In a mad world, only the mad are sane – Akira Kurosawa
The pic below is of a Hillside Dalbury mini-campervan conversion by Hillside Leisure based in Derby. It’s price in 2016 when new, would be ca. £28k.
The model, below, is also a Hillside Dalbury mini-campervan (new in 2016 as well) and is for sale, second hand, in 2022 with 31,660* miles on the clock…
Any guesses as to the asking price?
Well, it is currently advertised by Harbour Creek Motorhomes for £33,995! That’s nearly £6k more than its original price (model specs are similar).
Seemingly, it’s all down to a shortage of semiconductors for new vehicles, Nissan’s decision to cease production the NV200 a couple of years ago (it’s the Dalbury’s base vehicle) and the so-called ‘staycation’ boom. But … even allowing for any discount on the used van’s purchase price, say £2k, it appears that the world has gone mad!
Here’s the limerick…
A campervan buyer was heard To complain that things were absurd. Supply and demand Had got out of hand And his purchase would now be deferred.
* the mileage has been excluded from the advert since I first saw it – don’t ask me why!
As her wedding day nears, I’ve been told by a friend that her partner is self-converting a cargo van into a camper.
The dream…
In fact, the last I heard was that he had ‘borrowed’ their spare-bed mattress, sawn off its end to fit, and installed it on the van floor.
Reality?
Who says romance is dead?😂 Anyway, here’s wishing them all the best…
Though their union was of love filled with laughter And they lived happily, of course, ever after, Their marital bed Was a mattress they spread In the back of a VW Crafter!
I’ve always wanted a Brompton folding bicycle, so what do you think was the chance of Management getting herself a new electric Brompton and me acting in an entirely composed and mature manner?
Quite right, no chance; “If you’re having one then so am I!” was the measured response, so, many £££ later, we find ourselves camped at Rosemarkie with his’n’hers e-Bromptons at the ready for a 21 mile power-assisted round trip to Cromarty.
The outward leg on a single-track road along the spine of the Black Isle was a hoot. The first part was all uphill for at least three miles and it was a breeze; cue a pair of smug grins. Then downhill into Cromarty – our first time there and it’s a lovely wee place – for a hardly-deserved tea stop.
The route.
Unfortunately we then got drenched in a heavy rain shower and thought about folding the bikes and catching a bus back to Rosemarkie (try doing that with a normal bike), but decided instead to set off and cycle back via the Cromarty Firth coast road.
Or at least I thought we were going to set off. Looking back I couldn’t see Management so, after a few minutes, I retraced my steps thinking she must be chatting to someone. She was, to a German chap who was asking if she was all right as she lifted herself off the grass verge after a controlled fall that was her only means of getting to a position from which she could untangle her shoelace that had wrapped itself around her chainwheel.
The route back was slightly longer than the outward trip and involved another seemingly endless uphill drag. We’d swapped batteries at the bottom because Management’s was already partly discharged when we’d set off and her’s was running out of juice. That meant she got full power assist to the top using my battery whereas I had to be more cautious using hers and work harder.
It is testament to the capabilities of these batteries and motors that she gradually pulled away to crest the hill several hundred metres ahead of me when I’m supposed to be the cyclist in the family. Still, we both got there and had a long, fast downhill run back into Rosemarkie.
The Bromptons at rest while their batteries are recharged
… and here’s the limerick…
To avoid a whole lot of pain A lady should always refrain From crashing her bike – or exploits suchlike – When her shoelace gets stuck in her chain.
… and Management at rest while her batteries are likewise recharged
Another busy week means another last minute limerick and one that rather lacks guile.
We’ve taken Priscilla the campervan to the Isle of Mull for a few nights and managed to book on to a new site for which we are paying for an electric hook-up. Just one problem, the idiot that loaded the van (me) forgot the hook-up lead!
A camper once thought he’d be able To have power, but wasn’t quite able To make use of the hook-up (One almighty f**k-up) When he discovered he’d forgotten his cable!
The view from our van at the Pennygown campsite on the Isle of Mull.
(Actually, we were saved by a neighbouring camper who, fortuitously, always travelled with a spare hook-up cable. There aren’t half some helpful folk around.)
This week Management and I have travelled around the island of Ireland in Priscilla the campervan. We only had limited time and could travel no further south than Clara and Galway so Waterford, Limerick and Cork will have to await our next visit.
