October 27, 2003

Over the last week the Australian newspapers have been writing about David Blaine’s experience in a box suspended over the Thames. We can’t believe its a big deal – after all, we’re a whole family confined to a 2.5m x 2m x 1.5m white box, with wheels and windows, for up to 20 hours a day. Mind you, we have been a bit more sensible than David. Our box contains a kettle, a microwave, a fridge, two gas hobs, a fan, and 2 double beds. When we arrive on a site, the first thing we do is hook up to the mains, and boil the kettle. Oh, and we’ve not just limited ourselves to drinking water and tea, as we’ve been stocking up our cupboards regularly at Woolworths (which in Oz is a supermarket like Tesco, rather than a general store your granny likes), and refreshed our memories of Australian wine boxes. Many backpackers carry their backpacks and a wine box around Oz, but because we’ve got our van, we’ve managed to carry two - a red and a white box. We’ve realised that after a day cooped up in the campervan, a drink helps to relax us a bit – mind you, having finished off two 4L boxes since we arrived (so that’s, er, the equivalent of 11 bottles in three weeks) we’d better ease off a bit (not because of the budget, because at the equivalent of 70p a bottle, it fits our budget nicely!).

Anyway, David Blaine, get a life – or a camper van.