On the road again. Just can’t wait to get on the road again.

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of travelling.

Margaret Lee Runbeck

Well, who would’ve believed it?  We hunkered into lockdown on 24 March 2020 not knowing how long it would take until we’d be allowed to move again, but definitely not expecting it to take this long. But here we are. Almost four months later.

When lockdown was announced, campsites shut and everyone was banned from staying away from home overnight.  We decided the best option was to book somewhere to stay, and we were fortunate to be able to return to our previous bricks and mortar home as it was still vacant. We booked to rent it for four months –  just in case. 

The only issue was that the house was totally empty.  When we moved out in January, we condensed our worldly belongings into what we needed to live in Tut, our campervan.  Apart from a few boxes of important and nostalgic items that we wanted to keep long-term that we stored with relatives, we gave everything else away, including all our furniture. 

So with nothing in the house and everything we need to live contained in Tut, we have spent the last few months living outside the house we’re renting, on the driveway, in Tut.  We’ve used the house as would have used campsite facilities – so for the bathroom and showers.  It’s probably been quite a spectacle – us living in Tut on the driveway – but at least it’s given friends and neighbours something to talk about!

There have been a few other bonuses having the house available to use.

When we’re travelling, we tend to buy our food fresh as we go, stopping to shop every 1-2 days.  The cupboard space in Tut means that every item stored has to justify its existence.  We only buy what we need. We turn down the buy one get one free offers and the bulk size items.  It means our food is always fresh, often locally produced, and we waste very little.  

However, as Government advice in Covid-19 was to only go out on essential journeys, we limited our trips to once a fortnight to Tesco to stock up on food. As a result, the freezer and kitchen in the house to store food in has been a bonus.

My work normally takes me travelling all over the country which was one of the catalysts for the whole campervan caper in the first place.  Lockdown and the closure of all venues resulted in everything going online. I take my hat off to the speed at which the organisation moved everything almost seamlessly over a few days from in person to remote online video conferencing.  An incredible feat if you knew the actual scale of the task and number of people to keep happy.

Of course, given the choice between having to travel to a certain location for work or being able to join by video-conference from wherever I am in the country, I’ll vote for latter any day of the week.  I roll into the house at 9am and am outside in the garden or in Tut within 60 seconds of finishing. A great commute.

Video conferencing has been fantastic, but it’s not without unexpected stresses.  Although I’m not personally responsible for the technical set up, for some reason I’ve found myself feeling more stressed with the picture lagging behind the sound at times, connections dropping at crucial times and piercing feedback when a participant forgets to mute themselves.  But on the plus side, I’ve been able to get up later in the mornings. I’ve started the day with a leisurely cup of tea sitting outside Tut listening to the birds singing with the sun streaming down on us. When the conference is finished, we’ve not had to drive to the next venue and overnight spot, but instead I’ve just shut my laptop down and in less than a minute, I’m outside again soaking up the afternoon rays or going for a walk.

Another benefit of having the use of a house in addition to our home, Tut, has been somewhere to do the video conferences.  When I say somewhere, I really mean somewhere away from a barking dog (not mentioning any names). This will be the next challenge to overcome if my work continues to be done over video conferencing. When we’re travelling, I won’t have the option of going into the house where it’s quieter, so my current google searches have been ‘headphones that cut out barking dog sounds’. I’ll let you know what I find!

We love Joey, our family Bichon Frise dog, and he has many great qualities. He is quiet for 95% of the time, but for the other 5% he goes into hypervigilant mode. He’s very friendly and wouldn’t hurt a fly, but is very protective of us and our space. The longer we’ve lived on the drive, the more he’s come to see it as his territory to protect from intruders.  If someone walks past the drive, he barks them into submission or terror. Should they see though his bravado and reach out to stroke him, he melts and loses his tongue. 

When the post lady comes, he goes completely mad. “Who does she think she is putting unidentified objects through the letter box?”  We gave her a box of ‘Heroes’ chocolates last week as a small compensation for putting up with his daily greeting.  Home shopping deliveries in the street seem to have increased so we’ve got Amazon, DPD, Royal Mail, and all manner of vans dropping off throughout the day.  And the biggest invader of all, a Tesco delivery van. Joey can sense their vans long before we see one even turn the corner into the street. 

All that is not a problem (for us) until I start doing video conferences in Tut and it’s my turn to speak so I’m unmuted and….Joey barks.  So far I’ve done all the conferences from inside the house in a dog free zone, but I’m working up the courage to start doing them from Tut because when we start moving again, that’s what I’ll have to do. 

In our usual way, we always believe that for every challenge there is an answer.  So this week’s visualisations are focused on all the good Joey brings to our lives and how, between us, we manage Joey so well that we and he are able to stay calm as cucumbers and enjoy talking to people on video unconcerned as to any background noise.

However, when I balance the extra challenges with the extra benefits of more time and freedom, the change to video conferencing has been wonderfully liberating for our travelling lifestyle. Of course, we’ve been locked down in one location until now, but fingers crossed, video conferencing will continue long term after we’re allowed to move again.

And at last, BoJo announced the news we’ve personally been waiting for.  From early July, lockdown restrictions would ease, campsites could reopen and we would be allowed to legally stay ‘away from home’ overnight.  We punched the air when we heard.

It means our time living in Tut on the driveway outside our old home is drawing to a close.  Although, Covid-19 has meant we had to cancel our trips to France and Spain for Spring and Summer of 2020, we have tried to make the most of ‘The Great Pause’ and look for the blessings in this downtime.  Here’s just a few:

We have spoken to family more than ever, nearly every day, even if it’s only been about what’s for dinner or on Netflix.  (Yes, we’re not kidding ourselves it will last and know it’s only because our offspring have had nothing better to do.)

We’ve done a weekly family quiz via Zoom which has been great fun.

I did a course on Word Press websites – something I’d wanted to do for a few years – and set up this website/blog.

Phil’s been learning French. He can now say ‘Moi, je n’aime pas les monteaux rouge’ – translation: ‘Me, I don’t like red coats.’ Should come in handy, eh?

We’ve read fiction books and with recent world events, started reading books on racism and anti-racism to educate ourselves on what we don’t know and what we can do about it.

We’ve watched series on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Ozark. Happy Valley. Mrs Maisel. Unorthodox. Little Fires Everywhere. And now we’re onto The Crown.

I’ve learned to use clippers to cut Phil’s hair. However I’m advised my skills will only be required in times of national emergency.

I’ve found that I can go more than 6 weeks without visiting my hairdresser.  Turns out I’m not a natural blond after all.

We’ve not felt restricted in our walks by Joey’s 16 weeks of gradually increasing exercise programme required to recover properly from his ACL surgery. We’ll be back to proper walks and hikes by the end of July.

We’ve waved to our neighbours (more than we did in eight years of living here) each week as we all stood outside on a Thursday night to ‘Clap for Carers’ – a moving experience that reminded us of what’s going on beyond our bubble.

Oh and one of my shallower lockdown goals – to get a tan!  Tick!

So, we are coming to the end of our time of ‘The Great Pause’.  As things stand now, from 24 July, we will be on the road travelling again.