The night before Christmas...oh no wait, BFUK

WRITTEN ON THE 29TH...DELAYED PUBLICATION
De-ay minus one in the boardfree hoose. (said in Geordie/Scottish accent)


Right, so we started our journey a few days ago. But only up to John o groats…so technically we haven’t REALLY started our journey as of yet. But so far, I’ve come across more generous and giving people who are prepared to go out of their way to aid others so far, than I’ve met in a long long time. Maybe it’s because the team are in need and we notice it more. We’ve been so lucky already!
Driving up along the a99 to Wick at the north of Scotland, out in the sticks was an interesting journey.

We set off this morning at approx 7.10am after being woken up by the sweet sound of becks voice bellowing for us to get up because we needed to be out by 7.00am so Dave Hulme (the vw van man) could get to work. The last thing he needed was us lot crowding his house, making his lovely dog Jackson love us more! He was such a sweety. I can honestly say, I’m a dog person. I love my cat, Edith, to bits. But I’ll always love the way dogs give you so much more affection!! Jackson came in after Becki did and he started nosing my duvet off me! Clever little chap!

So off we go. Firstly, we picked Dmitry up from Glasgow outside a library. There was a hairy moment in the van as I hadn’t exactly learnt how to corner it properly. Here’s me, little ol’ me. I’ve been driving a one litre, three cylinder tiny corsa for nearly two years and I’m now an official VW campervan driver for a month! Am I scared? Yes. Nervous? Yes. Dangerous? Not any more. I learned my lesson. I thought Dave and I were going to take a dive off a bridge at one point. Never again!
I’ve exceeded my expectations of my driving today too. Dan has had to park once for me in a bay…brilliant reverse parking too! BRAVO! But I, after the second attempt, managed to squeeze our van into a driveway tonight, after arriving 12 hours after setting off at our destination…Wick.

At about 3pm we picked Si up from Inverness Airport…again, out in the sticks!!
Today we’ve had a few donations going through little villages and towns. One guy gave Dave £20 in a shop and a few children came up to me and gave me £1 each. How lovely are these people!

We’re staying with a contact of Dave’s. And what a contact!!!! These people are just sooo wonderful! Three course meal, parking spaces for a van and a car, SUNKEN IN BATH!!! And Dave, myself and Dmitry have been offered a place to stay tomorrow evening if needs be. I think we’ll take them up on the offer. It really is too good to refuse!!!

I’m really tired tonight. My back aches from all the driving too. At least we won’t be doing that much driving each and every day.
I’ve had so many laughs today already. All the team are together for the first time and tomorrow I intend to get Dmitry to take at least one group still for me. I can’t wait. It’ll be framed when I get home!

Tomorrow I’m going to be focused on capturing the first day as well as driving. I think I’ll find it difficult with doing more driving than snapping but you gotta do what you gotta do. I need to remember not to be selfish too. I was driving to Wick and at several points in the journey received a firm pitter patter of Dave’s hands on my shoulders…I guess I must have been silently complaining by shrugging and wriggling to loosen my back muscles up a bit. Ooops! But I thought ‘hey, I should be doing this to you, this doesn’t make sense’. The first few days are going to be the most difficult in terms of endurance and we’ll soon see how it affects his body, but as long as he receives five star treatment from his team and gets loads of food shoved down his throat he’ll do just great. I’ve got every bit of confidence in you Dave, I know you can do this.

It starts tomorrow. Good luck to all of us!!!

No doubt a blog shall appear tomorrow!

Hollaballoo (becki’s new name for me…I quite like it!)

30th april Sunday day one

Procrastination is the thief of time!

Quote of the day given to me by Adrian Thompson…the son of the guys we’re staying with!

after having the most amazing roast I am sitting in the lounge of the thompson’s feeling very full and content.
After this I plan to give Dave’s legs a massage to aid him in any way I can.

I’m going to keep this a short one….too tired to write like I talk!
Dmitry fell out of the van….everyone laughed, lots.

John o groats, no one was there. The pub was open but no one was behind the bar…so to speak.

Random old man on motorbike stopped us to talk…forever. Kinda cool in a ‘I like your really long nose hair kinda way’.

One pillock in a bmw sped past on a blind corner.

Seeing the guys go made me sad. Very sad. Incredibly sad.

Felt bad when I left dave on his own even though I was going back.

Filling up cost £45!!!! £1.03 per litre!! SHOCKING…I never cared about fuel prices before I drove…now it hurts the ol’ bank.

