Woken up this morning by mum, telling us to get down stairs straight away to make sure we could say goodbye to Jacki before she left for work.
It was more than an hours wait before Jacki got down stairs, let alone left for work. She said she was late because my younger brother, Rhys, was up at a “ridiculous hour”. Rhys claimed he usually got up at five in the morning (not eight, like he actually does).
Dad and Andy went to a garage to sort out the car (we were having some handbrake issues). We (Mum, Rhys and I) sat around and watched Harry Potter on DVD until they got back. We were about half way through the film when Dad and Andy when to collect the Peugeot and we set off after lunch (my diary reads: “we were only half way through when the two old men went to collect the car“).
We stopped in a campsite called New Forrest near the town of Pool, were we set up camp for the night.
I felt a bit timid, maybe a bit scared you could say. I really didn’t want to go - to leave all my friends behind, and the life I had known for the last 5 years, but I was also excited. That, and I guess I had to go - it being my parents decision, and all.
Our red Peugeot 405 just leaving our house of 5 years.
We set off around six-thirty in the morning and before we even leave our driveway, dad broke the handbrake. Whoo! Anyway, after hours and hours of solid driving we arrived at Andy & Jacki’s place around ten at night, heading off to bed son after. But it wasn’t until at least an hour after getting in bed that we actually went off to sleep, because Elsa, Andy & Jacki’s cat, kept terrorizing (playing with) us.
It was kind of weird thinking that we’d be living in that red car, and a fold-up camper van for the next six months. Really makes you think about how excessive our society is. I mean, do you really need a huge house with lots of bedrooms, and on-suite and a swimming pool, when a family of four can live out of an old Peugeot and a camper van? I’d rather be seeing the world in a crappy red Peugeot than be stuck inside a mansion.