It’s that time of year again, when the Sooty van needs a service, this time a major one. This is one of the problems with owning a 26 year old vehicle, they need a lot more TLC than the newer ones. 

Luckily the weather has been nice, so it wasn’t too much of a problem to jack it up, rip the wheels off and start crawling around underneath.

Having serviced the van, I decided to tick off another job that had bugged me for years. The carpet in the living area is one of those loop pile things and it attracts every bit of dirt going. Hoovering will only get some of it out, dustpan and brush maybe a bit more, but it’s painful.

I decided to rip the minging article out to reveal the original lino underneath. It was filthy with carpet adhesive, ripped sections of foam backing and stacks of dust and dirt. It took about an hour with a putty scraper and Cillit Bang to clean up but the results were well worth it. It’s as good as new now and will only take a wipe with a “J” cloth to make it all nice again.

Anyway, it’s not all work – we have a few trips in the diary, C&CC site at Thetford for a weekend. Holt in North Norfolk, checking out the ponies in the New Forest and there is talk of doing a week down in Cornwall and Devon in early October.