Wednesday 29 February 2012

Where Have You Been?

It's been a bit hectic recently, and not only that but we have had a few up's and down's as well!


So I will try and put things into to some sort of order to give you an idea of what has been happening to us.


I started with my new company, my driver training was not due to start until the 12th March, however last Wednesday I had confirmation I was starting the very next day!


I am lucky as an approved driving instructor that my road sense, and all round driving ability is fairly high and that my mirror checks are right on the button. This is invaluable when you are driving 12 tonnes of empty coach measuring over 40ft around!


Getting use to the turn and the over hang at the front is a challenge, but reversing is definitely easier than our caravan! You can see both ends of the coach, unlike a caravan that bends in the middle!


Talking of caravans, we went up to the ExCel show in London Docklands, with the view of looking at caravans and specifically the new Adria and Hobby.


Adria did not fit our layout that we wanted, and Hobby failed to bring any caravans to the show! We were bitterly disappointed with this and the management at Hobby were not helpful suggesting if I wanted a Hobby to drive to Derby to look at one. Well, you know where you can stick your Hobby's don't you!


So we had a look around at other makes and came across Bailey who had a layout the same as our current caravan. This was not our perfect layout, but what with the annoyance of Hobby we looked at the figures and it all made sense at the time to part exchange ours. We had decided on a Bailey Unicorn Pamplona. It would cost us a little bit more each month but, over a longer period of time.


We were all excited by this new purchase, but as the hours went by, doubt set in. Had we made the right decision? I've just started a new job, what happens if it all falls through? It wasn't exactly the layout we wanted so why settle for second best.


Some how we had lost sight of our main objective of being totally debt free within the next 24 months. Buying this caravan we certainly would not be!


So after a lot of soul searching we decided to cancel the order.


A rather tough decision as you can well imagine, but we feel it was the right decision.


It takes a while to get over the upset of not having a brand new caravan, which is why I haven't written anything for a while, besides that I have been studying all the information required to take my theory test which is next week!


Well, that's you all up to speed!


We have a move on Saturday to a site that we have not been to before. "M" wants to move closer to her kids as we have our first Grandchild due at the end of March. They live in New Milton. We are off to a site that is only a couple of miles away. We have a good price from the owners, and the site has a shower! A bit of a novelty for us as we tend to stay on really basic sites. But we got a good deal, so we thought we would give the place a try.


It may be next week before I get chance to write anything again, due to move and my exam in the early part of the week, so will catch up with you all then.


Till later....................

4 comments:

  1. Good luck on the exam Chubster. If in doubt the answer is always B. With regards to the van if it doesn't feel like the right decision it isn't. We nearly sold ours with a buyer lined up but changed our minds on the way up to empty it..
    Dont forget.....Mirror signal mirror manoeuvre.. At least it was in 1985....oh and welcome back. Don't forget to get the text facility fixed on yer phone as well ;-)

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  2. Sounds like everything is coming together for you both. You come across as a real go-getter. Fine stuff indeed. In regards to buying a new caravan I am in a similar position. I would love to buy the new Bailey Retreat, but why get into debt to the sound of 20 thousand when my current van is perfectly fine for my needs? Good luck with the exams.

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  3. The Retreat is an exceptional van with our perfect layout, one major drawback is that due to it's length it is currently illegal to tow on our roads without it being towed by a commercial vehicle! Which I believe to be something over 3.5 tonnes and classed as a commercial vehicle. I will try and find out what the legalities are as it would be a perfect caravan!

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  4. We live full time in our motorhome in the USA, I enjoy reading about your experiences.

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