Sunday 21 September

Its been a while since we sent out an update and we’ve had lots of people asking what we are doing and where we disappeared to.

After much debate we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves down and toured England to find the right motorhome for us.   We weren’t going to give up that easy and recon we’d just picked an unlucky motorhome.  On the positive side, we new how to fix a motorhome inside out! We also recognised we needed to change a few things like our approach, the fact we need to slow down, learn how to chill and go back to loving each other like we normally do.

After touring all the UK motorhome dealers, eventually we found a 2013 Hymer B590 with 400 miles on the clock.  A bloody Hymer after all the issues, I know but it feels right! It ticks all the right boxes and is now being prep’d for part II.  We need to fit solar, sort out the electrics etc and prepare the motorhome for how we want it, which will probably take another couple of weeks.  Once ready we’ll take it for a trial run. Then back home to do the final fixes before hitting the road again.  In terms of a name for the motorhome, well we are still debating.  Craig wants a simple name “Van”.  But not on my nelly, is it being called van.  Anyway, Van lead on to possibility of “Vin” short for Vinny our diving “Bud”, who was a bit of a diesel head. The new motorhome is a 6 cylinder 3L diesel and sounds pretty sexy as far as diesels go, so he would love the sound.  So “Vin Diesel” could be its Sunday name but don’t book the Christening just yet!

The best thing about being home is you get to see all our family and friends, which is just amazing. There is nothing like a big hug to put things in to perspective.  As always, just  great to see Barrie & Michel, giggle a minute.   Next week is a “me and mum week”, so loads of hugs everyday as we go shopping and tea room tasting. Dad’s been helpful as always running us here and there.  I got to see my great nephew Lucas for the 1st time and he is just adorable.  Oliver my other great nephew is now 9 months old and turning in to a right cheeky but loveable character.  The best hug and the one I longed to give was to my sister Mandy, didn’t think I would but I missed her so much…my earth angel xxx

The 3 of us (me, Craig and Peanut) have also had an MOT – doctors, dentist, eyes, vets and all sorted apart from my itchy skin.  I’ve seen a consultant dermatologist and he is doing biopsy plus a few more tests in a couple of weeks.  Once the results are back and we know the source of the problem we can start to plan for take off!

Its hard to fix a date until we have the biopsy results but we’re aiming for take off early December. Where to…we have no idea but we are getting our mojo back and looking forward to part II.

Joanne, Craig & Peanut