Talking of Limerick …
I drove across Ireland today And a thought crossed my mind on the way, That it seems quite perverse For a Limerick’s verse To end with the words ‘Galway Bay’!
I suppose my flirtations with Priscilla could be described as more mano a vano than mano amano, nevertheless we have enjoyed some quiet trysts in secluded, out-of-the-way places; however, as with any developing relationship, others may feel excluded and thus Management decided that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
So the three of us headed west last weekend to what must have been a couple of the warmest and sunniest March days that Wester Ross has ever experienced, and to Management’s first overnight assignation with Priscilla and me.
Because Priscilla is a bijou little thing (“reet la’al” as I would have said in my youth) we were a little worried that the two of us would overwhelm her, but we didn’t and she fit us in with room to spare.
Priscilla in her preferred environment
… but the roads were awfully congested:
So why did the cows cross the road? To get to the udder side of course! (The apparent gaseous emissions from the rear of the coos are, in fact, reflections from Priscilla’s windscreen).
… and this week’s limerick is:
Anticipating a cool sense of frisson We went to the Highlands to see some Scenery galore And I’ll tell you, what’s more, We slept with Priscilla – in a threesome.
Postscript: Me, supine and snapping on our weekend away:
“You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without hanging on”. Dean Martin
states that n’, the number of bikes that a cyclist needs, is always one more than n, the number (s)he already owns, for any value of n.
That’s my way of saying “I’ve just bought another one”!
My oldest road bike is almost vintage having been bought in 1992. I used it in a group ride about four years ago only for a lycra-clad short-a**e riding a carbon-fibre bike to sneeringly tell me that “You don’t see many of them nowadays” …
Ca. 1991. ‘Steel is real’. Good old 531 tubing and a horizontal top tube. Classic lines and still in use!
… which is why I was rather pleased to win a modern aluminium-framed bike a year later with carbon forks and a Campagnolo gearset. It’s amazing what the purchase of a shrink-wrapped block of Wensleydale cheese can lead to – I’d bought a promotional competition pack to mark the Tour de France’s Grand Départ from Yorkshire.
My Tour de France winning bike or, rather, the one that I won for buying a packet of Wensleydale (“Cracking cheese, Gromit”).
So why buy another bike? Simples! The road bikes are terrific for tarmac, but not so good over slightly rougher surfaces and my travels with Priscilla (posts passim) lend themselves to both tarred and non-tarred outings. So I need a bike for each (of course I do).
The new one is of the ‘adventure bike’ genre: carbon forks with generous tyre clearance for fatter tyres, disc brakes and reduced gearing on the chainset (ideal for a moderately overweight recreational cyclist aka a MORC), but with road bike geometry and clearance for mudguards it makes for an ideal winter bike too. Win-win!
… and the new addition is finished in ‘stealth black’ (as if a MORC could even dream of being stealthy 🙁 )
Postscript: I was given a road bike for my 21st birthday, but remember little of it other than its saddle was nicked when it was securely racked outside a hall of residence in Dundee. Some while later the rest of it was nicked too.
I wondered at the time whether the thief followed the advice that I was given when I asked a girl off my course (who I thought of as a rather reserved and quiet lass): “How can I ride it without its saddle?” Reserved and quiet maybe, but also blunt, coarse and to the point: “Stick it up your a**e and pedal like f**k!” she said. I never saw her in the same light again!
I’m quite pleased to see the back of 2016, but for what it’s worth here are some pics for my ‘best of’ compendium for the year …
Best new experience of the year:
A bread-making course at ‘Bread Ahead’ (Borough Market, London). Just me and a bunch of Chelsea girls loafing around …
You know you’re in trouble when your sourdough goes a-rye
Best ice-cream of the year:
Beating Zanoni’s of Vienna by a short head was the first ice-cream pit stop of the year.
Cycling on a sundae …
Best blog idea of the year:
A limerick a week. How else can one show one’s proficiency at celebrating #TeamDemelza in verse with an anapestic meter and strict rhyme scheme?
Why a limerick? Because ‘There was once a man who wrote poems …’
Best cycle ride of the year:
Finally, at the age of 24, Firstborn scraped her knee whilst participating in a physical outdoor activity. Her mother was so proud 🙂
Blood, sweat and gears …
Best health tip of the year:
… and from the Graun: Bike rides and hot baths – a fitness match made in heaven and it’s official!
Oh dear, I’m in hot water again!
