Bakkie

We're very pleased to present our new bakkie which we were able to purchase with the very generous support of St.Andrew's Oxshott, Queens Road Wimbledon and some friends in Cheadle.

It's a Ford Bantam which is built in South Africa exclusively for the local market. The 'bakkie' bit (it means 'bowl' in Afrikaans) has lower sides than our previous one so it's far easier to get stuff in and out. It has already been a huge blessing as we've been delivering food and building materials here there and everywhere.

For the TopGear fans; the engine is a 1.6i Rocam and whilst it's bigger than our old one it's actually a lot more economical. We managed to get a great price from the Ford dealership who threw in lots of 'toys' for the price which is great. The boys love playing with the windows and were keen to show Mummy how the stereo works.

Our old bakkie was getting very long in the tooth and had been used and abused by many different drivers during its lifetime. Sadly it got to the point where it was costing us far too much to make it worth keeping. Most recently the engine management unit packed up and the replacement was developing problems within a couple of months of being fitted. Despite spending many hours trying to rectify this particular problem, the garage had to admit that they had no idea what was wrong!

Thank you again to those who made this possible.