The Blog is Back and Goodbye Lady Sage

The Blog is BACK!!!

It has been a while hasn't it. FIFTEEN months to be exact!!

Life has changed and yet it remains the same …. just in a different location … sort of....!?

In our last conversation I told you all about how my life was going to change as I embraced an opportunity to become involved in a friends project in India. Well it has changed and then moved in a whole new direction from the one I first envisioned.

I shall explain...... but first lets just recap a few months ....

One of the reasons I leave the UK every winter is that as I age my body simply does not appreciate the cold!! I love to see the colours change in autumn, I even appreciate (just) the first frost, but the endless days of wind and rain, hail and snow leave me feeling drained and miserable. So I leave!!

I returned to Wales in March 2018 thinking I had missed the worst of the weather. 

'The Beast from the East' as the weathermen were calling it, had hit the UK two weeks before my flight landed and even though everyone was posting photos of blizzards, snowmen and frozen waterfalls on the internet (!!) I felt safe that I had missed the worst!

Two weeks after I landed a mini beast from the East arrived covering everything in snow for a good week. 

From the bedroom window it looked wonderful, unfortunately I was back in the taxi business for Huw and to say I overworked that car heater is the understatement of the year!!

Being back in Wales did have one big advantage though, I could now return my sun and saltwater faded mermaid hair to a wonderful vivid bright blue ready for the summer!!

My hair had also grown tremendously with the warmth of India so I added a few more dreads and made a radical decision.

During my time in India my hair had been tied up most of the time due to the heat. 

Even plated it had felt like I was wearing a scarf around my neck. Swimming had been bliss but drying my hair afterwards had taken ages.

In six months I was planning to return to that heat, maybe it was time for a change. 

By the end of my first week home I had made the decision to shave my head at the end of the summer before I returned to India!!

I messaged my grand daughter to inform her her Grannie would look a little different when she saw me next. 

“But will you still be my Grannie?” she asked worriedly!

“Of course!” I reassured her.

“But will I know you are my Grannie”

She had a point, such a dramatic change could be a bit of a shock!

“Would you like to cut Grannies hair, then you will know it is me?” I asked.

She nodded enthusiastically over the video link. 

The matter had been settled!

Being reunited with Lady Sage was also wonderful and with the weather improving each week ....

(anything after a week of snow and gales was an improvement!!)

.... we did a few road trips and weekend breaks!

Victoria and I did a wonderful weekend run around the Gower peninsular, revisiting places we hadn't been to since our children were little which is well over 25 years ago!! 

The last time Victoria had slept in Lady Sage she has been a new born bus beginning her journey with me as we explored the roads of Wales and beyond.

Now she was a fully fledged tiny home with memories pinned to her walls and ceiling, stories covering her body and soul. 

Having her back on the road signalled the end of the winter and the beginning of summer!

Lady Sage and I had our first Story telling event of 2018 mid May deep in the hills of Wales.

It was great to get everything unpacked after the winter away and the stories went down a treat as always!

From there I went straight to Fire in the mountain as I was once again Core Crew for the Healing area and an entire site needed to be built and maintained!

With Peter, Cian and Tom as part of the build crew it felt like a proper family outing as we set up our base camp in the top field.

Lady Sage was parked with her nose nestled within the awning of our huge canvas tent that was to be the boys home and kitchen.

Our view from both van and tent stretched unimpeded over the family field to the small stream in the distance.

We had three whole days of solitude on the hill before ticket holders arrived. Three whole days of watching the setting sun lowering itself in the sky to become our evening light until it finally dipped itself into the Irish Sea.

Business was great in the shop although I did over order on the snacks but with an eight month use by date I was confident there would be other events to use them at.

But then unfortunately Lady Sage had a devastatingly brush with a skip that rendered her a technical write off!!

In tears I called the insurance people and awaited the assessor. 

The insurance guy was amazing and even offered me the full amount to repair her (which was a stupidly huge amount) but he also recommended I took the money and bought a new van as in the next year or so Lady Sage would need bits and things doing that would cost so much money I was better off getting a new van!!

I had already patched the tear in her side to make her road legal, decorating the patch plus her sides with ivy leaves.

Until I made a decision she was still mine to do with what I liked so Peter and I had a weekend away to allow me time to think about things.

Wales is a beautiful place and we didn't need to go far to find some peace and solitude.

We spent two wonderful nights at Fairborne point. 

We rested, we watching thick cloud pour down the side of Cader Idris into the valley below while people tried to launch boats,

We cooked food and drank wine. Everything we needed was provided by Lady Sage.

During the day people came and went but at night it was just us and my beautiful Lady.

For a whole week I deliberated while stalling the insurance people but in the end I accepted the money, acknowledging that her days were over..

We invited friends over to say good bye, cooking enough food to feed the street,

Although the street did manage to eat it all!

We decorated the house to mark her passing and soon the entire town knew that Lady Sage was leaving us!

I slept a final night in my beautiful tiny home while parked outside the house ….

…. and in the morning, while the sun shone down, I removed her heart (the cooker)

Then I totally stripped her (as the insurance man said I could take what I needed from her so I took everything!!) until she was just an empty shell.

The next day, with tears in my eyes (and down my face and nose) Lady Sage was pulled onto the back of a lorry and taken away to the Great Scrap heap in the sky.

I like to think that when she arrived at the scrap yard the guys there loved her body decorations so much they parked her in a corner and she became their tea break and chill out place and there she sits today happy and loved!!

With Lady Sage gone it marked the end of an stage of my life. 

A passing comment from a dear friend's son many years ago about him being surprised that I lived in a house not a van had put me on the path I had never truly believed I would follow.

I had worked festivals, holidayed in France and Scotland, toured the hills of Wales and spent many a night parked up outside a friends home so I could enjoy a late night party!

With the school contracts coming to an end in a month and Peters plans to free himself from the confines of school holidays, he and I looked at one of the minibuses parked outside our house.

With out a van it would be back to tents at Fire in the Mountain and the Cider Festival and over the years we had grown used to our mattress and cooker.

Without a van there would be no more weekends away or trips to France.

Peter smiled and gave me a hug.

“I'm sure we can sort something” he said and I saw a light bulb wink into existence above his head!!