Best impression of a marine mammal of the year:
Management performing dolphinarium tricks (we’d boycotted Marineland Mallorca whilst on holiday) with Firstborn as the ‘trainer’.
Does this trick make my bum look big?
Best meal of the year:
The most hotly contested category of all. It could easily have been the baked brie at the Crofters Bistro, Rosemarkie, or the scallops at the Applecross Inn or the mega-breakfast at the Hatton Locks café or the liver and bacon at the Tigh an Eilean Hotel, Shieldaig. But by a country mile, ‘hats off’ please to the Gasthaus Ubl in Vienna for keeping traditional Austrian cuisine alive and at its best. Roast pork, sauerkraut and dumplings like my Grandma used to make. Großartig!
“Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien a ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien a retrancher” – Antoine de saint-Exupery.
Best sausage of the year:
Another Viennese delight – mit brot und senf, of course
Absolutely the wurst experience that we had on holiday …
As aficionados of the movie ‘Priscilla; Queen of the Desert’ will tell you, calling it Priscilla certainly puts the ‘camp’ into ‘campervan’
Best fresh air of the year:
As sensitive bio-indicators of atmospheric pollution, these lichens growing on a wooden bench seat next to the main road through Lochcarron attest to the freshness of its air. Unusually for Scotland the air was still on the day this picture was taken, making it the best fresh air of the year!
I’m lichen it …
Best concert of the year:
No real competition here. Bellowhead on a Saturday night at the London Palladium during the band’s farewell tour. Simply awesome.
Folk music ‘rebooted’ or as I would say,”traditional music given a kick up the a**e!”
Best offspring pose of the year:
Firstborn and The Tall Child ‘having a moment’.
I never called you a mushroom. I said you were a fun guy!
I’d like to think that only classy items will be given a home in Priscilla the campervan. However, I wasn’t sure that the words ‘classy’ and ‘egg cup’ could ever go together until I saw these little buckets; just had to buy a couple …
Hard boiled eggs. You can’t beat ’em …
I once tried to persuade Management and the rest of the tribe to adopt the same colour scheme for our front room. They just laughed 🙁
Meantime, an egg joke …
A couple of days ago I found a heron’s nest and smashed all the eggs in it, but I’ve no egrets now!
I fancied an early autumn trip over to Shieldaig in Wester Ross to try the informal campsite on the community grazings and it just so happened to coincide with two of the finest October days that I can remember: no rain, no wind, very sunny (and very warm in the sun) and too late in the year for midges. Idyllic!
Just getting there was impressive enough with terrific views of Torridon …
Beinn Dearg and Liathach on the road to Shieldaig
… not to mention the location and views from the grazings
Priscilla at the Shieldaig community grazings
… or from the bedroom window!
A room with a view!
I took the bike with me and had a couple of short rides. It is much hillier than I remembered for cycling and some of the steep ramps finished me off sooner than I would have liked, but I’m not going to complain when everyone else is having to be at work during the week (and just to rub it in: Q – what’s the technical term for a fine sunny day after two days of wind and rain? A – Monday!).
It got cold enough during the evening for those in tents to need quilted jackets and bobble hats when sitting around their stoves; no such necessity with Priscilla although my clothes were pretty Baltic to get in to in the morning (memo to self: switch heater on for 15 minutes before exiting the sleeping bag).
The weather was perfect for my trip. It’s nice to be able to shoot off at the last minute when the forecast is for such fine weather, but for those who can’t be quite so choosy and always seem to end up getting wet on their trips west, here’s a camper’s rhyme that I learned whilst at primary school:
Whether the weather be fine Or whether the weather be not. Whether the weather be cold Or whether the weather be hot. We’ll weather the weather Whatever the weather Whether we like it or not!
Postscript: Since when did ‘bobble hats’ become ‘beanies’? Or more precisely, when did they become ‘pom-pom beanies’? According to an article last year in the fashion pages of the Graun: “There is no doubt that when future generations prise open the fashion time capsule marked “Winter 2015”, it will contain a beanie hat with a furry pom-pom on top“. The accompanying pictures were of bobble hats, referred to in the article as ‘pom-pom beanies’, with several costing less than a tenner. A couple were designer ones north of £100 including this one from net-a-porter.com:
A Eugenia Kim ‘pom-pom beanie’ (inclusive of faux-fur bobble and a dodgy looking stitch at the front) – yours for £175!
… or as one of the comments to the Graun article said: “Pom-pom beanie, my a**e!”