DAve covered the target distance and more! Very well done to him!

We ended up in a weird resteraunt / pub with drunk Scottish people sounding irish but hey they donated money so no one complained…not even Dim when they took his camera off him!
Right, beddy time. Need it. So pooped right now.

Nighty nighty, pj’s pj’s!

Holski

De-ay minus one in the boardfree hoose. (said in Geordie/Scottish accent)

Right, so we started our journey a few days ago. But only up to John o groats…so technically we haven’t REALLY started our journey as of yet. But so far, I’ve come across more generous and giving people who are prepared to go out of their way to aid others so far, than I’ve met in a long long time. Maybe it’s because the team are in need and we notice it more. We’ve been so lucky already!
Driving up along the a99 to Wick at the north of Scotland, out in the sticks was an interesting journey.
We set off this morning at approx 7.10am after being woken up by the sweet sound of becks voice bellowing for us to get up because we needed to be out by 7.00am so Dave Hulme (the vw van man) could get to work. The last thing he needed was us lot crowding his house, making his lovely dog Jackson love us more! He was such a sweety. I can honestly say, I’m a dog person. I love my cat, Edith, to bits. But I’ll always love the way dogs give you so much more affection!! Jackson came in after Becki did and he started nosing my duvet off me! Clever little chap!

So off we go. Firstly, we picked Dmitry up from Glasgow outside a library. There was a hairy moment in the van as I hadn’t exactly learnt how to corner it properly. Here’s me, little ol’ me. I’ve been driving a one litre, three cylinder tiny corsa for nearly two years and I’m now an official VW campervan driver for a month! Am I scared? Yes. Nervous? Yes. Dangerous? Not any more. I learned my lesson. I thought Dave and I were going to take a dive off a bridge at one point. Never again!
I’ve exceeded my expectations of my driving today too. Dan has had to park once for me in a bay…brilliant reverse parking too! BRAVO! But I, after the second attempt, managed to squeeze our van into a driveway tonight, after arriving 12 hours after setting off at our destination…Wick.
At about 3pm we picked Si up from Inverness Airport…again, out in the sticks!!

Today we’ve had a few donations going through little villages and towns. One guy gave Dave £20 in a shop and a few children came up to me and gave me £1 each. How lovely are these people!
We’re staying with a contact of Dave’s. And what a contact!!!! These people are just sooo wonderful! Three course meal, parking spaces for a van and a car, SUNKEN IN BATH!!! And Dave, myself and Dmitry have been offered a place to stay tomorrow evening if needs be. I think we’ll take them up on the offer. It really is too good to refuse!!!

I’m really tired tonight. My back aches from all the driving too. At least we won’t be doing that much driving each and every day.
I am a little worried, however, about my personal links with people. No names being mentioned but I don’t want anyone to have preconstrude misconceptions of me due to my personal links somehow with them. Sometimes it can be easier to believe what you’ve heard from others rather than to find out for yourself and even though I don’t know the extent of what they know I’m paranoid about this affecting things. God I make no sense! It’s good to get it off my chest though. Rather than keeping mulling it over again and again.
I’ve had so many laughs today already. All the team are together for the first time and tomorrow I intend to get Dmitry to take at least one group still for me. I can’t wait. It’ll be framed when I get home!
Tomorrow I’m going to be focused on capturing the first day as well as driving. I think I’ll find it difficult with doing more driving than snapping but you gotta do what you gotta do. I need to remember not to be selfish too. I was driving to Wick and at several points in the journey received a firm pitter patter of Dave’s hands on my shoulders…I guess I must have been silently complaining by shrugging and wriggling to loosen my back muscles up a bit. Ooops! But I thought ‘hey, I should be doing this to you, this doesn’t make sense’. The first few days are going to be the most difficult in terms of endurance and we’ll soon see how it affects his body, but as long as he receives five star treatment from his team and gets loads of food shoved down his throat he’ll do just great. I’ve got every bit of confidence in you Dave, I know you can do this.
It starts tomorrow. Good luck to all of us!!!

No doubt a blog shall appear tomorrow!

Hollaballoo (becki’s new name for me…I quite like it!)

The blue van WOman!

