Leaving your cars accessories on all night CAN be a good thing!

SO normally I wouldn't advise taking on that advice...but leaving my camry's accessories on all night proved to be the perfect chance to have a real life car jump-starting lesson. That being successful, I spent the day learning various practicalities of my van and its camping equipment.

My personal favourite was driving my van around purposely trying to get it bogged so that I could practice kicking it into 4wd and getting myself out. A muddy success & strangely addictive!

Despite my fairly independent nature, I've always had the "there will always be a boy around to do that" motto when it comes to all things mechanical. But I must admit I was feeling very practical and accomplished after a day of Dads "let me teach you all that I know" lessons.

Driving back from the petrol station where I learnt how my vans diesel/lpg gas combination works, I realised that alot of the magic of this trip for me is going to be that I've spent the last four years of my life at uni focusing on all things intellectual and academic. Which, as much as I loved every second of it, has done very little to prepare me for the majority of the pracitcal skills I'll be needing on this trip.

I can recite the theories of Freud and write an essay on hrm development. But ask me to change a tyre and I'll laugh and call a friend.


I'm looking forward to the change from books and theories to hands-on practicalities. And I have no doubt that alot of those skills will be the topics filling my "today i discovered..." blogs.

Speaking of being practical- I felt pretty proud that I fit EVERY item of clothing/shoes/ jewellrey/accessories/toiletries/etc to be used over months & months of travel into these three storage tubs...guys may laugh but come on girls, you have to admit this is a decent effort!