Fanofthevan - Steve Rooker´s 1955 samba: 2017

A year since the last time I blogged about VW buses, my samba build and the stuff I do.

SO WHATS BEEN HAPPENING ?

Unfortunately the end of my marriage, 13 years came to an end, it felt like a bit of a life wipeout.

But what to do... - its easy to get caught up in the loss of a long relationship, but time heals all, turn the page and well I guess, you always have to just look on the bright side of life and I often think to myself that we are all so very lucky to even be here.

That's me in the underground garage at minicars, trying to remove the knicks and polish up a bit of the old original sunroof parts, I did manage to save and use a suprising amount of the parts, some others i had to source.

Boys enjoying the racing and weekends away

champ

A lot of racing went on at this time, I was feeling quite stressful all of last year, the separation, the racing, taking care of the boys, keeping there little Minimoto race bikes at the top and all that, it was all a lot to deal with and often I felt exhausted and overwhelmed. It is a busy time for a newly single dad, but we got through it, and made a lot of nice memories those years, especially with Travis and Lewis.

I took a trip with Esty to Madrid, met Manuel...c ! and we all had a great time at Marias wedding, dancing the night away, much needed and a bit of a moment, and a realisation that I was getting on with life, it feels very strange being single.

I Lost my Grandma Ruby on 5th august 2016 - RIP

another blow .....

Life, however sad when someone dies, does indeed go on. below, Getting on with it - this is a photo of my brother chris, laura and Poppy his daughter, who we managed to hang out with while visiting the UK.

Over in the UK 2016 - Rookers together again

us lot, all enjoying meeting up and hanging out.

below...

Me and Trish, along with chicken Joe and his mum and dad, all watching Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott in Thetford forest - It was very good.

Travis and Lewis did great in their first ever championship -Travis came second in the Swedish championship . Pic below is us 3 coming home from the last epic race of the season.

I finally found a place in august and moved in - The boys were not so keen on the place, but it met the needs, we spent 6 months living here, it was big enough, the right price, but a bit cold during the winter and a bit strange and isolated, we lived above a garage in an industrial area - we went with it and made the most of the situation, the boys were great.

Christmas 2016 and 2017 new year, me and the boys flew home to Cambridge, the first Christmas ever in the UK, looking forward to spending more with the Rooker family in the future. we had a lovely time, no stress, and celebrated Barry turning 40 ! a good night was had by all

we flew home on new years day.

2017 A turning point !

Things started to feel much more positive after visiting family and friends at Christmas

I had plenty of visits over the next few months and the samba moved forwards and I found a nice house to rent, somewhere that felt like a home - We moved in at the end of March 2017.