Our 35th wedding Anniversary.

Monday 1st  December

Mileage Start 15078 - End  =

35 years ago today was the very best day of my life.  I married my best friend.  Like most long marriages there have been ups, downs and lots of ordinariness in between but we have survived to tell the tale!

As it was Simon's day off we decided that a little trip out in Tallulah was in order.  I was feeling quite down in the morning as the only cards we got were the ones that we sent each other.  Nobody else acknowledged the day, not even our children.  I know that shouldn't matter but it did.

I was very sad too that the one person who would never have forgotten is no longer here.  My Dad. For 34 years we always had a card from my Mum and Dad.  Even through the years when Mum was in the hospital and Dad was so busy and preoccupied, he never once forgot.

Anyway, we decided to go to Hunstanton to look for more sea glass.  Hunstanton  is just a little bit further around the coast from Heacham where we found some sea glass a few weeks back.

It was a really cold and windy day but we had the best time.  We parked  at the far side of Hunstanton on the road above the cliffs.  We walked down through the gardens onto the sea front and then spent several hours walking right the way along the beach to the other end.  

Found this Union Jack on the beach.

SELFIES!

All the time we were scanning the sand around our feet for the elusive sea glass.  We didn't have any luck to begin with but then Simon found a few pieces.  While we were walking, we talked again about the fact that nobody had remembered our day. I said to Simon how hard I was finding it with no card from Dad and that he never forgot.  As I was speaking a little glint of glass caught my eye down in the sand.  I bent to pick it up and as it slid free of the sand I saw that it was little heart.

My Dad had not missed the day after all.  He had not forgotten. He sent me his heart.

I know to many of you that will all sound very fanciful. You believe what you will.  You will never convince me otherwise.   My Dad sent that heart to me in that moment to let me know that everything is ok and that he loves me.

We continued our walk along the beach and did find several more pieces of glass but not much. By the time we returned to Tallulah the sun was going down so we drove home.

It was a lovely day and although Tallulah has now been resting for over a month I am hoping that the winter weather will soon allow us to have our first trip of 2015.

Adventures with Tallulah, The story begins.

Adventures with Tallulah, The story begins.

For some years Simon and I have wanted and planned to get our very own motorhome / camper van. We hired a very small one for a week back in 2011 and had a great time.  Well at least until Simon was taken ill.  That week was long enough to confirm for us that this would be something we would enjoy.

This is the tiny little Romahome that we rented for a holiday in Juy 2011

We talked about it often and hoped that we might be able at some point to save up and buy an older model.  My Dad knew of our plans and we would all talk about it when he visited. Sadly it is because Dad is no longer with us that has provided us with the means to purchase Tallulah.  I wish it wasn't that way but it is and I can't change it.  I don't feel badly about using Dad's money for this as I know that he would be thrilled by her. It is my belief that he is looking down and is just chuffed to bits for us.  He will always be along for the ride, wherever we travel.

Even though we had suddenly found ourselves with the funds, we hadn't initially planned to purchase anything very quickly. We knew we wouldn't be able to holiday in a van right now because of Loulou who is not able to travel.  What we did want to do was to take our time and do lots of research into what exactly would meet our needs, for a price we were happy to pay.  Simon was fairly sure that would be a VW T5 camper van.

We spent the spring months visiting dealers and going to various trade shows. It was exciting but also quite confusing.  The more we looked the more we didn't know for sure what we wanted.  We had thought it would be a brand new VW as previously mentioned.  We saw loads of them and began to research the possibilities of buying a new van and having it converted for us.

Then one day we visited the SMC dealership in Newark and saw a lot of bigger vans, conversions and coach builds. They were pretty good.  I particularly liked the little toilet, washroom areas that they had.  Not something you get with the VW.  I also liked the extra space,  It gave us plenty of food for thought and we continued to visit more trade shows.

As our thoughts became more concentrated we began to get a better idea of what would suit our needs.  We ruled out coach builds, lovely as they are, because we realised that we wouldn't actually be able to fit one on our drive!  That was essential as no way would we be paying for storage elsewhere.

All our research made us realise that maybe a VW was not actually the ideal vehicle for us after all.   They are very, very expensive, even secondhand and we had found out that we could get more for our money by going for a larger  van conversion.  This would give us lots more space and that all important on board toilet.   We had seen a few that we quite liked at the shows, one of which was made by a company called Wildax.

We checked out their website.  My goodness were they expensive?  See for yourself here: WILDAX  Way beyond our budget!  So we formed a plan to keep our eyes open for a secondhand one.  We thought it would take ages as they are few and far between.  Little did we know, but luck was going to be on our side.

One evening I decided to use good old Google to see what I could find.  I was browsing dealer websites and forums and suddenly came across an advert for a Wildax Aurora.  It was at a dealership called Fuller Leisure near Nottingham.  Hmm, not too far to travel.  It was a 4 year old van in our price range with only 13,000 miles on the clock.  Exciting!  I showed it to Simon and a plan was formulated to go and see it on Simon's next day off.

It took about an hour to drive there and as we pulled in we saw "our" van straight away as she was parked  right at the front.  I think we fell in love right then before we even got out of the car!  As we walked towards her (We already knew she was a girl!) our excitement increased.  She just looked so lovely.  Her champagne livery gleaming in the sun!   Goodness, listen to me, I am getting all poetic.

We stepped inside and afterwards we both agreed that we knew then that we were going to buy her.  We looked over her very thoroughly, checking out every minute detail.  This took around an hour and a half and several cups of coffee brought to us by a very helpful salesman.  He answered all our questions.

Despite both knowing that she was the "one" we did also look at 3 others that were similar in size and price but none of them came close.  We picked fault with each one. 3 hours after we had got there we looked at each other and said "OK, So are we doing this or what"?

Several more coffees later, all the paperwork was complete and we had paid a  deposit.  We had got a few concessions from the dealer too.  A new TV fitted in the "dining area" and a bike rack fitted to the rear.  They needed time to get those fitted and to get her serviced and ready so we agreed a collection date of 22nd August.  Ten days time.

We drove home feeling incredibly excited.  However in my normal way, it didn't take me long before I was questioning if we had done the right thing!  Simon will tell you that I always do this and question things and worry.  It was just that it was such a huge sum of money.   I have never in my life spent so much money on anything apart from our house and she cost more than our first house!  Plus, I kept worrying about what my Dad would think.  He certainly had never spent that amount of money on anything.

Anyway there were ten whole days to wait.  Ten more sleeps as my children would have said when they were little...............

Jilly