It starts...well just

Today our VW T5 family van didn't want to start.

After three attempts I finally manage to get it started with a belch of white smoke, accompanied by a stomach churning chugging sound. Cue worried phone call to the husband on hands free with kids screaming in the back as we motor to granny's.

His verdict? It was cold last night so the engine wasn't warm enough. Really, darling? It is the middle of May. Granted, it's England so we aren't blessed with temperatures you would normally associate with spring but it wasn't freezing last night.

We motor on, van is running fine. Still worried I pull over, cut the engine, wait ten seconds like you would when restarting a smart phone (my only yard stick for anything remotely technical) and turn the van over again. I use my best ground control to Major Tom voice to manically count down blast off to ease my toddler's screeching.

All fine. No smoke. No noise (except the kids).

We drive on and thankfully there's no replay of last week when we had plumes of black smoke chucking out the back end and a bunny hop in second Bugs himself would be proud of. That cost us a princely sum of 600 quid to get fixed. Yep, 600 smackers up in smoke thanks to a busted inter cooler and turbo hose.

I feel like I spend all my spare time in the VW Van Centre in Cheltenham these days getting bits to fix the van. I know all the salesmen and service staff by name. The salesmen even wave when I amble past in our distinctive dinged red ex panel van. They purr by, taunting me as they take their swish Sportlines out for a spin with some lucky, loaded van purchaser. I just wave back and salivate.

I am worried the van won't start tomorrow. I am also a little worried this blog won't really go anywhere. I'm a vdubber at heart though so I'll just keep dubbing, and writing, and keep everything crossed nothing else breaks in the sodding engine.

Visit again to see if the van starts up and hear more about our journey transforming our van from crusty commercial carrier to fabulous family fun bus. I promise plenty of  van chat, insights into family life and not a lot of techie stuff.

One life, drive it.