Birmingham

We’d been staying at Elizabeth, a friend of mine’s grandfathers farm in a little village not far from the house where we used to live. We only stayed there over the weekend before we left to go to Birmingham as there was a motorhome show on at the NEC. I spent most of the weekend out round Lizzie’s house, it was her nieces 3rd birthday so I went to her tea party and Elizabeth and I went for a walk down to the park for a last chat before I left, and she went on holiday.

The next morning Lizzie came round to say goodbye as she was off to Lanzarote with her mum and Mary.

It was a long journey to the NEC the next day, I had to get up early to sort my room out ready for travelling. By the time we got to Birmingham I was rather tired and bored. We went out for dinner at the entertainment tent that was in our car park then headed back to the bus. The internet went on and that was it, I was sorted for the next 24hours.

On Tuesday I went round the exhibition in the NEC. It was filled with expensive motorhomes and gadgets, but as promised by mum, there was a stall which we all took very much interest in... the liquorice stall. Every morning when I woke up and went downstairs there was new people on the bus having a look around and it carried on all day long, but eventually I got used to it, and I think the people got used to seeing me in my pyjama’s and my hair in a mess.

The week was all in all not to bad, I spent most of my time on the internet talking to all the friends I’ve left behind in Oxford.

On Saturday Caroline came up to see us, so did Steve and Julia. It was nice to see people who I knew instead of random people who was parked up near us.
As soon as we got there it was time to leave, one thing I learnt there; Curiosity defiantly killed the cat.

Next stop, High Wycombe for a few days to get a few things sorted for the bus, the lights and to fill up with gas. We stayed in Chris’s’s café car park the first night and down a little side road to the workshop where the lights were being fixed the next night. Then with an early start off to Brighton.

Typically, we got lost, I set the sat nav up to all the details the campsite gave us, but ironically it lead us straight to a gypsy camp. After a short detour down to the seafront, and getting directions from a local bus driver, we finally got to the campsite where we stayed for 2nights.

On the second day in Brighton, we thought it would be a nice idea to go down to the sea front to get some proper English fish and chips. So we walked about a mile down to the beach and Alex and sam ran straight over the pebble mound there was, right onto the nudist beach.

We walked down to Brighton pier and got some rock and went to somerfields and by the time we got back home it was 7pm.

Early next morning, we left for Hastings, past beachy head down to the old town and parked up next to the tall sheds for the night. It brought back memories from when I was little and my parents brought me here. It was to windy to have the sky dish up so we just settled down and watched a DVD.

A moody traffic warden came round the next day, moaning that we hadn’t paid the right fare to stay there, so we decided to move on, down to St Leonards, just behind the beach huts.

St Leonards

From the very first second we parked up there was people poking their head round the corner and I just thought it was going to be a repeat of the NEC, but after a few days, we got to know everyone that came to visit us. Gary used to walk his Alsatian Megan past everyday and pop in for a chat and his partner Lisa came round for a look at the bus. One day, I mentioned that my hair was a mess and Gary said that his son Bradley was a hairdresser and he’d get him to come have a look at it.

The next night was firework night, a few of the people who used to visit us has invited us to go down to the beach with them so we could watch there fireworks with them. So that night I got ready and went out, fireworks were going off all over the place. Just before the fireworks started Bradley came past walking Megan, luckily it was dark so he couldn’t see what a state my hair was!

We all watched the fireworks together then Gary came round and we all went inside to have a cup of tea and a chat. I starting talking to Bradley, and he agreed with me that my hair was in need of help, the bright yellow, ginger and brown mess had to go.
Sunday came around, and at about lunchtime, Brad walked round the corner with Megan and knocked on the door of the bus. We had to walk 5miles to get the bleach for my hair, but I decided it would be worth it so off we went. It was nice getting to know someone, making a new friend. All the way there and back we were chatting. I went back to his house for the first bleaching session. All my hair falling to the floor around me, all the colour being bleached out, but the end result was fantastic! It wasn’t quite blonde though, so the next day, we set out on another mission to Boots for some more bleach.

On Wednesday we went into Hastings town centre, Bradley wanted a hair cut and yet again, we needed more bleach. We walked through the shopping centre and went for a cup of hot chocolate, got some bleach then went and got some lunch before we headed back home. I spent most of my time with Bradley, watching films round his house, going on the internet, or just having a laugh.

He decided it would be a good idea to go swimming, so we went the following day. I was a bit worried about my newly bleached hair going green. We spent all afternoon there, from 2pm till 8.30pm, playing in the wave machine, going down the water slide and throwing my swimming hat about.

Two lifeguards came over and started talking to us, asking if we were ever going to get out of the pool, we got talking and I told them that Bradley did my hair and they asked him of they would do their hair next Tuesday for there Christmas party.
We biked back home at about 9oclock, full of aches and pains after swimming for 6 and a half hours.

Bradley had an interview the next day for a job at a hairdressers, so he called me up to let me know how it went, then came round to the bus when he got back home. All night we watched video’s on youtube, we made a music video to send into a channel on TV and danced about on webcam to all my friends back in Oxford.

Friday came and we went swimming again. Met some people down at the swimming pool who started talking to us, we was there for another 6 hours then went and got some dinner after we got out of the pool.

It was really nice to have someone about to talk to and go out and about exploring with and just to get away from the bus for a couple of hours a day.

The next week I stayed round at Bradley’s on Monday, we were up all night talking and having a laugh then we finally got to sleep. I didn’t wake up till 1oclock the following day and at 5 we set off down to Bexhill to meet Claire and Amanda, the lifeguards, so Bradley could do there hair, but the plans had changed so we went and got some energy drinks from Tesco’s and a burger from a little van near all the shops and just sat around talking before we biked back to the bus.

Every morning while Alex and Sam were doing their school work I play guitar, making up new songs and learning other songs too, and every afternoon I spent with Brad, living on the bus wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be after all.

I took loads of pictures while I was in St Leonards, after a nice warm sunny day, I used to go out and sit on the groins on the beach and just watch the sun set over the horizon, watch the sea change from a beautiful blue colour to pink, to a deep purple colour, and the sky just light up. Every time I went out there it was different, but still as pretty.

After Bradley got his laptop back, I was round there every night on the internet playing a game he showed, talking to all my friends and just having a good time.
The last few days before I left I got quite upset that I’d have to leave Bradley behind, have no one to knock for, no one to talk to, no one to go out and see anymore.
The afternoon before we left, I went down to the beach to watch the waves roll in and the sun shine bright, thinking to myself, “The next time I see this sea, I’ll be seeing it from the other side.” Bradley was out walking Megan down the beach and saw me and we just sat on the groin, chatting as ever and I realised how much I was going miss St Leonards.

We went back to his and he bleached my hair one last time, I don’t think my hair appreciated it to much though and has now started to break off, but saying that, it looks rather good all the same.

We set off for Dover, driving for 5 hours until we reached the port, then we had to find somewhere to park. We all sat down on the sofa and watched a film, then played charades which turned out to be quite a laugh, even if sam did decide to change the thing he was acting out everytime someone guessed correctly.

France here we come

Bright and early on Wednesday 28th we set off to Dover, to board that ferry that would take us over to France. After about half an hour we were through the check-in and parked up on the ferry. We went up to the passengers lounge and sat right at the front, watching Dover slowly disappear and France come into view. After an hour on the ferry, we’d arrived in France. Not having a clue where we were going and me being the only one who can speak french and not very well at that, we set off to get out of Calais down towards Reims.