Hello Amigos, peregrinos, relatives and friends
Hi from a damp stormy West Australia with no electricity at the moment!!! (It has come back on, I was typing this up on Maisie's palmtop!)
The time of year has come where, it is colder here than most northern countries like England, and today is forecast storms and a high of 17c. The weather doesn't help my knee or arthritis in my hands much. It wasn't so long ago it was me who used to laugh at our old folk blaming the weather for their aches and pains!!! chuckle. Well forgive me but I was planning to be in sunny Spain this month!!!!
Most of you seem to be in the best of health with a number of you taking holidays and sunning yourselves in different country's such as Greek Islands, Island of Asland, Spain, Buenos-Aries and Puerto Rico. None have thought of coming here to Australia as yet but with this weather today I don't blame you. Anyway it does me good to see that you are all making the most of summer. Don't forget I want some stories for friends adventures
Most of my time this month has been working on the conversion of the Ford Transit into a mobile home for gnomes chuckle! You would be surprised, the lack of a pop up roof is not such a disadvantage as you naturally spend more time outside the van making the most of the sunshine and BBQ facilities. Who wants to spend a holiday cooking indoors anyway!
This month I removed the cupboards I
had built (not a problem they are made to remove easily.) I then took out the rubber floor matting and fitted padding between the ribs and cut and fixed a flat ply floor with a wood look vinyl layer over the top. 
Hopefully this will keep the van warmer, easier to clean and nicer under foot too! I bought some small rugs for the finished van too in a sale! Next I put back the bed and cupboards and fitted a mains power socket and box with points to run the microwave and electric appliances.
I also wired up a small 12-volt pump to supply water from the storage containers below the work tops to the sink tap.
Now I had to work out how to fix the padding to the walls and ceiling !
I cut board to fit the panels and padded them and covered them with cloth,
I made little metal clips that hook to the body frames and hold these in place without showing when fixed. Several pieces of aluminium were shaped and padded to cover over some awkward raised pieces and these were held in place by two padded topped screws! A lot of work with little to show, as everything has to be offered up and tested for fit many times. The ceiling was a much harder project, as I had to make a strip all round the top of the walls first to hold the edges up, and I shall leave this wood to varnish later. 
You can see I have fitted one ceiling panel t
his has now to come down again to be stiffened, to stop bowing, then padded and covered before re-fixing. The beam itself I will probably cover with aluminium sheeting and I'll pad this before fixing it over the beam. I am hoping all this work will make it warmer as it was damn cold last time we used it down in Denmark, chuckle.
I think I forgot to tell you my friend Brigitte has published her book on the camino. It is written in German so any of you who can read that language can treat yourself to a copy. I am told it's a good read and mentions this old peregrino walking the Via del Plata with her in 2004 I think it was, wow! how time flies!
Also I received a letter this month from Antonio, an old friend from the time I lived in Spain. He tells me he has a house near Cordoba and invited me to call and see the family there if I walk the Mozarabe one-day! Maybe that was why I was unable to walk it this year! (The gods do play such tricks on peregrinos chuckle) Anyway I will hope that I can get fit and wealthy enough to walk that track next May, who knows!
Meantime have a look at Maisie's blog, and our web pages for video clips and photos for this month. Josie's girls have been doing things, Alex was in the school play and Lizzy in the band playing trumpet. She also had a story published by the school in their book like she did last year. Look out Simon your daughter will soon be publishing faster than Mr Space Jock himself.
I heard on the grapevine my brother is visiting hospital for prostate treatment and other friends have said they too have relatives not in such good health so to finish lets wish everyone a speedy recovery and good health to all.
Hasta pronto
Michael
Hi from a damp stormy West Australia with no electricity at the moment!!! (It has come back on, I was typing this up on Maisie's palmtop!)
The time of year has come where, it is colder here than most northern countries like England, and today is forecast storms and a high of 17c. The weather doesn't help my knee or arthritis in my hands much. It wasn't so long ago it was me who used to laugh at our old folk blaming the weather for their aches and pains!!! chuckle. Well forgive me but I was planning to be in sunny Spain this month!!!!
Most of you seem to be in the best of health with a number of you taking holidays and sunning yourselves in different country's such as Greek Islands, Island of Asland, Spain, Buenos-Aries and Puerto Rico. None have thought of coming here to Australia as yet but with this weather today I don't blame you. Anyway it does me good to see that you are all making the most of summer. Don't forget I want some stories for friends adventures
Most of my time this month has been working on the conversion of the Ford Transit into a mobile home for gnomes chuckle! You would be surprised, the lack of a pop up roof is not such a disadvantage as you naturally spend more time outside the van making the most of the sunshine and BBQ facilities. Who wants to spend a holiday cooking indoors anyway!
This month I removed the cupboards I
had built (not a problem they are made to remove easily.) I then took out the rubber floor matting and fitted padding between the ribs and cut and fixed a flat ply floor with a wood look vinyl layer over the top. 
Hopefully this will keep the van warmer, easier to clean and nicer under foot too! I bought some small rugs for the finished van too in a sale! Next I put back the bed and cupboards and fitted a mains power socket and box with points to run the microwave and electric appliances.
I also wired up a small 12-volt pump to supply water from the storage containers below the work tops to the sink tap.Now I had to work out how to fix the padding to the walls and ceiling !
I cut board to fit the panels and padded them and covered them with cloth,
I made little metal clips that hook to the body frames and hold these in place without showing when fixed. Several pieces of aluminium were shaped and padded to cover over some awkward raised pieces and these were held in place by two padded topped screws! A lot of work with little to show, as everything has to be offered up and tested for fit many times. The ceiling was a much harder project, as I had to make a strip all round the top of the walls first to hold the edges up, and I shall leave this wood to varnish later. 
You can see I have fitted one ceiling panel t
his has now to come down again to be stiffened, to stop bowing, then padded and covered before re-fixing. The beam itself I will probably cover with aluminium sheeting and I'll pad this before fixing it over the beam. I am hoping all this work will make it warmer as it was damn cold last time we used it down in Denmark, chuckle.
I think I forgot to tell you my friend Brigitte has published her book on the camino. It is written in German so any of you who can read that language can treat yourself to a copy. I am told it's a good read and mentions this old peregrino walking the Via del Plata with her in 2004 I think it was, wow! how time flies!
Also I received a letter this month from Antonio, an old friend from the time I lived in Spain. He tells me he has a house near Cordoba and invited me to call and see the family there if I walk the Mozarabe one-day! Maybe that was why I was unable to walk it this year! (The gods do play such tricks on peregrinos chuckle) Anyway I will hope that I can get fit and wealthy enough to walk that track next May, who knows!
Meantime have a look at Maisie's blog, and our web pages for video clips and photos for this month. Josie's girls have been doing things, Alex was in the school play and Lizzy in the band playing trumpet. She also had a story published by the school in their book like she did last year. Look out Simon your daughter will soon be publishing faster than Mr Space Jock himself.
I heard on the grapevine my brother is visiting hospital for prostate treatment and other friends have said they too have relatives not in such good health so to finish lets wish everyone a speedy recovery and good health to all.Hasta pronto
Michael
No comments:
Post a Comment