Over the years I've:-
- forgotten to lock the fridge door.
- closed the fridge door not realising I'd split a 2 pint plastic milk bottle, milk seen dripping from outside underbed locker, fridge seal full of milk meant door off for a good clean, underbed area near swimming in the white stuff, not good on a hot summers day.
- pulled van up a levelling ramp and unhitched without chocking or applying handbrake.
- tried to drive off with breakaway cable attached, just stopping in time.
- van rolled into car bumper, now have a plywood "plate" to drop in place when hitching/un-hitching
- soaked the lovely Mrs eribaMotters when lowering leg of wet Caravanstore canopy.
- driven off with step still out.
- door flew open on M25 - A12 roundabout junction, still don't know how.
- first long trip to France unitched van at end of 400 mile run and found I had negative noseweight as the back end went down [towed fine]
- first time I put van away on axle stands the back end tilted and hit the floor, now get the afore mentioned lovely Mrs eribaMotters to lean down on the tow hitch.
- left the draining board disc over the sink, fortunately it did not do its discuss trick.
- started to strip down the water heater I'd just installed as it was not working, only to realise I'd not put the fuse in the switch.

I'm sure I could think of more.
The reason why some think I know so much is because I've made so many mistakes to learn from.

Colin - aka Oscar

These confessions can be so cathartic.

My latest in a long string of caravanning cock-ups has left me wondering if I'm developing Bidenitis.

After a couple of years when we didn't use the Triton due to the Covid nonsense and a couple of major surgical interventions, we finally got away a few weeks ago for a few days in Yorkshire followed by a week or so in The Cotswolds. To be honest, my illnesses had robbed me of some of my previous self-confidence and this wasn't helped when on the day before departure, I found that the motor mover remote control was playing silly buggers.

Turning it on had become quite random; sometimes it worked but more often than not it obstinately refused to cooperate. As I'm hardly the most accomplished caravan reverser, I was very nervous about setting up on site so it was with some relief that at our first stop I was allowed to leave van and car connected for the night and at the second the site owner directed me onto the pitch in a most helpful manner.

At the site in the Cotswolds I informed the warden of the problem on arrival and he kindly helped me manhandle the van into position. I really should practise reversing.

Anyway, as we are a bit half-heartedly thinking of another Continental randonnée in September I thought I'd better have a look at the remote control to see if I could work out what was wrong with it. Thankfully, and before I could do any damage to it, as I was getting the unit out of its wallet, a laminated instruction card that I hadn't previously seen in our12 years of ownership fell out onto the caravan floor.

Here's what I read:

Mover instructions.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Would you believe that in just a couple of years of not using the van I'd completely forgotten that the remote control needs TWO presses of the button and not one, to turn it on?

I think I am living proof that great wisdom does not necessarily come with advancing years. The mover control has been working perfectly all the time but clearly my brain hasn't..

In the immortal words of Del Boy, 'You plonker, Brian!'