easiest thing to do, on the LT it was so easy as you had access to the back of the engine, on the iveco you have to reach up from below the engine bay to get at the bolts on the pump, a warning to anyone who's thinking of taking the pump off an iveco 2.8 litre engine, the bottom pump bolt is an absolute bitch to get at, you just can't get a spanner on it, and I couldn't get even a 1/4 drive socket and extension bar on it, in the end I had to take the vacuum pump off to get at the nut, even then I had to grind a 13,, 1/4 inch drive socket so it was shaped like a cone to get it on the nut, there is a special spanner for doing that job, it's a bend wrench, but the bend ideally needs to be about 70 degrees, not the usual 90 degrees that bent spanners are.

Before I took the pump off totally, I put a dial gauge on it, and measured the timing, I found some discrepancies as soon as I took the cam belt cover off to see the timing marks, the camshaft timing wheel lined up with it's mark, the engine was on TDC.. a bold is pushed through a hole on the drivers side of the bell housing into a milling in the flywheel, should be a special tool, but an M10 bolt does the trick, then you should be able to put a 6mm bolt/pin through a hole in the pump drive wheel into a hole behind it, well the wheel wasn't lining up with the timing mark, the person who took the cam belt off to change the leaking oil seals had pout his own timing marks on the wheels with yellow paint, they lined up, but the official timing marks were off on the pump drive wheel.

I measured the pumps timing.. and it was set at 1.80mm at TDC, it's supposed to be set at 0,78mm, it was a whole millimetre advanced, no wonder the engine was knocking like hell, I took the pump off and took it to be re-calibrated, when I got it back the next day, I was told the diaphragm had been moved, quite a way, and the pump was a whole cc down on fuelling, no wonder I had no power, this is just speculation, but the most likely thing that happened was the diaphragm got moved when the top was replaced, the van test driven and found to be dead, so the main fuelling screw was adjusted to try and compensate for it, only the screw was turned the wrong way.. by a big amount, 1cc on these pumps is a hell of a lot.

So it cost me 50 quid to have the pump re-calibrated, cheaper than the first time as I'd only had the pump done 3 months earlier, at a cost of £150.. had the throttle bush changed then as well tho, as it's a known weak point on these pumps, I put the pump back on the engine, while I was collecting the pump I saw a bent 13mm ring spanner on the workbench, the diesel shop had an iveco in and were doing injection pump work on it, and had taken the pump off  them selves, they let me borrow this spanner on the condition that if I didn't get it back to them when they were ready to put the pump back on their iveco, I'd do the job for them :)

So I re-fitted the pump to my engine, the bent spanner helped a lot, but I did have the vacuum pump off still, so that helped too, I then tried to time the pump up, at TDC the pump could only be rotated in it's mounting slots down to 1.40mm, something wasn't right, I had the cold start valve off (you must apply 12 volts to the colt start solenoid through out the timing procedure, otherwise the pump is advanced for starting)

I then figured out what was wrong, the drive pulley was one tooth out on the cam belt!!! there's no way the pump could ever have been set up right with it like that, I had to loosen the cam belt, luckily the top idler wheel unbolted, so I didn't have to adjust the tensioner wheel, I moved the pump drive gear round a tooth, and put the belt back on the drive wheel, timed the pump up again, and this time I could set it to 0.78mm, it's proper setting.

I had the cooling system off the van while I was working on the pump, the front panel of an iveco daily van unbolts.. just four of them, unplug the headlights and indicators, don't forget the bonnet cable, and it pulls off, the rad is another 4 bolts, 3 hoses and a temp sender switch, and you then have very good access to the front of the engine, I had to cooling system off as I was also making up a mount to hold the second alternator in place, I'll cover that on the Kamper Tech pages, when a link appears here the page will be ready, I can say if you want to do the same to your van, you need to be happy cutting a pulley up, welding and bolting it to the water pump pulley, loosing the engine driven fan and replacing it with an electric one, luckily the iveco's fan is on a freewheel hub, so inst actually driven until the temp gets to 90 degrees C, then an electromagnet behind the pulley is energised, and that locks the fan to the pulley, and the fan is driven at engine speed, it's the same way the clutch works on an air conditioners compressor really, but at it's got a electrical switch in the rad, you can use the electromagnets supply wires to power a relay, that runs the electric fan just as it would if the engine driven fan was on there.

