And There's Damme Cold...

Cold but tasteless....Coors Light.

I can't understand this idea. Coors Lager has based it's entire advertising campaign not on the taste of it's lager, but the fact that you can drink it really, really cold. I can drink really, really cold squash if I wanted, at a fraction of the price. Surely, the coldness of the lager is not really due to the lager producers, more to do with the fridge producers. Now that my beer fridge is functioning, I can have whatever type of lager (or squash, or even some other drink) at temperatures approaching absolute zero if I so wish (well, at least closer to absolute zero than previously). Some things are important to have. A beer fridge in summer is one of them. I won't be drinking Coors though, it tastes like gnats pee.
Yes, the fridge, after being sat in the van for about 12 months (well, I say sat, more free to roam around the van as it saw fit), is now fully functioning.

Spaghetti Anyone ?

The wires coming out of the back of the fridge are the wrong colours, hence the confusion and the irritating cutting out after 1/2 a second when I tried it before. A bit too late to save the milk that we left in there by mistake from the previous camping trip, but it shall be functioning for the fast approaching weekend in Oxford.
I have a triple cigarette lighter and USB port working too. So, I can charge a lap top and simultaneously light cigarettes for 3 different people if I saw fit. I have no smokers in my team though. Next step is to connect the water pump so I have running water in Jezebel. To be fair, I have had running water in Jezebel already when it rains, but this should be drinkable running water from a tap, rather than rusty running water that I would have to lick off the walls.
I had to make a trip to Southampton on Sunday morning. A bit of a nerve wracking trip as I was pondering the idea of my first live interview on BBC Radio Solent. I still have no real idea of how many people listen to Radio Solent on a Sunday morning. Their website quotes a figure of 285,000 viewers in a week. Now, is that 285,000 who occasionally will have Radio Solent on at some point in the week, or that they average 285,000 at any point in the week ?

Anyway, at 11 am I found myself in a studio opposite a chap called Nick Girdler, trying to be vague as he tried to guess why I was there. It's all part of the show, a bit like the mystery guest slot on Russell Howard.

Nick Girdler.

He guessed it in the end by asking me the killer question "Go on then, what is it you are doing?" Hard to be vague with that one.
Having checked the website, the interview did garner some extra publicity. 15 hits on the website. 5 of those were via the Julia's House website. I'm guessing that there weren't quite 285,000 people listening in.
Team Nightmare are still awaiting their paperwork from the DVLA. At this rate they won't have time to get Ladiva on the road and install any sort of fridge in her. 3 weeks of tepid beer doesn't bear thinking about.
Team L.O.T.U.S. now have the engine working. They just need to put it inside the car. And find a steering wheel and other minor parts. Drivers seat. Passenger seat. That sort of idea. Probably no fridge space at all in a Lotus.

And so, the big event of this weekend. Team 'Soon-to-be-wed' will be taking up their married name of 'Team Newlywed'. Yes, Team 27 are getting spliced (well, two of them anyway). Swapping their current wild, carefree single existences for the dull monotony and tedium of married life. And what better way to test a new marriage to breaking point than 3 weeks in a large white sardine can, travelling the highways and by-ways of Europe, learning to bicker in a dozen new languages. Looking forward to a good night up in the Midlands to celebrate on Saturday. Milly and Jezebel will be in attendance.