White Van Man

Having thought we’d have a quiet bank holiday weekend painting the outside of the flats, visiting our elderly friend James who is in hospital – that sort of thing – on Thursday night we got a phone call that changed everything.

Our motoring contact in Devon rang to say he’d been to a car auction and found us a van that he thought would suit us fine. It sounded like it would – right price, mileage, side loading door – etc.

In case you’re wondering, we’ve been looking for one for a while. Partly so that Himself can do the necessary maintenance jobs and take stuff to the dump, and also so that we can camp in it a bit. So it needed to be something long enough for a six foot plus fella to sleep in but small enough so as not to be expensive to run and small enough for me to drive.

It sounded like this van was what we wanted, so I advertised our car on Friday and on Friday afternoon, a couple came to see it, agreed to buy it and gave a deposit; said they’d come back on Saturday with the rest of the money.

So Friday evening was a flurry of organising insurance, trips to Devon, lift to the train etc. And how would Mollie get on in a train? She’s never been in one before. As you can imagine, my head was spinning on Friday night and not much sleep, but Saturday saw us clean the car out of all doggie things, replace the parcel shelf, do the shopping, go to the library and bank , walk the dog and so on before the couple arrived with the money.

By Saturday evening I was shattered, and Sunday morning found us on the train to Totnes with Moll sitting first on Himself’s lap looking out of the window, then on mine fast asleep for the entire journey. I was really worried how she’d get on and had gone armed with poo bags, kitchen roll, water, biscuits etc Just In Case. As it was, it was as if she’d been travelling by train all her life.

Sunday afternoon found us the proud owners of a Van. Himself was dying to get it back so he could start Tinkering. Sorry, working on it. It was an old water van so it had a large sign saying WATER on the top. I rather liked that but no, it had to come off. Since then, at every available opportunity, Himself has been rushing out to Do Things to it. And guess where he is now?

When I told a friend about the van she grinned and said, "What colour is it?"
"White," replied HImself. "Why?"
"You'd better start reading the Sun," she replied.

The van is currently named Doxie Three because we have had vans before. But Himself suggested painting a large Flowerpot on the side. In which case it will be the Flowerpotmobile. Bit of a mouthful that. Any suggestions for other names?