First Practice Pack

Last night after I blogged I headed back over to the unit to sort out the CDs and I was able to empty a couple of boxes of them into the CD racks which are scattered throughout Julian (including, now, between the front seats) and I have also picked out a really good selection into the front CD rack. Jumping ahead of myself, I did put another box of CDs into the trailer which, on next pack, I may keep out so I can try and keep all my CDs accessible for the journey.

Anyway, this morning I woke and went straight out to the storage unit to crack on with painting the roof. It had been raining hard since the middle of yesterday afternoon and the unit has a couple of holes in the roof; a lot of water was dripping through and puddling on the floor but because of the pallets none of my stuff had got wet. One of the drip-points is actually above Julian but it doesn't look like anything has come through inside.

The first couple of brush-strokes of the second coat

As explained yesterday the shop had sold out of white waterproofing paint and so I have had to buy four tins of black. I used just over two of the white tins and so bought four black to allow a slightly thicker coat this time round. Also, as the paint is black, I will be sure to cover ever millimeter as every missed bit will show up.

Second coat fully applied

It took me a couple of hours to do the whole job and I did end up opening the last tin before I finished. Also this black paint is far more pungent and I started getting quite light headed, so much so that I had to open the shutter to get fresh air in. Fortunately by this time the rain wasn't as bad and the wind had dropped almost to nothing.

As yesterday as soon as I finished painting I was in Julian and frying up my oh so very tasty Bacon and Egg barm; once again a really tasty breakfast (even if I did slightly overdo the egg today). No pictures again; you've all seen the cooker and me using it to make breakfast.

So I ate this and then went straight to the practice pack.

The first thing to put in was the top and back for the desk; this slid in very easily and then the shelves from the bookshelf fitted down the side to make a flat surface. This was achieved quickly but then, for some reason, I stopped and just stood for about five or ten minutes looking at things, trying to work out where to go next.

Starting to pack; two amps, a guitar and some boxes

I broke my indecision by going back to the studio to get my vintage Marshall cab out of the store room (which took a bit of effort as it was buried at the back) and then, when slid this to the back left to the trailer. The other guitar amp I am taking fitted nicely next to it and I was off on a roll.

The desk units fitted in perfectly

From this point on I cleared down the pallet with my books and DVDs on it, keeping the level of the boxes at about the level of the sides of the trailer. Once I had cleared these down I turned to the two drawer boxes for the desk. For this attempt I have laid these on their sides and this seems like a good idea.

Just how cleanly they fit...

The gap between two of the ribs on the sides of the trailer is just wide enough that the foot-ridge fits between them and this snug fit really encourages me that nothing will move in transit.

Loose stuff in the drawers

Obviously the drawers could be voids of wasted space, but also I don't want to put anything heavy which could damage them, and so I have put a load of the loose soft and less important stuff inside each drawer. The things I've put in here are not things I really need to take but I would like to have them with me.

The finished trailer (with bent leg on right)

So, there it is; I have managed to get everything I wanted to onto the trailer without it going above the sides however it is REALLY heavy; I tried to move it but only succeeded in stressing the legs and when I spotted this I stopped the attempt. I think that I will have to remove a fair few things from the trailer before hooking it up to the back of Thomas the day before I go; this is another task to do that weekend that I was hoping to avoid but there will be no easy way of hooking up the trailer when it is fully laden.

My next tasks are to work out how the roof boxes will fit; can I even get them both on the top of Julian? I really hope so. I am also ordering the tarpaulin so will hopefully have that delivered and can work out how to fix it best; I am thinking of getting a load of bungies, or maybe some other form of clips, and will be looking for one which has a large number of eyelets all round the edges. Thinking of which, the generator hasn't arrived yet either; I may need to chase this.

Ten weeks to go; and many of my weekends are busy so I really need to keep cracking on with this stuff.

Happy New Year :)