Monday
I have the next two days off work as I knew I would need some recovery time after my weekend electrical course. In my mind this was going to be two full days of working on Betty, but things never work out the way you plan. Half the day is a torrential downpour, so I potter around and do house and life admin jobs. I then have an afternoon meeting with my accountant (who even am I? An adult?). Finally at 5pm I head over to Betty to see what I can do before the light goes. I successfully remove the two passenger seats (even I’m surprised at how easily they come out) and give the whole bus a good sweep. With an almost completely clear space I decide to measure and tape out my internal layout to double check the plans that I’ve been designing for the last 6months. I’m excited to find that the dimensions match and the layout feels fluid and not claustrophobic at all.
With that success I decide to regroup tomorrow to start tackling the installation of the privacy film on the windows. I’m surprised at 7:30pm when the replacement part for my boat steering shows up (2days earlier than anticipated!). Tomorrow is supposed to be dry, so hopefully I can do boat repairs in the morning and Betty in the afternoon. Fingers crossed.
Tuesday
So not the day I hoped it would be. Waited around for the internet engineers who never showed up and spent 4 hours working on the boat repairs. It’s not finished yet but hopefully a couple more hours tomorrow and it will be good as new. A bright spot in the day was that I had posted the two minibus seats for sale on marketplace and someone actually showed up to buy them off me! Now Betty is officially clear. Here’s hoping I get the boat finished tomorrow and can finally get back to Betty.
Wednesday
Finally some success after what feels like the last few days of everything breaking and going wrong. It’s a beautifully sunny and warm day and after a morning of meetings I decide to take the afternoon off work to get on top of repairing the boat and other house jobs. Part of having GAD (generalised anxiety disorder) means that when I get overwhelmed I need to regain control over what I can by finishing jobs that are unfinished and tidying and organising my environment, it’s a way of regaining order. Simon and I attack my boat, and after a couple of hours we have the new steering system installed. I feel se relieved to have my boat back!
Bolstered from the success of repairing the boat, I decide the finish the hot tub deck, clean the hot tub and get it all refilled and heating up. The weather is so lovely that I take advantage and clear all the flower beds for winter and load up the boat with the leftover deck boards.
These are mostly rotten and broken ends so I see another trip to the recycling centre in my near future. At 5pm I have a decision to make. Do I head over to Betty and squeeze in an hour of work, or do I stop for the day and take some time to relax? In the spirit of this project being a marathon and not a sprint I decide to shower, make a curry and enjoy some wine. Now that the major house jobs are done I really feel I can focus on Betty. Hopefully once I’m home from work tomorrow I’ll have time to get started on the windows.
Thursday
Back to Betty!! After a day on site at work I made it home by 5pm, so I had about an hour to work on Betty. I brought all my cardboard over and successfully made templates of all the side windows. This means that tomorrow I can cut the film to size and maybe have a first attempt at installing the privacy film. I’m a bit nervous as it’s not something I’ve ever done before. I want it to be functional and look good but I fear it might be like trying to put a screen protector on a mobile phone.
Another small success is that one of my neighbours has asked for all my leftover deck board. This is brilliant as it means I won’t have to load it all back into Betty and do ANOTHER trip to the recycling centre. They are going to take it this weekend and hopefully they use it all. Fingers crossed.
Friday
Work all day and pack to go away for a semi spur of the moment weekend. (Keep an eye out for a post entitled Norwich Pilgrimage to find out about my trip!)
Saturday
Norwich Pilgrimage
Sunday
I get home from Norwich in the morning and after doing some food shopping and unpacking I finally have some time to spend on Betty. I’ve been procrastinating putting the privacy film on the windows as I’ve never done it before, and I don’t want to do it badly. This is ridiculous as we all know that the first time you do anything new it will probably be bad, but how else do you get better without practice?
I start with one of the smallest windows and seem to make a decent job of it. I then move on to a big window and immediately get the film stuck to itself and have to scrap that entire piece. I start again and manage to get it on the window but there are quite a few bits of dirt and bubbles. I decide to move on to the next window, and I might even decide in the end to redo that first big one. The third one goes very slowly as it takes me forever to get the sticky backing off the right side of the film. Honestly I need to YouTube whatever the trick is to not go insane while doing that. When I finally find success and get the film on the window, it’s a lot better than the previous one. At this point I have run out of energy to keep going, so decide to continue this job tomorrow evening. I feel happy that it’s started and seems to be working. Fingers crossed I don’t run out of film. I bet I will….
Live Wild and Free 