June 20th: What's an aux?



When I first mentioned the idea of van dwelling to Georgie she wasn’t too keen.
“But mum, where will I stay?”
“In September you’re going to Uni. Before that you can stay with me in the van.  We can go travelling and you can stay at your dad’s.  You like it there, most of your friends are near him.”
“Can we go to hotels?”
“Maybe AirBnBs.”
“Do I have to go travelling in the van? You won't come up to Uni in the van will you?”
“I probably will, to visit you. But don't worry I won't mention the van to your friends.”
“Will it have an aux?”
“What's an aux?”
“An aux lead so I can play my songs.”
“I don't know. Hopefully it will have a CD player.” 
“Mum, I've not bought a CD for ten years. Can we get Cath Kidston bedding for it?”
“Yes, or Liberty.”
“Cool.”
“Can I drive it?”
“On Darcy's farm or in a car park.”  Farmer Darcy is a guy I watch films with at the local independent cinema, the Phoenix, in Leicester.  We’ve been going there about once a month for six years.  He finds me sexually repulsive but likes watching sub-titled foreign films with me in a very dark room.
“Like the night before my French GCSE?”
“Yes, but you shouldn't mention that, it was illegal.”
“I got a grade C.”
“Great, we can go to France together.”
“Can we go to Paris?”
“I was thinking of villages and coasts.”
“I was thinking Galleries Lafayette and the Champs Elysees.”

Georgie and I visited pristine campervan showrooms, and, more frequently, rundown yards with prehistoric vans, some without wheels and with the smell of damp and the dead permeating their interiors.   But last week we found one that might be just right.  A Peugeot Boxer AutoSleeper, M reg with 45,000 miles on the clock.  After a Liberty makeover and a few pots of herbs, recommended by the lovely Bob Flowerdew when I told the Gardeners’ Question Time team on Radio Four that I’d be living in a van and wanted plants, it might be heaven.

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