After getting the cooling system back together, re-fitting the vacuum pump and all that, I started the engine up, took a while to fire as I'd had the fuel lines off, and needed do prime the system, but when the started up, the difference was immediately noticeable, she was a lot quieter, lots of vibrations were gone, and I got a little smoke from the exhaust.. I'd never had any at all before due to the pump being down on it's fuelling,

I took her out for a drive, and I was amazed at the transformation having the correct pump timing made, a hill where I had to rev past 3500 rpm in 3rd gear, then quickly change to 4th or else I'd loose power and have to change back down.. well I went up that hill from a standing start, pulling off in 2nd gear (most big vans, the 1st gear is a crawler gear, very low geared.. lower than reverse, it's there for steep hill starts when fully laden) I was able to accelerate all the was up the hill, changed up each gear at 3000 rpm, and was in 5th gear and still accelerating when I reached the top, the engine was so much quieter it was like I was driving a different van.

A few days later I went over to Coventry to pick up some flush mount diesel fillers, and I got 24.5 miles to the gallon, did 70mph all the way there and back (was all motorway) and when I got home, I was smiling, I had my van back, and she was a pleasure to drive once more.

I then went to woollies trim in market deeping and bought some grey lining carpet, and fitted that to the rear wall of the cab, I had also made up[ some speaker pods to mount some large speakers on either side of the back wall of the cab, the last owner put them in the headliner, wrecking it in the process when he removed them, the lining carpet made a hell of a difference to the appearance of the cab, I just need to put a piece on the sliding door between the cab and living area of the van when it's finished, but I'm having great trouble locating a pocket door lock, seems they are unpopular in England, found one that will do what I want, but it's 100 quid, and only available in brass, yuck.

I'd picked up another fuel tank from Vic Barlow's scrap yard, along with a hope safe T bar from a 1999 iveco that had been crashed, the bar was the only straight thing on the van, I got that for 60 quid, new they are near 350 quid, I also picked up a passengers side door that was almost entirely rust free, I fitted the newer door when I got home, needed to put a shim under the bottom hinge to make it line up, the old door was full of rust I found out when I tipped it up when it was off the van, the new door shuts with a nice thud now, almost as good as a German vehicle :)

I mounted the fuel tank straps to the chassis, the tank cant go on as the side skirts of the van are cut away on the inside where the main tank lives, so there's not enough clearance to put the second tank on yet, it'll go on when the body is cut off next week, to refuel the tanks the way Nu-Venture did that last iveco they built a body on, they put a great big thetford toilet access door on the side!! this looked really naff, and there was no way I'm having 2 of those on the side of my van just to get access to the fuel filler that's mounted on the tank it's self, so the way I'm doing it is: I bought 2 flush mount diesel fillers from C.A.K tanks, then got some 3 inch bore oil resistant hose from a hydraulic pipe company in town, the ID of the tank mounted filler is exactly the OD of the pipe I bought, couldn't get better than that, so the idea is to cut a hole in the side of the body just above the tank filler, put the flush mount filler in the hole with a short length of the 3 inch pipe on it, and that gets pushed into the tank filler, diesel proof sealant will be used to make sure the join is leak proof, as I'd now have a pipe leading to the tank,.

