.... sounds pretty much like what happens at our house too ...... .... For the record, it’s usually me who gets to put the kettle on. What exciting lives we lead .....

Yes, I think we need to leave the bed up, which would certainly make life easier, and that is possibly an excuse to invest in a pair of more comfortable chairs. Onwards and upwards.

A couple of extra points ref bedding and cooking, I have a double sized mattress topper, ( not memory foam, more like a thin double duvet) I put this in cotton duvet cover which acts as bottom sheet, stretch it out and tuck in the four corners, I use this with king size duvet and pillows to make the bed making as easy as possible. Roll up the base to the back of the van, fold the duvet and put the pillows on top at the back of the van which leaves plenty of space for the two of us on the rare occasions I pack the bed up in the daytime.
Cooking varies based on whether we are on a long or short trips, we tend to eat out at lunchtime and have our main meal back at the eriba, we are probably unusual in that we take a small microwave with us (lowest possible wattage and nothing else turned on when we use it) if we are away just for the weekend we may well buy some microwave meals beforehand and just have those (with some wine of course) for the couple of evenings we are away, for longer trips we use a kampa fry up electric griddle, use this for bacon for breakfast and steak, fish, sausages, burgers, lamb chops, pork chops, chicken portions for supper, it it's far more more useful than the name suggests, we would then use the microwave to cook our vegetables to go with the meat. We also always take 2 cans of tomato soup, so if we are running late or feeling a bit tired we buy some fresh basil to put in the soup and some French bread and we have a light lunch or supper fit to impress the mother- in -law !! We also always take some cheese and pickle or a tin of corned beef so we can make a similar scratch meal if we need to, it just gives us a bit more flexibility day to day when we are on our hols.

In less than 10 years we moved from a 2 man tent sleeping on the ground, to a Pan Familia sleeping on memory foam. Its been like the ascent of man. We don't miss the tent at all.... despite the fact we hit our heads off something every time out. Eriba's are positively luxurious in our opinion - despite the odd thump.

Hi Roofraiser

Extra piece of advice after just spending 3 days at Southport C & M C site, including sitting out Storm Francis.

After all my advice to you about how to exit & enter van without head smacking I have discovered a new hazard - trying to walk out of the door at an angle instead of going straight. K was going out of the door but suddenly changed her mind and came backwards forcing me to try to exit at a slight angle and I gave myself the most almightly wack on my bald pate on the flyscreen casing. that sticks out in the top inside of the door. Even in the daylight I saw stars.......

Straight pathway out of the door in future.

Other than that Troll coped really well with Francis. Put the pop top down a couple of times when the wind hit its peak but felt very safe & secure.

MikeT