Look at the bright side, I'm back on the wagon!

To my intimate group of Chasing Paradise "followers", let me say sorry for the hiatus. But never fear, I am returned to the blogosphere! Not having paid work and having no children, one could easily presume that I have oodles of time to perhaps write about how I see the world, and moreover, that I have an urge to disseminate my ideas. But I have been very occupied - in other ways. Let me briefly state that since my last entry I have, in a rough particular order:

1. visited Paris
2. visited Berlin
3. written a short (28,000 word) memoir for my father
4. returned to Australia for a surprise visit to my Dad for his 70th
5. visited the Pyrenees
6. learnt how to crochet and made a soft toy - the first of what I hope will be many cute things! (etsy here I come!)
7. been involved in the people-centred re-design of a small space
8. helped some freelance friends with various communication projects
9. written a short article for commercial purposes
10. been asked to be a witness for a very good friend at a wedding in May '10
11. made a small travel wallet using my sewing machine and remnant material
12. taken on the herculean task of starting to purge, re-organise and re-decorate a house that was formerly inhabited by a bachelor with a student lifestyle before I moved in (and then married said bachelor)

But most time-eating of all is the current project that Edwin and I are planning: an epic voyage (certainly major for us, who'd have thunk that we would have gathered the free time and resources to do this only a few weeks ago!) from the lowlands to the Greek islands via Eastern Europe, in our camper for 3 months. Let it be said, when you find out on 8 June, and then it's confirmed on 19 June that you have 12 weeks and enough money to take a big trip starting ... the following month, that doesn't leave a lot of time to get ready for departure!

The challenges we face are:

• it's high season
• it's heating up (and weirdly, my resistance to warmer climes has been whittled down by the milder temperatures NL has to offer)
• we have no airconditioning
• the only tent we have is nylon, nasty and needed if we want to sleep and the camper is too hot
• there's a weird rattling in the back of the camper and the other day Edwin took the motorway for 5 minutes with the hand brake on ...
• we have no itinerary
• we forgot to inquire about vaccinations until late last week and realise that Eastern Europe has a few highly recommended jabs, and I have lost my yellow vaccination booklet
• we discovered on our whirlwind trip to the French Pyrenees that the current layout of our camper was well intended, but not as practical as first thought
• Edwin is still working full time until Tuesday, 30 June
• we are scheduled to leave on Wednesday, 1 July. That is, in 3 days
• the friend I'm a wedding witness for, and also our brother-in-law, are having birthday parties on Sunday, 5 July.

So I found these pink-hued spectacles while tidying up the other day, and I gotta say:

• bought a special gas cooker so that we can cook for ourselves half the time. We will be camping most of the time, hiking or just being in nature; and if we're in Eastern Europe for at least a third of the time we should be able to keep away both from the crowds and expenses
• we are toying with the idea of driving up northwards and then heading back down as the temperature drops throughout summer (so, include Norway in our exploration)
• Edwin's obssession with installing a mobile airco in the camper may actually be realised, after 2 years of thinking "it might work, if ..."
• we waded through the sea of people at the local camping shop and bought a beautiful, breathable cotton tent that even if the airco works out and we never pitch it, we will still enjoy it for years to come
• we took the car for an APK (roadworthy) and no, it wasn't free! But imagine having a wrecked suspension while driving on Polish roads, and coasting around for ages to find a flat surface to park on (think mountainous areas like Switzerland, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria!) for fear of the hand brake letting loose. For 83 days?
• free spirits don't need itineraries
• Hm, we're pretty sure we're covered for most nasties, I just have to keep away from rabid dogs (I avoid strange dogs at the best of times) and check on my immunity for a few other major travel eeks! - with a simple blood test
• Once again our brother-in-law, Fred, an avid hobby carpenter, and Ed's Dad, Jan, impressively answered our brief on our camper re-design brief and they have made quite some progress in getting us closer to "the dream: DIY make a camper from a commercial bus". We are doing some last minute adjustments today
• Edwin has only 2 more days of work left!
• C'mon, there are a whole 72 hours before we leave - an unemployed person can do a lot in that time (after all, isn't 'sleep' a conspiracy theory created by manufacturers of bedding, alarm clocks, bedroom furniture and sleeping drams?)
• Love a birthday party. We might head up to the lovely islands north of Holland for a few days later this week to test-drive the "new-look camper" and then come back to Eindhoven on Sunday to say "Proficiat" to and eat cake - first with Anke, and then with Fred. We'll know by then what works and what doesn't (what we forgot or should turf!) before we head out further on our voyage proper, on Monday 6 July.

So, Jane's back on track - with a little bit of that ole' power of positive thinking, right?