I needed to put in a breather, on the iveco tanks the filler is large enough to vent the air out as the diesel goes in, but with the filler being extended, I needed to be sure I wouldn't have a slow filling tank, so I got some right angle pipe nipples and some bulkhead fittings to put a breather on each tank, took a little while to get them on the tanks, as I had to drill the hole for the bulkhead fitting in the highest point on the tank, then get the fitting in the tank and out of the hole to get the nut on it, I managed this by poking a piece of string down the new hole I'd just drilled (the tanks are plastic by the way, and quite thick) I grabbed the string using one of those flexible pearl catcher things through the filler, put the bulkhead fitting over the string and knotted the string, then pulled the fitting into the tank, and up through the hole, and put the nut on the top with some sealer round the top, it was easy on the tank I had off the van, but the tank that's on the van took a little longer, I drilled a hole through the floor of the van to be able to drill the 18mm hole for the fitting to come through the tank, and did the same string pull through trick to get the fitting in the hole, I just had to give up a few layers of skin reaching over the tank to put the nut on, and then the right angle pipe nipple, the flush fillers have breather pipe nipples on them already, i've got the oil resistant hose for the breathers, so all Nu-Venture have to do is push the pipes on the relevant fittings.

I then went upto Magnum Motorhomes who are at Grimsby, they buy in lots of parts from the motorhome makers that get changed with a new model year, and the place is absolutely massive, I went there to look at what they had to offer, and see about a cooker (I'd sold the one I had from the last van, as I wanted one with a built in grill box, and electric ignition) I had a list of things I just wanted prices of, and came away with a combined cooker and sink unit, it had electric ignition, but no built in grill box, but they did have a proper grill box door, so I'll make a liner up, and finish it off with the proper door, I went the combined cooker and sink route because the sink would have been butted upto the cooker anyway, so it made sense to get an all in one unit, it was only £140 for the cooker and sink unit, it's a smev model.. apparently a very good make, my last cooker cost me about £170 7 years ago, didn't have electric ignition, only a 3 burner hob and so on.

I also got a shower door, I was just looking at them, and asked the prices, £25 for a bi fold door, brand new with no marks on it, or £10 for a one piece door, with a cracked bottom of the Perspex (they don't have glass in them like home shower door have.. for obvious reasons) so I got the new bi fold door, then I asked if they could get a fiamma turbo vent, with the polar control (the 2nd best roof vent you can get, with a thermostat for the fan etc.. the best is a fantastic fan, which has electric opening of the lid, and auto close and re-open when it rains, but they are £300) he had one in stock, just what I wanted, they'd ordered it for a customer who then went on a 3 week holiday, so he sold it to me for £150)

That's all I bought that time, I'd asked about all in one shower enclosures like the type i've seen in the van I'm basing my design on, he said he had some in another building, but didn't have the key to get in, they also had about 5 large boxes full of drawer and cupboard doors, all made from the light weight woods used in motorhomes, priced at £4 each, that's how I'll be doing the fronts on the cupboards I build then, I was going to make my own doors, but would need to buy a raised door panel cutter set for the bench router, and they cost about £150, then the wood, then the cock ups as I got used to the cutters and so on, for 50 quid I can get every door I need and more, wardrobe doors cast a bit more, and they showed me a way to make doors to my size if I couldn't get a ready made one, basically using a sheet of vohringer ply (very light weight but expensive ply) and some edge mouldings they had made, he cut some mounding to show me what it looked like, and it is very good, but I think I'll make my cupboards to the door sizes I can get.

I wanted to go to O'Leary motorhomes that day, but didn't have time to get over the Humber bridge, so had to leave it for another day, I went back up north 2 days ago, firstly to the Iveco scrap yard to take an engine mount back I had got sent to me a week ago when the threads striped on the passengers side mount when I was fitting the 2nd alternator bracket to the engine, I got sent the wrong side by mistake, he got me the correct one out to me the next day when I told him this, the mount was a tenner, and next day delivery was £12.50, he had to send me 2 out.. so he lost out big time on that sale, but when I was there the other day, I bought a seatbelt (when I was carpeting the back of the cab, I took the belts off to carpet over the whole of the area behind the seats, when I put the drivers one back on, I tested it by pulling sharply on the belt, and it locked, and then stayed locked, I managed to get it to release.. but it then wouldn't lock again, so I had to swap the passengers one over to the drivers, and get a replacement belt, I would have got a new one, but iveco will only sell a 3 seat set of belts (I only have 2 seats in the van now) and they want £150 for them!!!)

