Changing the rules

So i have changed the title of the blog, not sure if it's permanent but it seems more appropriate as i rarely write about running these days. Although i have written a couple of stories about building our Camper van which is only being built for running support and accommodation when training etc.

Today i'm writing because life has thrown some things my way which i'm fining hard to deal with, no not hard, almost impossible. Early October my partner and i went to the Costa Blanca mountains in Spain so i could have a weeks training and try to kick start my training, which i have struggled with since running the Cross Britain way in April 2015. 295 miles in one week was just too much for my body to deal with and lets be honest, i'm no spring chicken.

Back to Spain, whilst in the airport at Liverpool i bought a sandwich and it didn't taste all that fresh, by the time we arrived in Alicante it was obvious that i was coming down with something and i spent the whole week with diarrhea.

Up on our return i came down with a bladder infection, pissing blood is really quite scary and i had to go to hospital for antibiotics. So two and a half months later and i'm just coming out the other side of it only to discover that the tests i had along the way show the i have an enlarged prostate with worrying lumps.

Any men out there who have gone through these tests will know that its not pleasant and having someone mess around with your back door is no fun at all. A prostate biopsy puts you back where you started, pissing blood and scared that "the end is nigh".

 I have to be honest, the Cystoscopy i had a few weeks earlier was also pretty tough, i walked into the room where it was to take place and there were 5 women present, all involved in the procedure. Laying on a bed with your genitals exposed to the room is pretty bad but to then tolerate a camera being pushed down your penis takes it to a whole new level.

2 and a half months and some very difficult procedures leave me a month away from finding out the results of this biopsy, now i'm sat here writing this blog as a way of managing my feelings and trying to get through the day, i can't think straight and i'm struggling not to break down. I have way too much going on and am concerned that i won't cope with it all.

Its Christmas and as usual our house will be full of family for the next 2 days, normally i manage to get through this without upsetting anyone but i'm just not sure i can do it this year.

Is running away a possibility? If only i was fit enough.

Certainly the last 12 months have been very challenging and although i have had to fight for my sanity there have been some positive's.

Lets get through the next couple of days and perhaps i will write about the good things in life, it is easy to focus on the negatives.

Building a Campervan part 3

The kitchen units.

What a bloody job this stage has been, i bought a full sheet of light weight furniture board to make the units, 1 upper and one lower. This stuff is amazingly expensive, the best price i could get for one sheet was £115.00 and i had to drive 50 miles to collect it.

Anyway, once i had the board i set about designing the base unit and it soon became apparent that i would need 3 sheets, which the budget just would not allow.

After some consideration i decided to use the expensive board for the outer skin of the unit and the rest of it with 12mm exterior ply. The 12mm plywood is much more hard wearing and once painted black it will blend in just nicely.

The next problem was how to make the doors, Youtube provided the answer to this and i can highly recommend a series of video's i found which explain the important parts step by step.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X244qd2NhBg&t=518s

I bought a router for a good price, made a template and set about cutting the doors out of the main front panel. I had decided on three as i require one for the water, one for the Cooler and one for the gas bottle.

I made the template out of 6mm plywood as that is the material i have most of, this was my first mistake. My second mistake was buying a cheap router bit and my third mistake was using the template with a cheap router bit.

The plywood was just way too thin so the force required to guide the cheap router bit around the template caused the ply to bend and the router gradually veered off line, unfortunately i missed this as i was busy trying to breath through the dust that soon filled the garage.

This happend in several places and i have been forced into repairing the damage as best i can. To be honest only one of the repairs is easily visible and some work with a black marker will hide it reasonably well. In the end i used the jig saw to cut out the doors for the top unit. Much easier for an amateur and i achieved a much better result.

The doors have a plastic trim all around the edge which fits is a 2mm groove, this groove has to be cut with a router so i simply bolted the router under my work bench with the cutting tool (good quality this time) poking through a hole. It worked a treat.

Although a little difficult to fit, the plastic trim finishes off the edges perfectly and also allows for a certain level of inaccuracy in the router work. Luckily.

We bought a Smev 9222 sink unit with all the necessary fixtures and fitting, after a cup of Yorkshire tea and a good think, i set about fitting it. To my amazement i had it all done in a day. Fitting the sink unit, water system, cooler box and gas fittings.

The water containers, one for clean and one for waste, are only 10 litres as full they will weigh 10 kilo's. This is heavy enough when it is my partner Debbie who is most likely to fill or empty them. If they prove to be insufficient i will upgrade them to 20 litres or even add proper tanks under the van.

The gas compartment requires a drain through the floor in case of leaks and this was a sod as the floor is 2 inches thick, however i used some plastic pipe and angled it towards the back of the vehicle to ensure i don't get any road spray ingress. We will be using a 6.5 kg bottle as this will be sufficient for our needs but have yet to buy the bottle as it is £65.00 for the first instance with the £40.00 deposit included.

So, kitchen unit complete, now its time to finish the wiring, this is definitely my week area, i have little experience with any wiring and find the logic of it difficult to grasp, however i don't have any money left so i am going to spend some time reading about it and will have to work it out myself. It does mean removing much of the sink unit, however that will give me the opportunity to improve some of the area's that i feel i could have done better.

The "Fell bus" is getting close to use-able which is important, all of this hard work and money is for a reason. I have started training again and will need the Camper van (Fell bus) for all the weekends training next year. It has to be ready for early March 2017 when i start training properly for the coming season.

There are many challenges on the menu for next year, some of which i have been talking about for a few years but there are two which i would really like to complete. One is the Joss Naylor challenge. The other i will talk about if and when i get fit enough to consider it, i will have to be fitter than i have ever been and not just physically.

If you have been daft enough to read some of the rubbish on this blog you will have worked out that my mental fitness is the weak area, hence this will be the area i work on most.

Now, where is the book on Camper van wiring?