Okay… I have an announcement to make – I’m undertaking a new ‘challenge’!
You know how I like a challenge! If not, well, previous challenges include: Becoming a full-time muso!! Writing 52 songs in a year and posting them all on Youtube, creating a proper album of the best ones, taking part in dance competition Strictly, converting my entirely undeveloped attic into a home studio myself, a 40 day fast (Yep, no food for 6 weeks – let’s not go into that!), and living overseas, to name but a few.
So the latest one (the craziest yet) probably seems like a sudden and impulsive idea. For the most part it is, but it’s actually been bubbling away for a good few years… All the years I have been ‘on the road’ as a regularly gigging musician, all the times I have read about ‘Free Range Humans’, all the moments spent gazing longingly at the Instagram photo of folks already living the life. But also there have a few other contributing factors…
After the intensity of creative output that was the song challenge, and then the quiet fallow period of turning those songs into real records to make an actual album, then came the breakdown of my personal relationship and the inevitable change of dwelling… I have reached a place where I just can’t bring myself to pick a room and a town to ‘settle down’ in. I am itching for pastures new, some adventures and a hell of a lot of shows to promote my new album!
Yes! I have bought myself a panel van and, with the help of my parents, I am converting it into my own ideal camper (challenge one) and then I am going to take it touring around the UK and Europe (challenge two)! And then maybe swap my van and do it in North America (challenge three). And of course, as with every challenge I undertake, I shall blog it and vlog it as I go.
It’s been a few weeks since this idea seriously took hold and just a fortnight since I bought the van. I have slowly been telling my close friends and family what I am up to and quite to my surprise, everyone think’s it’s a great idea! I honestly thought I would meet with a lot more opposition, scepticism and naysaying but no, it seems the counsel think this is just the right plan for this phase of my life. Oooooeeee!!
I confess I am not entering into this lightly, I have fear… Especially of announcing to you all so publicly that this is what I am up to. I feel I am making myself pretty vulnerable, but I take my lead from the great Amanda Palmer who rather than fearing strangers and strange places, instead threw herself headlong into similar such adventures and found that the people and the world around her stepped up to catch her and help her, rather than take advantage. I trust that my experience will be the same. Besides, the more of you that know about it, the more of you there will be to look out for me along the way!
You can follow my progress on all my social media channels of course! #VanLifeLoy
So here I am, right at the beginning with an empty van and idea… Let’s get this show on the road!!!!
Love,
