Author Archives: garymoore

EELS

The Eventim (previously Hammersmith) Apollo was bouncing last night. Eels.

Blackboards

I was recently asked if I could replace the blackboards outside my local (the old ones were suffering from rot).

I’m pretty happy with the end result.

They’re huge, so my second in command’s help was needed in erecting them.

Cabin floor IV

The van seems to have taken over my life this summer; it’s seriously addictive.

So I’ll now talk about the van again. I had to choose against a fixed or floating cabin floor and was leaning towards the latter, buying insulation to lay before plywood. However, having bought rather rigid floor tiles, I was concerned that a floating floor above insulation might not be rigid enough. So I decided on a fixed floor.

To level the floor, I fitted 6mm ply padding (the edges are raised).


This was followed by 10mm plywood, which made the floor pretty firm.


And then the vinyl tiles.


It obviously needs cleaning, but the adhesive needs to cure first. I’m really pleased with the result.

Next is the cab floor.

Little Green

This afternoon saw my first visit to Little Green, a vegan cafe in Newcastle. I went for a catch-up with an old school mate; his suggestion.

We were both really impressed with the place. And the food, of course. Also, we both plan to return.

Cabin floor II

While sanding the cabin floor of the van, to treat rust spots, I found holes. Just three small ones, but holes nonetheless.

They don’t show up too well in the picture, but they’re under the keyhole-like fixing points. I’m assuming that water had become trapped there, under the flooring.

The holes are actually filled now and much of the other bits of rust proved to be minor. It actually looks worse now, since the rust treatment has turned it black.

I probably could have finished spraying the floor today, but I had other stuff that needed doing. Maybe tomorrow.

On a (barely) different subject, an old number plate was purchased. This reflects the van’s new name as well as its previous place of residence.

Cabin floor

Having bought some new floor tiles for the van, today I set about removing the rock and roll bed and existing laminate flooring.

I doing so, I made several discoveries. Firstly, our van has air conditioning. Or, rather, a hole in the floor.

Yes, that’s the road surface. I’m uncertain as to whether this is an original feature, or whether it was created to accommodate the table.

On removing the bed, then the flooring, I found that the expected plywood floor wasn’t there. Fortunately, one can be purchased at a reasonable price, which will avoid the hassle of making one.

It also seems that the bed isn’t original. I’d suspected this, but I’d not expected it to be non-standard. Since we plan to have seats re-upholstered, that leaves me with the choice between altering the bed to make it conform, or buy a new one.

One positive, though, the cabin floor is in great condition, with hardly any rust.

I’m not sure whether I should be concerned by the cables which seem to go nowhere though.

First festival

Well, the van has successfully completed its first festival. At the age of 41.

However, concerns about its ability to climb a grassy hill, which had a strong likelihood of imminent muddy ruts, led us to move it on Sunday morning.

Where the van found company.

Other vans were spotted over the weekend; for example …..

This was our fourth Kendal Calling, probably our last though. It’s one of the best festivals I’ve ever been to, but the weather’s just mental. On all four occasions, there has been mud.

Lots of it.

Anyway, the festival was great.

The Glastonbury hammock

During Glastonbury 2014, I think, my beloved and I checked out the shop (then near the viewing hill) selling hammocks. Well, they were’t trying to sell them, but up to four people at a time could try one out.

Naturally, we needed to remove our wellies first. We were instructed as to how we should board our chosen hammock (sideways, sitting down, rather than lengthways, since these were the traditional, huge, Mexican variety).

And, like everyone else else, we loved it.

Afterwards, we searched for the most beautiful hammock, which we purchased. Unfortunately, that did mean that we needed to carry our new purchase for an hour or two until we could deposit it in our tent.

We used the hammock just two or three times that summer. My beloved’s 80+ year-old Dad liked it a lot too.

It’s not that we’d forgotten about it. We were either doing something else or, when we had time, the weather was rubbish.

So, after melting while doing some gardening in silly temperatures this afternoon, I dug the hammock out. It’s still beautiful.

I’m in it right now. With a beer and a decent book.

Just great.