MINI Camper Van

I know it doesn’t look it but I’m working hard in this photo. Or at least I had been. I’d just transformed a MINI Clubvan into a MINI Camper Van, which took a good five minutes even with instruction and was very tiring. I deserved that beer. Later I actually spent the night in there and very comfortable it was too. MINI put out a press release last week about this vehicle, which is an in-house conversion done for publicity purposes. You can’t actually buy a MINI Camper Van but it would be very easy take out the passenger seat and built a plywood frame to put a mattress on, which is all MINI did. The clever bit and slightly more complicated isthe slide-out kitchenette, complete with two-ring stove, fridge and storage area. When you feel like cleaning up there’s a jerry can of water built into the spare wheel well and an electric pump to get it out. Brilliant.

Idiot drivers who think they own the road

Was out on my push-bike yesterday with my wife and came to the conclusion there are some very stupid people in control of cars. Riding in single file, we got a variety of hand-gestures out of side and rear windows, plus got squirted by windscreen wiper jets as cars passed. I’m assuming this was because we held some drivers up for a few seconds. We also got hooted at and abused because were were riding two abreast at one point, and a car approaching from behind had to slow down because something was coming in the opposite direction. I lost count of the number of times drivers couldn’t be bothered to give us enough space. All depressing, but what was more depressing was the number of drivers doing this who had kids in the car with them. We were heading to the coast for the day and so were they. Small-minded parents teaching their kids that this is acceptable behaviour. I’ve had all of the above before, but never so much in one day. 

Apologies for radio silence...

I've been a bit busy. Writing this from the launch of the new Subaru Forester, so will post something on that in the next 24 hours.