My dream was that I would have lots of time once we were away from the home.  I have no band, no kayaking, no diy, no gardening and very little cleaning. But let’s face it life is not like that.  The paints I brought sit in the cupboard unused. The oboe and keyboard haven’t seen the light of day, and given it is still winter the kayak is hidden under the floor.  As I mentioned before I spend 8 hours a day working and this takes a fair bit of time from the day.

Most lunchtimes we will go for a walk, bike ride or run depending on weather and if I’m only taking 30 mins or a full hour.  After work we go for bike rides and walks to see the area we are in. I’ll do a whole blog on the bikes, these really were a good investment.  By the time we have spent 2 – 3 hours walking or cycling the area post work there really isn’t much time left. I am trying to learn french (despite moving to Spain soon).  I’m still on the first book I brought with me, although I think that says more about the book than anything else. I’ve not done the daily sit-ups I was going to do, the running shoes are to say the least under used.  So my other pastime, clarinet; well it has seen the light of day, it has been out of its box, it has even been blown, scales refreshed and favourite pieces played through, but 3 times in 6 weeks isn’t intense practice even in my book.  I really must stop working in an evening as this will help give me more time, but work is busy and I’m paid to do a job. I do wonder where time goes, it just disappears.

The other two forms of entertainment are listening to music and TV.  We have a music system set up for listening to music. Every piece of music we own is held on a portable hard drive connected to a Raspberry Pi  (small computer to those who think a raspberry pie is something you eat). This we transmit through an FM transmitter to the van’s radio so it is played through the cab’s speakers.  Works well but can be fiddly if wires have been unplugged. TV is the other more traditional form of entertainment. We actually ripped out the TV and stand that came with the van. It was mounted so it could be stored in a cupboard or pulled out so you could watch it in the cab, but I need a biggish monitor for my work and so we decided something that can act as a monitor and a TV and sit on the desk was the best plan.  I also built a shelf above the bed that the TV can sit on. The beds are made so you can sit up in them and this is a comfy place to sit. The van has 2 ways delivering TV that were installed before we purchased it. A traditional TV aerial that we as yet have not tried using. Also a satellite dish which John uses to get Match of the Day. When we do watch TV we normally stream from the internet(Netflix) or watch one of the films we stored on the Raspberry Pi (still not edible) before we came.  We have a chromecast device and cast to the to the TV using phones. Of course this needs internet, but every time we have tried it, it has worked fine, however I have played the clarinet more than I have watched TV.