Right, so, it's been a while. I apologise, profusely!!!!
I've been getting up to lots these past few weeks. It's all so very riveting!
Let me see! I got Nat to make me up a diary so i can hand write a little bit of my thoughts as well as blogging it all out! Well, actually, the diary was to enable all my family at home to write notes in and encouraging thoughts etc. Nat went the whole hog and gave me games to play on random pages.
So this week i spent three days looking after a set of eleven month old twins. It was nice at first, but then the novelty wore off...one of them got ill and i realised i couldn't do it full time at the moment. Maybe in a few years but at the moment i've got my whole life ahead of me and i'm faaaar too young to be tying myself down! But hell, i've changed my first ever nappy, burped a baby, fed a baby, and swaddled a baby to sleep!

I've been learning a lot really! Today i arrived in Prestwick to stay at the vw man's house. Dave and Joyce are such lovely people. Really can't believe we've been so lucky to find them. For someone to be so giving and so kind is rare and we're so appreciative! He's given us a camp stove, matches and a torch to take with us in the van. She's gorgeous! Really, i mean gorgeous! I feel so honoured to drive it!!!
We've got most of our stuff loaded in now. And it's the evening in Prestwick. We're sat in the conservatory of Dave and Joyce looking over the airport. Lots of pretty lights surrounding us of which the subtle glow of the our support vehicle is appearing in the window...ok ok so it's not radio active but it's so purrrty!!!
I learnt where the alternator is, fan belt and everything!!!!

Me and Dan were trying to figure out how to turn a light off in the van....we're so pathetic, all it was is that we weren't slamming to door shut hard enough. Toughen up guys!!!
I tell you what, power steering sure as hell makes a difference! I've never driven a vehicle without it and it hurts my arms big time!!! Also, note to self=diesel...not petrol!!!

So prior to playing with alarms and lights and alternators i caught a direct train to Glasgow then one to Prestwick. On the first trip there were about ten Glasweigan chavs all drinking wife beater (stella) ranting on about how great they are and how hard they are. All they were, were ugly army boys home for the weekend. Quite insignificant in the grand scale of life!
Nat packed my bag because all i do is scrunch things up and jam them in. He's bet me £15 that i won't be able to fit everything back in by the time i get back! I haven't unpacked yet!!! Hahaha.

We're picking Dmitry (half of the tv crew that will be joining our boardfree banter) from Glasgow tomorrow. A 7am start! Let's see how that goes!!! Then i get to see Si again in Inverness. He's flying in!!! How cosmopolitan of him! All the team haven't been together since it was my application day in Hyde Park and i wasn't in the team yet. It'll be great to get a bit of footage...be it still or other of us all together. can't wait!

So...today's conclusion.....
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Blog you later (i'm so cool!)

Hollymchollerson

Just call me Ms. BrightSpark

I CAN'T ACTUALLY BELIEVE MY STUPIDITY!
We stayed at a hostel in Pitlochry last night. My laptop is behind the front desk whilst Dave and I catch up on countless emails. Clever me forgot to bring my lappy...that's got ALL of my 5 blogs from each day. So sorry guys, but you'll have to wait another day or two til i catch up with all my blogs...they are all written. Promise!
Send in words of inspiration and encouragement everyone! We all need it right now.

Holl

BOARDFreeeeeeeeee

Finally...the joyous day hath arrived. I've got my board!!! I collected it at approximately 10.33am this morning. By 12.00 it was set up and being ridden. I've never felt so confident on a board. I've got some green wheels and green risers on and clear grip so you can see the beautiful mapel wood the board's made out of! I skated on it straight away, no problems, no falls. I even went round corners on it! It's perfect. Exactly the right width i wanted and length. I even got a few stickers in with the board (apparently quite rare ones) and also a signed poster from the girl who designed the board. Yayayay.

Then i decided to go to Pc world. I purchased a tape converter for the van to play my cd's via Tape player, 25 cds, batteries, and a massive 320gb external hard drive. It's a toshiba one and was a complete bargain! It has a blue light too...so i've got matching puter and hard drive...yeah you know i'm cool! hehehe.
This week will just be a week of getting everything sorted. Flights, routes, accomodation, music, clothes, information etc etc!

'Don't forget you're alive'

Holladolla

Pictures taken by Alice the Australian Gap Student ... cheers mate!

