Obsession /əbˈsɛʃ(ə)n/ (noun)

The state of being obsessed with someone or something. ” he cared for the ‘stupid van’ with a devotion bordering on obsession” – an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind and plunders their pocket.

plural noun: obsessions “he was in the grip of a VW obsession he was powerless to resist”

I am the most obsessive person I know. Once obsessed with an idea I simply cannot stop it circulating in my mind, it literally keeps me awake at night. The idea of buying a VW Camper had been plaguing me for years and now for the first time in my life I had a bit of cash to buy one. Several weeks of avid eBay viewing would now ensue up to the point that camper blindness sets in (this is the syndrome that results in a potential buyer being content with any old piece of shit van). Then in December 2019 I finally happened upon a nice looking T2 just down the road from me in Mold, Wales. It was going for 10K, was orange and all I dreamt of, the rest is history.

3 years on and my VW T2 Late Bay still sits on the driveway, not because I haven’t spent hundreds of hours trying to breathe life back into it, but because it simply refuses to come back from the dead! My blind obsession in owning one of these vehicles coupled with my absolute lack of mechanical knowledge at the time would prove to be the making of some hard and expensive life lessons. Now I could stand on my soap box and tell you that buying a VW T2 Camper is going to be the pain of your life and the ruin of credit rating, save yourself the hardship and just buy a new California model (my original plan). The simple fact though, is that seeing one of these vehicles limping down the road brings a smile to the most miserable of fuckers’ faces and for me thats about enough. I have learnt a lot since that day and have restored other vehicles since then, they are all different and provided great distraction, however, none as challenging as the ‘the bus’.

As Jack Kerouac said, “because in the end you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. CLIMB THAT GOD DAMN MOUNTAIN, BUY THAT BUS” – you won’t regret it, I haven’t!

So those with those almost Yoda like words of wisdom now released out into the wild, December 2019 heralded a new challenge for me. It would result in 3 years of cut fingers, grazed knuckles, skinned shins and heads. I would curse with words I that had never heard before. I would literally spend money to buy rust, yes rust! I would buy endless tools, without the faintest clue of how they worked. My evenings would be filled reading 40 year old manuals, that stunk of beer, fags and oil (like a prop straight out of Life On Mars). I would come to realise that back in the day, everyone who owned a Camper looked like Magnum P.I and always repaired their vehicle in shorts! I would officially enter the world of V Dubbing, and would have to constantly reassure myself that the journey and not the destination is everything when it comes to a VW T2 Late Bay restoration!

So, could I drive it home? Nope, wouldn’t start, then once started it wouldn’t stop, then it just leaked (for 3 years!). An omen of my tragic journey to come…