Not that I have ever made any New Year’s
resolution I have kept longer than a few days, but this year the resolution is
to write this blog more regularly and to become better at it.
As I set out originally to talk about living
on the road, but I don’t think I’ve done much about that I thought I would
start today with giving you a word picture of the space I live in, along with
some real ones. Here’s a photo of what I see from where I’m writing this.
On the right is my bed which pulls out from
the head end to make it wider so there’s enough room for all three of us. More about my Menage a Trois another
time! Suffice it to say the other two
have four legs each and are small and fluffy! My two mobile hot water bottles. Under the bed is a big open cupboard which has all my shoes and shelves for trousers, tshirts, socks and underwear. There's also a gas water tank heater under there which keeps the bed warm at night and the clothes from the dreaded damp.
I have a big flat screen above the foot of
the bed linked to an automatic satellite dish on the roof, a selection of
favourite dvds and a link to the laptop for catchup programmes if I can receive
an internet connection. I'm really into technology and love all that gadgetry.
To the right you can see one of the several original art works I have in the lorry. That one is by Chloe Needham and is a fortune
teller - poster style. Following on to the right is my eye level oven and below
it a wardrobe, mostly for costumes. To the left of the bed you can see through to the
workshop/porch which is where I keep all the stuff I don’t need all the time,
where I feed the dogs and keep coats etc. You can see the fold down dog food
table. Beyond the porch is the cab of the lorry which I can crawl through to if
it’s pouring and it’s where the dogs have their daytime space. Carrying on left
is the wall of the shower/loo room and you can see the stove pipe from the
woodburner and the small table which is a kind of office table. And the other
small wood table is my dining table (I usually eat alone but if I have a guest
I have another small plug in table like that one and a much bigger one for
dinner parties which is stored away under the sofa).
And another photo from the other direction,
which is where I’m writing this. This end is my living room. Under the big rear window I’ve recently added a
lovely burr veneer table top made by my friend Suzanne who is a furniture maker
and designer ( www.suzannehodgson.co.uk
) – it looks like a rock pool and hides my really cool miniature twin tub in which I do my
washing. Suzanne also made the strip wood cupboard doors you can see at the top
above the sofa. The sofa turns into a guest bed in case anyone stays. Under the
sofa is the gas air heater and a large log store for the woodburner. You can
see the wooden lamp which I made when I was a boy, my chandelier (a little
indulgence!) and the corner of the kitchen.
In the top right hand corner you can see the photo of three of my five
grandchildren, Izzie, Jake and Jack.
This photo shows my kitchen and you have a slightly
better view of the rockpool table on the right with the laptop I am writing
this on. I have a two ring burner, a
microwave above it which you can’t see in the photo, a big fridge freezer and the usual cupboards and drawers. Underneath the floor is a 100 litre fresh
water tank and a 60 litre lpg tank which heats the water and the hot air blower and runs the fridge.
And finally the shower room/loo which is a
wet room. The water is heated by a gas boiler in the porch/workshop and gives a lovely hot non-stop shower, limited
only by the 100 litre water tank! The loo is the standard caravan cassette
type. You can see my chandelier reflected in the mirror!
So that’s really it. A micro tour of my home. If you’re thinking of breaking in to steal
things I also have a very sophisticated alarm system!
There are many other little shelves and
cupboards hidden away so I can store quite a lot of things I don’t need
everyday. It is all designed to maximize the use of space and importantly in a
way that stops things moving around when travelling down the road. It can all be packed
down ready to travel within ten minutes.
One of the challenges of living on the road, often solved by blutac,
Velcro and bungy! With a magic sprinkle of imagination!
I hope you enjoyed the tour. Living small
as I do means that I have to be very picky about what I decide to live with and
if it isn’t useful or beautiful and preferably both then it’s not on board. I think it's a great way to live.
If you meet me at one of the shows, I would
be more than pleased to show you round in the flesh, so to speak!
Until then, all the best from a road near
you,
Mr Alexander
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