Age is just a number!

 Thank you again for all your comments, you're all very supportive.  And welcome to a few new readers, I hope I don't bore the pants off you 😏

Brenda, caravan parks here have to have a licence from the local Council, either a residential (mostly open for permanent living in all year round, although even some of those have a 1 or 2 month closed season), or a holiday licence, which is for holiday accommodation only and is usually for 8 to 10 months of the year.  I don't know what the criteria are, or who chooses the type of licence - park owner or Council.  Whichever licence type the Park holds, they (and we) are under obligation to conform to the terms of the licence, or the Park owner can be fined or even have his licence taken away.  Therefore, as our Park has only an 8-month holiday licence, we cannot live in our van for the full 8 months (we have to have a permanent home elsewhere), although we can visit as many times as we like during those 8 months.  Which we are certainly doing!  I don't think I'd want to stay there much over the winter anyway, the van doesn't have double glazing or central heating (we have an electric fire in the lounge and portable electric oil filled radiators for when it gets cooler) so I'm guessing it would be quite cold.  The site is on a hillside and terraced too, so if it snows it could be a bit dangerous at our old age....I don't really fancy sledging 😂😂

Speaking of age.....we met another of our fellow van owners last week, she's a little old lady aged 90 who is on her own, she drives down from Birmingham every couple of weeks to spend a week or so in her beloved van.  She told us the other day she's been coming to the Park since the 1970s, she's had several different vans in that time and absolutely loves the Park, she considers it her second home and the other owners her extended family.  She's a happy little thing, loves pottering about her van and garden, she was busy arranging her smalls to dry on the back of her metal garden furniture when we were chatting the other day, having just hand washed them in her van.  She doesn't look 90.  Our next door van neighbours are 75 and 83, they're both extremely fit and don't look their ages either.  And yet my Mum died at the age of 84 and looked much older than that, but then she'd been in poor health for a few years.  I'm 61 and feel about 80 sometimes when I'm very tired and my hip/back are paining me, but most of the time I find it hard to believe my age, I don't generally feel that old at all.

Been shopping this morning.....lots of gaps on the shelves in the supermarket, and couldn't get half the things I wanted in a couple of other stores as they're getting rid of their summer stock and filling up with Halloween, back to school and even Christmas stuff 😡.  It's still summer, for goodness sake!  Got 2 lots of washing out on the line, thankfully....as it's sunny and breezy today it'll dry in no time.

Husband's got his diabetic eye screening tomorrow - despite only being borderline diabetic and not even needing to take medication for it, he has some diabetic nerve damage showing in his eyes already....oddly, as I've been diabetic for 10 years now and have no signs of eye damage.  They said the last time that as long as his diabetes is kept under control (which it is, he had his annual review not long ago and the results were all fine), the eye damage shouldn't progress too much.  I'm having my hair cut tomorrow, and Betty is going to the groomers first thing Tuesday morning.

Another odd thing - I've been sneezing this morning....I know it's hayfever as I have very itchy eyes and nose as well, which always happens when I have hayfever.  The odd thing is that, in previous years, I've only had hayfever at the start of Spring for 2 or 3 weeks, then that's it, it doesn't trouble me anymore.  This year, however, I've had it on and off throughout all of Spring and Summer.  How strange, and very annoying.