Aussie Thanksgiving

Late Arrivals I finished Vegas qualifying then got talking to Jayne on the phone when Ross, Jen, JoJoe and Levi walked through the door. Cleo went defensive, already determined to prevent intruders from entering this new place we were in, but she soon calmed down when she saw Jen. The boys were in bed pretty…

Back to the West

While I’d committed to a month of camphosting in Moab, I only made it to three weeks because I had a better offer. When my friend Jen messaged me in late October inviting me to Bend, Oregon, to spend Thanksgiving with them, I said I couldn’t go because of my commitment. When  I woke up…

Moab Camphosts

Day One I was meant to leave on the Monday. It was October 16, 2023. Nearly seven years to the day since I last ventured out in a van solo, I was at it again. The week before, I found out I’d be having more tooth surgery so had to wait around until Monday to…

The Singapore Grand Prix

To Asia! I had a long, much needed chat with Kev at the airport. He was coming down from the wedding and still having issues with dickheads at work, but I was glad to hear his solution to drown out the needless words directed at him. Whenever I’m on the phone with someone at the…

Home (West)

Mummy & Daddy Bloody hell Australia is a big country. I was happy to have my knitting to keep my company for the 4.5 hour flight time. Having already flown Qantas and Jetstar, I was now with Australia’s third major airline and wow have they put a stop to anything complimentary. I’m glad I had…

Quick Stop in Melbourne

Aussie Synchrotron I landed at 2:30pm and didn’t waste any time. With only two nights in Melbourne, I was straight off to my first meeting. My most expensive Uber ride ever skirted the city which looked the same size as when I’d last seen it (2014) but twice as dense. Every skyscraper that looked familiar…

Home

I hadn’t set foot in Australia since early 2019. Since then, most of my friends had brought children into the world, my best friend was getting married and I hadn’t seen my “home” Brisbane. It was time. I was ready. Getting There My journey started at 1:50am. After a quick shower, I was surprised to…

Car Week

Winding up my new job was a breeze. I was going to be away for a month, but there was no rushing to meet deadlines, or working frantically to tie up loose ends, it was pretty straightforward. I still had time on my last day to remove a huge cactus stump from the backyard and…

Havasu

Familiar Donkey Territory Feeling buoyed from watching the first grand prix of the year, we took the afternoon to pack. We said our goodbyes to Deb and Cleo gave us a look of utter abandonment through the bedroom window as we drove off. With only an hour of daylight left, we went to our old…

Winter with Berta

It shouldn’t be all about the van, but it really is… Since coming back from our October trip, we gutted Berta and started from scratch. This time we were building up the interior for real. We’d garnered enough information from our test builds to know what we wanted and so we set to it. Fully…