Today 12th August 2018. Have been on my earlybay.com forum today and catching up historically. Hadn’t realised, but I bought my bus back in 2009. How time flies. Which means I traveled around in her daily for 5 years before I swallowed my disappointment and SORNED the old girl. I had a feeling, because the previous years MOT highlighted rot and rust (R and R…….not, unfortunately R and R = rock and roll). Got it repaired to get her through. But felt it was patch up safely and go. It would last a year. But no longer. Not a great feeling sitting within a bus’s machinations with the possibility of being a dangerous commodity on the road. I knew the next MOT would show more R and R number 1 = the negative kind.

So. I took the decision that I’d bite the bullet and get her off the road. She sat on the driveway for 2 years whilst metal to human exchange of telepathically beating and berating my brain for my not looking at or after her. That is….not at her every time she came into my vision…..but looking the other way. Suddenly the Beech Nut tree to the left of the VeeDub became very interesting. I simply ignored the presence of my, once, pride and joy. No longer my VeeDub Sputnik (fellow traveller). She became my cast aside. Actually….I couldn’t look her in the eye, so parked her right up against a wall. Her view for 2 years was that, as said, cream coloured wall. Where once was Mother Nature through the headlight eyes on the daily journeys, was now a badly painted breeze block monstrosity. A scenario akin to Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’. Two years of Sputnik’s mechanical reflection and meditation? Like circling the Earth, looking at either the stars or the blackness in between. Enlightenment or emptiness? I suppose the Old Girl has more insight into life than I will never/ever have. I’d like to think she looked at the stars….and also appreciated the blackness for forced relaxation, insight and the seeking of the unfathomed unknowing. Nothing and yet…..everything. Yin and yang.

So…….Everyday I looked at the back end of the bus and let the close proximity of the overgrown hedge provide an excuse for my not getting into the inside of the bus to check her over. Wall only vision and, as said, a subsequent profound insight that the bus would learn of an A to Z  (Antar mouna to Zen) Buddhist enlightenment was a hoped for. When the VeeDub was roadworthy? It would have a vision of peace and understanding.

But…reality bites. So, back to reality. My granddaughter loved the bus. After 2 years SORNED I opened the drivers door to let her look in……and she screamed. Wouldn’t go inside. Wouldn’t even put a foot down to touch the bus. I felt really sorry for my granddaughter. I’d let her down. I also felt really sorry for the VeeDub. Since when did metal and all the inherents become a heartfelt “Sorry, I’ve let you down”. Alongside? “Sorry Granddaughter. I’ve let you down too”. My granddaughter wouldn’t touch the bus. My bus wouldn’t be what she once was and be a memory of loveliness. Just smelled damp and horrid. Despite all the promises and cajoling in the world. A trip to Aberystwyth McDonalds. Even Honey Nut loops or Chocolate Krispies for breakfast instead of lumpy ReadyBrek failed. Not the bus. They don’t like Burgers or eat Kellog’s….they eat oil, petrol, money and human belief in the German philosophy of “it’ll last forever dreamlike status”. My granddaughter needed reassurance. It’s fine. It’s the old campervan you loved. NO WAY!! No way are my feet touching this monstrosity. OMG. If Kellog’s and the ultimate promise of McDonalds failed, then a big decision would have to be made. Do I get rid? Or repair?

I’ve spoken of this before, so you know that repair was the decision. And now?

Just look at the result up to now. It’s an absolute joy. My granddaughter will be over the moon. As will her brother, new sister and cousins. I await verbally exclaimed descriptions from the grandkids of the ‘through a child’s eyes and wonder’ kind. Probably?………Well………You can’t think like a child can you? Maybe it’ll be of the nature of……”Fliff/Flaff/Floff, Screemy Weemy, It’s a……..Bus!!! Or, Oh my gosh…that’s an improvement I must say” or words of that similar kind. By the way….Previous threads show the inside. Now all that needs doing to finish the renovation process?

From the Guru Paul who is renovating the bus:

“It’s just a good polish, fit the doors, glass and lights bumpers and rubbers….. fingers crossed all done!!!!”

However….words, real or granddaughter imaginary, are not enough. So here are the photos.

I’ll go with an accompanied by a Rik Mayall Frumph…….

Fliff, Flaff, Floff !!! Why? Because the old girl is akin to the Phoenix rising from the ashes. Essentially………rebirth. And it’s what my youngest grandchild would probably say.