I also got a under slung spare wheel carrier, the spare is held on the passengers side of the load bay at the back, right where the bathroom sink is going, I was going to put it on the back panel like on my last van, but that would have needed a metal hoop putting inside the bodywork, then I found out Luton bodied Iveco's had the spare mounted under the chassis on a swing down bracket, so I got one off a scrap chassis, it was nice of iveco to drill all the chassis the same, so all I did was strip the flaking powder coating off, spray it black, buy new bolts and bolt it up using the holes that were already there on my chassis.. of course I had put the reversing camera's signal wire through one of the bolt holes I needed to use, but I did kind of expect that.. I did think the junction box I put in the lighting loom so that when the new body is put on, the new lights can be connected easily would be over the bolt holes I needed to use, but for once lady luck was looking over me.

On the way upto the scrap yard, not more than 5 minutes after setting off I nearly wrote the van off, I live 1 mile from the A1, where the A52 passes over it, and went round the slip road to get on the A1, I had to accelerate hard to get upto 60mp[h to get out of the slip road as no one was going to move over and let me out, no problem doing that now the engine is running right, I was still doing 60 when I went over the hill that goes over the railway tracks.. and was greeted with standing traffic about 500 yards in front of me, I stood on the brake pedal.. physically I was stood up on it, and the van didn't seem to be slowing down as much as I expected, when you stamp on the brakes you expect the front end for nose dive, but it didn't, I managed to stop fine, but I was certain I wasn't going to be able to stop, just as I'd stopped and was checking me undies for skid marks.. as I'd left none on the road :) I looked in the rear view monitor and saw a jeep hurtling towards me, luckily there was a lay-by by the side of where I had stopped, and the jeep pulled into that.. he stopped with his bonnet where my back wheels were.. if he hadn't have pulled over, there was a meter of van body that would have stopped him.

I decided there and then to replace all the flexi hoses on the braking system, just in case one of them is bulging under pressure, and taking the feel away from the pedal, the van will be insured for £18,000 when it's got it's new body, and I'm not going to risk that for the sake of a few hundred quid's worth of brake parts (I'm hoping I can get the hoses from someone other than Iveco, as I can guess they'll want 50 quid for each one :) if I can I'll fit calliper overhaul kits while i've got the brakes off, may as well when I have to open the system up.

That little heart stopping episode over, I got to the scrapper as mentioned above fine, apart from the wind, I chose a right day to go driving over the Lincolnshire wolds (or what ever the boring flat bits are called :), a stopped 3 times 'cos I could hear a knocking sound from the passengers side wheel arch, I thought the tyre had thrown a tread and it was that catching the arch, each time I stopped, inspected the tyres and they were fine, checked the pressures, fine, so moved on, at one point the van seemed to be leaning on it's left hand side, I was certain I had blown a tyre then, but it was all fine, turned out the wind was so strong it was pushing me over on the vans suspension, just as I was about to get back in the van for the third time, the knocking rubber noise happened again.. I only have one mud flap on the van, and it's on the passengers side, the wind was that strong it was lifting the flap upwards and knocking it against the bottom of the door!

I was doing about 60mph max all the way, on dual carriageways and motorways, and car's were screaming past me all the time, each time they went past me, they'd swerve across the road in front of me as the wind caught them.. don't think they realised I was blocking the wind as they were going past me, when ever I overtook a truck, as I got past him I was ready to turn the wheel to opposite way the wind caught me, so I stayed pretty much on a straight course the whole way, the Iveco definitely handles much better in bad weather than the LT ever did, this van is a lot bigger than the LT, yet it can cope with high side winds, torrential rain, and so on with ease.

I went to magnums again to get a shower enclosure, the one I wanted is 75CM square, with a 45 degree angle on the rear right corner to mount the tap and shower head to, they didn't have any after all it turned out when I got there, they hadn't replied to my e-mails asking if they had one in stock, so I took a chance expecting there to be none left, I was going to ask how much I could have the 80 litre fridge they had there for if I bought it at the same time as the shower enclosure, but as they didn't have the enclosure, I didn't bother with the fridge, as they wanted £550 last time I asked.