Dreams and schemes

Aaarrghh they're all vampires!!!
I had a really bad nights sleep last night. First of all I couldn't get to sleep. I had so many things whirring around my head. Lots of what if's. Lots of situations. Lots of dreams.
Then when I finally got to sleep I had a really scary dream. All the boardfree team except me were vampires and they were trying to convert me. My dreams are always very real and very vivid. They asked me to join in and Sam got his fangs within inches of my neck and I pulled away and told him I couldn't do it. Each night they had someone's blood for dinner and for the rest of the day that person was drained. I didn't want the pain and backed out. I've never run so fast...well...in a dream anyway. I had to hide in the sunlight so they couldn't get to me. MAN that was scary. Anyone know what dreams mean? Enlighten me please!

So this morning I woke up at 9.00 after only getting to sleep at 3.45 to welcome my board, Orca that should be getting delivered. I got comfortable and nestled into my sofa and I heard Nat shout, 'is it Friday today?'. 'Yes', I replied. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo it's good Friday of course! My board won't come today. The situations with the board are really starting to hack me off. Do you ever get the feeling that nothing ever goes smoothly for you? I do, constantly! So on the three slips I've had posted saying they've tried to deliver it says they'll only keep the package for 5 working days. They got it on Monday so today should be the last day. But it's not a working day. So fingers crossed it gets delivered tomorrow otherwise looks like I'll be getting a rolls rolls!

On the plus side we have a van!!
A beautiful beautiful panel vw. New engine and supplied by a magazine. How lush! Can't wait to drive that baby!

Nat and I had a great road trip. We went to his parents first, then a little bay called Croyde then to Newquay. We were going to head to Falmouth and see Si on Wednesday but it was raining so heavily we decided to call it a day and head back to the in law's. I got some cool pictures of surfers. First time I've shot them really and thoroughly enjoyed it!


I'm off for a sulk about my board not coming today.

Holl the troll

Board NOW

After much deliberation and concern I've had to 'cancel' my order for my beautiful stunning red TVS board. How gutted am I.
The website states worldwide delivery within 1-3 working days and that all orders shall be processed and shipped within 48 hours of receipt! All I've received from them was the confirmation of receipt of order on the day I ordered it. I've tried emailing four different emails and three of them bounced back. I tried calling the USA at their store...it's disconnected. Looks like someone's shut up shop and forgotten to tell anyone. Grrrr.
So browsing around, convinced I'm never going to find another equally as brilliant board I came across this beauty.....

Being a girl and all, I wanted something that would fulfill my ideal of a girls longboard. This is perfect. Minimalist. Feminine. Elegant. Oh yes. That's cheered me up no end today, especially as it was on sale for $34!!!!!!! Back of the net!
I've seen a few other nice boards that I wouldn't mind investing in, but I think I'll wait until I'm used to this one. Good thinking batman!

I've dyed my hair brown as you can see from the photo in the previous post. It was semi permanent though so it's now fading and I've got a weird auburn tinge to it. Which is kind of cool seeing as I was born auburn...so I'm told! But I decided I wasn't going to spend the best part of £100 getting my hair professionally highlighted and it'd be far easier to let it do it's own thing. This was reiterated by the fact I'm going to Oz for four months and there won't be any hairdressers in the middle of the desert!

This weekend has been great. Nat and I trundled into London on Saturday morning to meet up with Dave for a roll around Hyde Park. Whilst Nat was wiggling around the mini slalom course, Dave and I went to get some shots. I've developed a severe passion for flare at the moment and I took some smashing shots of Dave and Elsa. You'll see! I'm going to burn them all to disk and take them up to Swansea with me when I go up on Thursday. As well as the list of schools en route for BoardFree UK.
Holy schmokes! It's only 26 days until it all kicks off. How excited am I!!!! Eeeeeee.

I got my visa application form through the post the other day too! I'm going through it very slowly to make sure i get everything right. The sooner i get it sorted that means there's one less thing to think about with preparation!

Something that might make people either chortle or worry about my mental health...I got a forward from Dave about a skate happening this weekend. But in this email as I scrolled down was an email from a photographer about shoots....for a split second I felt a twinge in my tummy. It's gotten to the point where I feel totally attached to boardfree...is it possible to marry something like that? Although I spose it's Dave's baby, so I'd be Dave's daughter in law...or something! Anyway, I giggled about my weird feelings that I've not felt before. I guess I felt like a psycho girlfriend. And just cast my thoughts to oasis's and mirages in the desert.

And..and anddd!!! I've got my hoodie!!! It might be a pathetic thing to get happy about....but it makes me feel oh so proud to wear it and to be part of the team.


All the best guys and dolls,

A proud BoardFree Holly