Saving Money!

July 20^th 2018 was the day the schools broke up in Powys!

For over five years Peter, with the aid of six minibus and drivers, had fulfilled a very comfortable contract with Powys County Council to deliver children from the out lying farms to school and back.

On the last day of school we each received final letters of Thank you's, I got chocolates, Peter even received a bottle of whisky from one grateful parent, and the end of another era was over.

During our years on the school runs Cian had been in full time education so the work had been ideal.

But for over five years Peter had been tied to the school holidays while I had gallivanted all over the world each winter.

Cian, having had his 16^th birthday in January was now working, he had finished his exams, bleached his hair and his life was opening up in front of him.

We spent the summer training him to be as independent as possible.

We took 'rent' off him putting it into a savings account he couldn't get to. Tom had been virtually living with us for the last year so he officially moved in and bit by bit Peter began to plan a winter away.

I just worked! I worked on the taxi's putting every penny I could into savings.

I worked the bar at CAT and called it my social life!

I worked at the Workshop while everyone took a well earned break and I worked at the house, cleaning and cooking and maintaining the garden.

Bit by bit the savings grew

(Lady Sage's insurance payout helped tremendously)

The black board in the bed room came alive as plans and ideas were discussed in the early hours when Peter and I managed some time together.

The bedroom had also filled up with boxes of stuff now that I had no van to keep it all in but very slowly a plan began to form.

Peter's light bulb moment became a reality as our biggest and newest school minibus was gutted and transformed.

Three hundred fibre-optic strands were acquired as Peter, having seen a program once about a Rolls Royce who had been fitted with fibre optics and diamonds, came up with a brilliant plan to do something similar on our new van!!

After a week of these things hanging about the house he disappeared one day giving me instructions to “Design something nice”.

The roof panel had previously been removed from the van and was sat in the kitchen. It had been sitting there for nearly a week already and for the next 24 hours I just looked at it in between taxi jobs.

If I was going to spend time drilling holes for all these strands I was going to make it worth it!!

I got out my sky at night book and turned to the page showing the night sky in the northern hemisphere looking north!

With the aid of three sheets of grease proof paper (that had to be sewn together as nothing sticks to them!!) I carefully plotted out the stars marking the prominent ones with a thick marker.

Next I reversed the sewn sheets onto the back of the roof panel and placed a drawing pin to the right of every star.

When Peter came home that night he drilled to the right of every pin and we had out roof plan.

Over the course of the next two days 300 fibre optic strands were threaded through the drilled holes and glued into place.

The eight hours of drawing, pinning and drilling were followed by eight hours of threading and gluing but the final result was magnificent!!

The Northern sky in pink, blue, white, green, yellow or purple were now ours to gaze at as we lay in our new van bed – once we had built a bed that is!!

With Peter now working festivals for the summer delivering and putting up huge tents, conversion on the new van took its time.

I nick named it The CAVE as more and more technology was placed inside.

Lady Sage had been a true girly hippy bus with softness and quilting and chandeliers.

The Cave was a thing of functional solidness.

A true Man Cave!!

Running water and compact gas rings were fitted (although I did manage to get Lady Sages cooker fitted once I had pouted for nearly a week about not having a real cooker!) The double front passenger seat was ripped out and replaced with a swivelling big armchair!

Ideas bounced around the kitchen as Amazon, ebay and local scrap sites were inspected but like the famous Utube searches these shopping searches always ended up somewhere quite different from the start points and by the time the Cider festival arrived the Cave was still in the iron age stage of life!

But we had a van, a van with a bed, running water and a cooker and plenty of space for me to fill!!

The boxes were decanted from the bed room, the stall was loaded into the back. Stock was piled upon the bed and even with the boys and Angharads camping stuff I still had space in the Cave for more!

I arrived a day ahead of everyone else (so I could get the shop in the ideal place) and set up base camp.

It is amazing how a few Turkish throws, a feather boa and half a dozen soft toys can soften the edges of a cave.

The sink with its technological running water set up was unfortunately covered by said throws but we still had our trug to wash up in – sometimes the old ways are the best ways!

By the time everyone arrived I had claimed the Cave as my own!!

The summer of 2018 will be one of those that will go down in history like the summer of 78 did.

It was glorious at the Cider festival.

People smiled, played games,

dressed up, listened to stories and bought lots of stuff.

In the evenings our little Cider family came together to drink, to play and to party!

As planned we all spent an extra night on site and as the evening fell and the temperature dropped, we lit Cian's new camping fire and gathered around.

Then we all backed off a few feet until Cian's pyromania enthusiasm burnt down a wee bit!

In five days I would be leaving for Singapore, then India.

 I would be out of the country for just over nine months.

I had saved every penny I could save and if I was careful it would last.

But best of all, Peter was coming with me.

Not for all of it but for a large part of the new adventure.

We planned to meet in one month in India where Peter would stay for two months before returning to check on the children and spend Christmas with them.

As long as every thing went as planned he would meet me again in the February.

I unloaded the Cave and put everything into storage for the winter.

The first frost had arrived that morning, it was time to go!!