- amassed a collection of vintage Omega watches
- learnt how to play the ukulele
- bought LOTS of ukuleles
- customised ukuleles (leather, fuzzy felts, googly eyes - you name it)
- collected comics and graphic novels (with no prior interest whatsoever)
- built up a collection of vintage analogue cameras (probably about 50 or so)
Each and every one of the above obsessions has become all consuming...until I move on to the next one. As well as having a reputation for getting obsessed with these things I am (probably fairly) not considered to be what you would call a "completer/finisher". In an attempt to prove to everyone (and more likely myself) that I can finish something I start, a year ago I embarked on a Project 365. For those who have not heard of this it involves taking a photo every day for a whole year and publishing the results somewhere - in my case on Facebook. Barring one unfortunate day where I failed to take a single picture, I have now finished what I started and am pretty chuffed with what I have achieved. So, I reckon I'm cured. No more flitting between hobbies. No more unopened watercolour paint sets. No more drawers full of leather hides and cupboards full of (still boxed) ukuleles. Clearly, when I put my mind to something now there is NO WAY that I will move on to something else until it's done :-/
So, with the above in mind, the weekend before last, for some reason, I typed in the words "Citroen camper van" into google whilst sitting in Pret. I can't fully understand why I did this. It may be due to the fact that I had seen one recently parked up on the Southbank. It may be because I have owned a few Citroens over the last few years. I have briefly fantasied about owning a VW camper at different times, bought a couple of magazines and decided they were too expensive. Also, in my mind, a VW camper is like an iPhone or an iPod - it's the obvious, populist choice. That puts me right off. I can't help it but generally I back away from the orthodox choices (I choose analogue cameras over digital, vintage suits over Ted Baker, Linux over Windows). So the fact that very few people have ever heard or seen an H van has a lot of appeal to me. The fact that parts are hard to find and there are very few online resources to help is the price I will no doubt end up paying.
Anyway, one quick google search later and it turns out that the only H van camper up for sale in the UK was only advertised a couple of days before and was located about 30 mins from home in Dorking. Well that pretty much sealed the deal! :-) Clearly it was meant to be! We went to see it the next day and 2 days later I had made a few calls to work out insurance and storage options and decided to buy it.
Saturday came round quickly and Ashley, Bailey and I went to pick up the van. I have blocked much of the following hour from my memory but, put simply, it involved getting the van from Dorking to Guildford. Sounds simple but then you have to factor in the steering wheel on the wrong side, no seat belts, massive bouncy 19inch tyres, only 3 gears - all of which crunched when I eventually found them and the brakes - dear lord the brakes! I don't know why they bothered, I swear at one point driving down a moderate hill I was literally standing on the brake pedal trying to get some kind of response from it. Oh, and the half a mile tailback of cars following me all the way as I struggled to reach whatever speed I was doing (it was in km per hour so who the hell knows).
Anyway, we got back in one piece and managed to park up in a handy spot just near the house.
STEP ONE: Collection - COMPLETE
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