After our safe touch down at Heathrow ten days ago everything has been all systems go!

We hired a beaut small Renault Clio for a week & headed straight to see “Bruce” at his English winter storage yard! He was thrilled to see us & very excited to be released from his confinement. We were wrapped when he revved up 1^st turn of the key and also quite relieved his batteries survived the long cold winter. He was still lookingvery handsome!

A major priority was to organise his MOT (Ministry Of Transport) test which is required annually in UK for vehicles over 3 years old – (similar to Roadworthy Certificate in Melbourne). He passed this with no problems – in fact the tester was impressed and wants one like it!! It was only £30 (A$60) for the test too!!

We are staying in quaint, old, little Colnbrook with Pummy (Sabrina’s mum) & luckily we can squeeze Bruce into her carpark. We are enjoying her fantastic hospitality & share lots of fun and laughter together. Isn’t it great to have wonderful family!! Thanks so much Pummy Kitchin Wilson.

The Renault allowed us to navigate around the crazy UK London traffic buying paraphernalia required for our trip. Our GPS prevented more grey hairs & is a godsend for sure….. __ .. it also helps that Mark has excellent driving skills (Bev is writing this!).

Lots of gear is required for Bruce before we can “hit the road” ….. Everything from bedding, crockery, camping chairs, table, hoses, gas systems and new LED lights! We discovered a fantastic camping centre called “GO OUTDOORS”. (To get the good discounts we had to nominate an email address – sorry, but I nominated yours!!)

Mark also ordered items from AMAZON & eight parcels just arrived, one being an inverter to power his laptop, printer, etc. Yes, he will be doing work too.

Hope you guys are going to watch the TOUR DE FRANCE this year! You might just watch us zoom up the Alps, past Cadel Evans and Chris Froome, on our state of the art Dutch electric Bikes!! We are so excited & pick them up Saturday. You can choose to get a great workout or you turn it on & pretend to be working hard! Great option. Cant wait to sail past all the lycra clad Frenchmen in the Pyrenees in my polka dot summer dress & high heels!?. The bike batteries are slim, streamlined and hidden in the bike frame!!… Yes, no-one will realize why I am so fast!!. We have about 60km range too. Think how many chateaux & wineries we can visit now!! Cycling is going to be a major part of our travelling adventure & so we thought why not have bikes that are fun to ride!! Safety is still at the forefront of my mind of course & so I bought a hot pink (really hot!!) waterproof cycling jacket. Thought this a necessity particularly as I am going to be zooming past so many cyclists and vehicles!!

Enjoyed an excellent day in Central London yesterday, exploring the interesting shops in the laneways and larger stores like PRIMARK in Oxford Street. Mark was patient while I went crazy grabbing bargains in the latter. WHAT £1 sunglasses (about $2.00) , £5 beach towels, —- buying for summer in Spain & French Riviera.

After my shop-a-thon, we grabbed last minute tickets to the new West End show “ONCE”. It was a fun, feel good, enjoyable musical/comedy & yes we would recommend it___ 8 / 10.

Would you believe that the sun has made a much anticipated appearance…. It is a sunny 10 degrees. I’m off for a walk now!!

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings!. Next week we hope to test Bruce by driving up to explore Chester (North West) if all is ready!!

Stay tuned.