Life is just like a box of chocolates!

Following the successful wiring in of the radio, which now works well with iPods and iPhones – exactly what we were hoping for – I decided to revisit the reversing camera. I had identified a good place to put it, but the wiring was an issue. From the camera, about a half metre of wire goes up to the wireless transmitter, from which a pair of wires extend, again, for about a half metre, these wires being the power and earth lines. My immediate problems were that I really wanted the wireless transmitter inside the vehicle, and the obvious places to connect the power were only a couple of centimetres from the camera. In the end I compromised and placed the transmitter wedged between the spare wheel and its cover – not inside the vehicle, but protected. It just remained for me to connect up the video monitor and establish whether the wireless signal would get through.

The camera is a fairly tight fit between the reversing light/number plate light housing and the bumper, and held there by Ni Clou Ni Vis (No More Nails to you)

Because of the very low power requirement for the video monitor, and that it is only active when reverse gear is engaged, I connected it in to the same source as the radio. Having placed and connected it, we tried it and, believe it or believe it not, it worked first time!

Looking back from the gate towards the house, with the very wide angle reversing camera

Flushed with success, and the weather being superb and expected to remain so for a good few days, we decided to drive the camper (now called Lizzie for reasons that I may reveal later) to the supermarket in Pionsat, to pick up a few provisions and to fill her with petrol.

The first part went well and, just as we were returning to Lizzie, we bumped into Jan’s wife, Lieve, and had a brief chat. We then jumped into Lizzie, started (first time) and pulled out of our space, whereupon Lizzie stopped abruptly. Despite numerous attempts, it was clear she didn’t want to start again. It seemed that she had decided to go all Klingon on us and announce that “today is a good day to die”. My first thought was the problem was a fuel deficit (but what do I know?). I stayed with Lizzie whilst Clare went back with Lieve to grab a fuel can so we could put some petrol in. Clare returned a bit later with Jan who was not convinced, from Clare’s description, that it was a fuel problem. It wasn’t. After some looking and digging, Jan found that the distributor cap, after 29 years, had chosen Tuesday to fall to pieces. I should explain that by “fall to pieces”, I am talking about a physical thing, rather than a nervous breakdown. It looks as though the cap had at least one significant crack in it and, when we started in the car park, a chunk of it parted company from the rest. Jan had a good sized 4×4 with him and towed us back to his house, where Lizzie is currently resting, awaiting the parts that have been ordered and that we hope will arrive later this week.

Meanwhile, back at home, we heard a fluttering in the wood burner. Trevor heard it, too. I opened the door, and a juvenile Black Redstart flew out and straight to the open back door. Trevor saw this, too. He is now fixated on the wood burner, waiting for another bird to come out. He was so bad that, when we opened the door a bit later, he jumped in!

He looked around, down, up, in, out, but still saw nothing. However, when he came out…

Just call me Sooty

Finally, the same pooch has been showing a lot of interest in what we call the general fill area – the place beside the parking where all of the rubble was put and which, in the fullness of time, we shall top off and grass.

We now know why he is so interested. One of the things provided in our birdie restaurant is fat balls.

Look what happened when one of the fat balls fell from the restaurant.

No caption needed, I think!

78 days until our next big trip.