I got to O'Leary's motorhomes this time tho, cost me £2.50 to get over the Humber bridge, luckily they charge the same as cars for vans upto 3.5 tons, I expected an argument as my van doesn't have it's make stickers on it (on an iveco, like most vans, the numbers on the side and front badge refer to the weight, mine's a 35.10, that means it's a 3.5 ton van, with a 100 hoss engine, the LT was an LT 35, ment it was a 3.5 ton van, and so on) but he just asked what size the van was, I said 3.5 tonner, and he said '2.50 please mate'

Found O'Leary's eventually, I had to drive through the centre of hull, then through the centre of Beverly, I got to see where I was born tho, never been back to Beverly since then :) I went into O'Leary's and they had a load of boxed fridges there, I initially asked about a shower enclosure, but they get them made to order, as they get damaged so easily if stored in a workshop, that wouldn't be done in time for me, as I needed the shower enclosure to be in the van before the new roof goes on, otherwise it'd be too wide to fit through the caravan door, so I'm going to have to build a shower enclosure my self, I may have a go at fiberglassing when I have made the rough shape, hopefully learn something new.. or make a total balls up of it, and rip it out and try again with waterproof wall board.

I asked for a fridge, the one I wanted was one of the new thetford fridges, I'd asked thetford for a price a month ago, and they told me they weren't for sale to the public yet, only available to makers and converters of vans, (I suppose I could have argued that as I'm building my own van, I'm a motorhome builder) O'Leary's being a converter was able to get them tho, and were selling them to anyone who wanted one, I wasn't going to complain, especially as they ask £450 for the N80E thetford fridge (80 litre electric ignition model) only problem was, when the boxes were looked at, they were electrolux fridges, they'd sold all the thetford ones, as everyone wants them now, one person has one in their van, and everyone who sees it in action then wants one them selves.. they can't get them in fast enough, the electrolux fridges they had were only half freezer box models, and I knew that the thetford fridges work much better than the electrolux ones, so I wanted a Thetford/Norcold fridge, it's sold by Thetford, but is a Norcold unit, like electrolux fridges are Dometic now.

Just as I was about to admit defeat and go home empty handed, a phone call came in, the fridges had just been unloaded from the boat, and would be delivered on Monday, the bloke at O'Leary's asked for one to be taken out of the container, and he'd go over and fetch it now for me, sorted, so I paid for the fridge, then followed the bloke from O'Leary's to the docks.. back through the centre of hull, got there and had the fridge put in the back of my van, and then I set off home happy for once.

When I got home I looked the fridge over, it's definitely built better than the electrolux models i've had in the past, they have interior lights as standard, a flame meter to show the gas is working properly.. much better than Electrolux's peep hole in the bottom left of the fridge.. meaning you have to lay on the floor and have the door open to see if the gas I light,  the controls seem a lot easier than most electrolux models too, a gas valve that is a thermostatic valve, an electric thermostat for mains use, and a power source selector rotary switch, just set the thermostat you want to use to the level you want, and select the power source, the electronics do the rest for you, inside you get a full width freezer box, that's guaranteed to reach -12 degrees C, even when the outside temp is +25 degrees C, a salad bin in the bottom of the fridge, bottle holder bar and so on, I'm well impressed with the fridge, and I hadn't even powered it up yet :)

Well that's about all i've done van related lately, i've got to get the brake hoses sorted out tomorrow, see if I can source a shower enclosure, anywhere in England will do, as I have 5 days to get one and have it in the van when it goes to the converters, or I'm making it my self, so the time is finally here, on November the 22nd I'll be taking the van upto Nu-Venture, and that's the last time I'll be driving it as a panel van, then over the next 3 months I'll be fitting out the interior, and this site should take off properly, I may not have the time to put updates as often as I'd like then, as I have just 3 months to get the van in a liveable condition to satisfy the insurance company and have it classed as a motorhome.

