Blogs from Hempstead, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Well, after a long period camper van stories continues. We left Brownhills and I took over the driving nearly killing us at the big scary roundabout where my husband got quite scared, not a good start, and we finally chugged off on the open road again. Not for long. The van started to slow down, a bad sign, so Robert decided to pull into a farm opening and look at the engine. This involved taking out all my useless packing, quite a lengthy task involving quite a bit of grumping. Then he hummed and haahed and fiddled about with the engine a bit, very boring, but I had my sectret weapon - a page turner- a rivetingly rubbishy book. Finally we put everything back and he drove. We chugged off again towards York. We found a ... read more

Last year I had my last big trip in the camper van, an ancient VW with peculiar looking high top roof which looks a bit like an ice cream van from the back. Fortunately before this trip we had managed to get a new roof vent so the green plant tray which looked rather like a dustbin lid from a distance was removed. I felt a little more ordinary after this event. So after some preparation involving me packing loads of so my husband thought useless things 'just in case' ,we bravely set off and of course it was raining. First stop - yes- Morrisons at Fakenham for things I had forgotten, ie food items and a veg knife. As I could buy knives only in packs of 6 I didn't bother. So - onto the ... read more

The long journey home was sad - I'd really got attached to life in Brisbane - the friends, places lifestyle... but time to move. Plans change, all the time sometimes huge life wrenching changes, going home or continuing travelling in Australia and then South East Asia was for me one of those choices that would lead one way or the other. I choose to use my ticket to go home, see my family and friends and then think again. I had been working on a website over the last few weeks for a company called The Cloud. It turned out that I choose to arrive in London just a few days before the launch of the entire brand. Picked up at Heathrow in a Mercedes taken to a hotel and then made my way to work... ... read more

I left Norfolk when I was 18 to go to Uni and apart from the long summer breaks whilst a student I haven't been back for more than a week at any one time. It's a bit strange being back. Hempstead is a small village very near Holt, six miles south of Sheringham. It has the grand total of 72 houses, 1 post box, 1 church, 1 public telephone box and fortunately 1 pub. It's a complete contrast to London - time seems to have slowed right down - I've been back about a week but it feels like a month. The event of the week has been the birth of a foal across the road - the photos here are when it was only about 12 hrs old. Already brave - after I had stood ... read more