If there is a karma bank where good deeds incur credits, then my sister's boyfriend must be one of the key account holders. He put HUGE amounts of know-how, ideas, and sheer hard work into our van, which was stunning enough - and then gave us his bed. He slept in a hammock in the shed for the duration of our stay. We tried to be of use, but found limited opportunities to do anything he couldn`t do quicker and better himself (in the end, and unsurprisingly, Janine did a bunch of stuff and I was no use whatsoever). He has the lights in his house on timers, so he doesn't need to bother turning them on or off (and can use their switching activity as cues for when to be awake or asleep), and has many plastic containers full of grapefruit segments in his fridge, because cooking and eating are time-consuming. Birds nest in the eaves of his house, which - like many of the many cars in his back yard - has parts in varying states of (re/de)-construction. We loved it. If anyone has any ideas on things we could do to say "thanks" to someone who can make pretty much anything from pretty much nothing, we'd love to hear from you.
The van got many new things (including shocks, as the old ones didn`t rebound from compression at all. The new ones are blue, and stand out vividly against the grey-brown, two-decades-of-grime undercarriage of the van), and has been running sweetly ever since (900km and counting). My favorite of the newly-installed features is the security system, which involves iron bars, big black locks*, and a garden gate. Various bits were welded to various parts of the van, and we can now disappear into the forest or town (or fish hatchery, or thrift store, or tent) without being overly-concerned for the safety of the van or its contents. And we've done all of those things, except the fish hatcheries, although we saw signs pointing the way to a number of them.
Went to a few thrift stores in Victoria, looking for clothes and utensils, and pretty much everything else. Picked a few things up here and there (Janine spent a few hours biking around with a whopping great big carving knife in her bag), but the highlight looked set to be the woman who told Janine that I was cute (Janine politely disagreed). And then we found Value Village. We were on our way out of Victoria at the time, which was good (we had the van) and bad (we ended up leaving REALLY late). For readers in NZ, imagine the biggest, most badass SaveMart you've been to, quadruple the size, then fill it with better stuff. I left with 5 t-shirts (culled from 20-something) and 3 pairs of pants. And a mutant squirrel thing. Janine acquired all the clothing items she was short of, along with pretty much all the stuff we needed for camping and hiking and general travelling. Except a mattress, which we still don't have, and a bike-hiding blanket with a quail on it, which we didn't know we needed until we saw it at a thrift store in Parksville**, 2 days and 200km later.
* = I`ve numbered the locks. There is a set of four, and two individuals. Best guess as to what the numbers are and why wins a prize***
** = The little old lady at the counter at this place was awesome. Unlike other places I've been, where they refuse to sell items with no price tag, this woman made up prices. We got pillows for 29c each, and the quail blanket for 49c. Wish I'd known before we got to the counter - I could have whipped the price tags off the hairy shoes and had them for a song
*** = May not involve a prize
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