There is other things going on I'm my life at the moment, my dog Dino is not too well at the moment, on the 5th of November he had to be taken to the vets at 10pm, he'd got spooked by a firework overhead, and panicked, this caused him to have trouble breathing.. just like what happened 3 months earlier when he was pronounced dead by the vet in Sleaford! I was taking no chances, and got him to our vets immediately, he had 4 injections there and then, one of them was valium to calm him down, as he was panicking, which caused him breathing difficulties, that made him panic more, and so on, he was in a vicious circle, he had to stay overnight, and the vet said we may not get him back.

Luckily we did get him back, he had gastroenteritis now, and that's why he'd been sick a few times lately, so we had a £180 vets bill, and a liquid to put down his throat before he ate anything, and he was under strict orders to stay in the house.. no walks at all until he'd seen the vet in a weeks time!

He was due to go back to the vets yesterday, but on Friday we came down, and he couldn't get up, he finally got up with our help, but kept falling over, his back end had given out on him (it apparently did this when he was a pup.. I got him when he was 3, 13 years ago now) his right front paw was very painful for him, he was taking double steps with it.. i.e. he'd put it down, lift it up again immediately in obvious pain, and put it down again, we got him straight to the vets, he tried going for a pee when we got out of the car at the vets, and fell over :(

They said it was now time for him to go on steroids for his arthritis, we had been warned that having him on these long term would damage his internal organs, but we've finally got to accept that long term doesn't apply to him.. he's living on borrowed time as it is, he should have gone 3 months ago by all rights :(

Unfortunately he was already on a arthritis pill, (a very expensive one at that.. cost £70 a month for pills for him, tho we'd spend 700 quid a month on him if it gave him a better life) but the steroids cant be mixed with these other pills, so he had to come off them first, and then go over to the steroids, he went on them yesterday, the night before I had to take him in the car to the field where he goes for a walk, as he wouldn't have made it walking (it's only the next street away) at the moment he's still a bit stiff, but the steroids seem to be helping, I still drive him to the field for a walk, but he's definitely in less pain now.

I found a quote today that i've used for my 'favourite quote' on my yahoo profiles in place of my usual one (growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional :) the new one is :
"A dog is the only thing on this earth that loves you more than he loves himself" That definitely sums Dino up.

There's also a lass I'm very keen on ;) I have never heard from Vicky since she walked out.. even when I texted her to tell her dino was ill, she saved his life 3 months ago, so I thought she'd be a little interested in him, anyway, this other lass loves animals like I do, and she wants to see dino as she's heard so much about him, she was there to chat to when he was very ill, which was something I greatly appreciate, as I was falling apart when, when Dino does finally go, it's going to hit me harder than anything ever has before in my life, he's the first dog I ever owned, we had others when I was young, lady was a Labrador mongrel, but hated kids so I couldn't ever stroke her, we had to leave her with our grandparents when we went to Germany, I found dino chained up outside all the time, he was the friendliest dog I ever saw, and it wasn't long before his owners were letting me walk him every day, they even gave me a lead to take him when I wanted, then they got a posting to the Shetland islands, and they gave him to me, that was when I was 14, so i've had him just under half my life.

Getting back to this lass I like, she also likes travelling.. which is a big plus point :), Vic wanted to stay in one town all her life it seemed, me being a forces brat and living in a different place every year or so, I kind of have something inside me that gets bored when stuck in one place too long, hence why I am building another motorhome, I'd love to go abroad again, do more countries and maybe even do a month touring round Europe one year, that's not something I'm going to do on my own, but this lass loves travelling too, my dream if you can call it that is to drive through every country on this planet.. ideally in one go, as in set off one day, and come back a few years later with the whole van covered in stickers from every country, most people say I'm mad for wanting to do that, it is only a dream, never attainable, but I can hopefully se as many countries as I can in the time I have to go travelling, like I said at the beginning, you only get one shot at life, so I want to make mine slightly worthwhile, I'd deffo get some interesting stories to tell the grand kids.. if they ever come along one day :)

That's all for now then, next time this part of the site is updated, it'll be about the build of the van.. hopefully, Mr bad luck can piss off and haunt someone else for a while :)