b-b-b-b-breakdown

in 3 and a half years of touring we have been incredibly fortunate to have never had a problem with a van whilst we've been on the road. that was until last night. after finishing up at hokaben festival in london, we loaded up and headed north. all was fine. we needed fuel so we stopped at northampton, pretty much exactly halfway between london and sheffield. everyone got out, used the services and got back in the van as normal. then it wouldn't start. bearing in mind none of us have much experience with vehicles ourselves, we had little to no idea what to do.

fortunately, a guy in a breakdown recovery sort of van was parked near us. we tried a push start to no avail. he did all he could and left (it was 1.30am). we rang bean's dad, whose van it is, and asked his advice. we waited and tried again and it got to about 2.30am. we then pushed the van from the service area into the petrol station to fill up and see if that helped. it didn't. we called martyn again and he got out of bed and drove down in another van to try help.

whilst waiting, to entertain ourselves, we played a few games which i'd recommend if you ever get stuck. one person went into the petrol station, hid an item and everyone then had to go in and try and find it. the attendant looked a little freaked out but indulged our primitive form of entertainment. 

i eventually went to sleep (probably the most sensible thing to do at whatever time past 3am it was. martyn eventually appeared and with his superior knowledge of automobiles, sorted it out. this was at 5am. we got home at 7am. brutal.