Grumpy, the vintage bus

25/10/2023

I think age has mellowed us both.
It's so close we can almost touch it ♥️

The only thing to add is a need to feed the people Tim Scott 🌱...and the doggies of the world 🐕 ❤️

20/10/2023

Doing absolutely nothing at Ophir 🌱♥️🚌

20/10/2023

How cute is the bus driver 😊🚌

20/10/2023

A few days out at Ophir.
Zero mobile reception, some lovely wild deer, a few Wallabies, lots of bird life and our favourite part - together in our fabulous Grumpy, the vintage bus ♥️🚌👩‍❤️‍👨

28/09/2023

A few days away to our favourite spot at Burraga Dam....making friends with the resident Swamp Hens (swamp donkeys), kangas and lots of water birds.
I remembered my treasured bird book this time so we are more able identify who we are living with! ..and to cheers to all the people waving and spotting us coming into town! 🚌👋
Tim Scott 💚🌳

20/09/2023

19/09/2023

We find ourselves trending at the moment 🙄

Mini breaks are all the go in Europe and we find ourselves taking 2 or 3 day breaks and thoroughly enjoying them.

We have just come back from the BEST 2.5 days out at Burraga Dam.
No phone service, no other people. Lots of birds and hopping fish 😉🐟..
Just the dam, us and Grumpy, the vintage bus 🚌 ...oh and a little old man we met - a story for another day.

17/09/2023

Off for a few days to the dam.
I'm sure there will be plenty of Grumpy, the vintage bus adventures to regale you all with on our return 🚌✌️

13/09/2023

Blimey! What a last day of our trip. We’d spent the night at peaceful Taralga Showground and upon setting off to leave, we didn’t. We were slightly bogged in a damp depression!
A huge thank you to Bruce who tried with his Ute, then his tractor to haul Grumpy free.
We tried planks, rocks and even ground mat for traction but we just made a mess.
Sorry about the grass Bruce!
Taralga Showground has powered sites a plenty and showers on site for minimal cost all on hand for the pretty and historic township. Can’t recommend the place and friendliness enough. Thank you again!
Taralga village community Taralga Agricultural, Pastoral & Horticultural Show

12/09/2023

Ending our week on Grumpy, the vintage bus with some friends 🚎💚

11/09/2023

Getting some sun on our pasty white skin while watching the Humpback whales at Mystery Bay...and Grumpy, the vintage bus parked up for the night in the small rural town of Braidwood 🌳

11/09/2023

We learned very early on in the trials & tribulations of Grumpy, the vintage bus what things needed to stay - and what to go.

The most used item onboard for 2 years is this.
A beautiful vintage teapot from The Rustic Flamingo.
You have made a thousand cups of tea already ♥️

10/09/2023

The moment we realised that something was wrong with Grumpy, going down Brown Mountain.

10/09/2023

Not many pics the last few days...and not any of the whales (sorry..)..but we have been whale watching at Mystery Bay! 🐳💟...and Grumpy, the vintage bus is creating smiles and conversations everywhere he goes ☺️⛱️🚎
....pics of Montague Island tomorrow!

09/09/2023

Grumpy, the vintage bus does down South✌️🌊⛱️

08/09/2023

Where we are the best 💗

31/08/2023

We gave him a home, he gave us a headache or two! Now, our little boy is all grown up.

27/08/2023

Finally some progress! We had the 240 and 12v all upgraded thanks to the fantastic team at Advanced Installation Service 4WD / CRD Tech Sydney. Everything now works and is safe! Well, except the aircon. Which is broken. It’s been a pain since the beginning and now we know why.
And I’ve started to tidy up the stairwell. Tomorrow there’s tons to do from the engine bay to the windscreen.

23/08/2023

Tim Scott we have the best bus in the universe 💙 and the comfiest bus bed!
🚎🚎 - Grumpy, the vintage bus

24/01/2023

It’s been a while. Up among the trees, and passing thunderstorms, Grumpy is home for us for a couple of nights.

05/11/2022

01/11/2022

Grumpy, the vintage bus hanging out with all the big kids
A leaky tyre has put a slight pause to our travels today...but O'Neill's Tyre & Autocare - Beresfield have been bloody amazing! Thankyou!

PLUS we got to try the new Hungry Jack's vegan burger 🍔 😋 🌱

01/11/2022

A mini break to the Hunter to see friends, boys and have a fab stereo system installed on Grumpy, the vintage bus. Thanks Wes!

We may not have proper curtains, a bathroom door or a shower curtain - but we have music, toilet humour and iceblocks 💟

05/04/2022

..Another update

We have both met Forensics Police from Bathurst out at Grumpy this morning
Fingerprints and DNA samples have been taken and we will be able to move to the Insurance clean up in the next few days

Not one person from Stoffels came out to the yard. Not one representative came outside to see if they could help, or give an update.

The bus was fully open when we got there. The stinck of w**d is still overpowering the vomit.
More soon..

04/04/2022

Grumpy Update

Well, it's all a bit s**t.
Grumpy has sat in the mechanics yard in Lithgow for a ridiculous amount of time - with the job needed to be done (only a few hours) ignored and passed over by bigger contracts and mates handshakes. 5 weeks. With no updates, no calls, no apologies.

In this time Grumpy has been slept in, vomited repeatedly in, b**g water has blocked all the drains, ci******es stubbed out on the floor, food eaten, bathroom full of vomit and p**s, hob kettle (my favourite retro orange fabulous kettle 😩), coffee machine, radios, all of our bedding (and winter bedding from underneath storage) plus still unknown possessions stolen and noone ...noone ...at the yard knew?

Grumpy was parked and sans rear wheels for 5 weeks. The parking spot was 15 metres from the workshop and walked past probably hundreds of times everyday. The curtains were all open and the door UNLOCKED. In a locked gated yard. In the care of Stoffels, Lithgow

So much is unknown at this stage.
We left the yard because the stench of vomit was unbelievable. Our bed has been slept in and probably p**sed all over.
In all of this - not one of the Stoffels employees or owners came to us and offered help, apologised, fixed anything ..or offered ANYTHING.
A strange thing kept reoccurring. Noone seemed shocked by this. The owner and employees avoided us as much as possible and even went as far as pretending to not hear me. They were all very careful to not admit liability or knowledge - yet none offered help or apology. We never saw shock, concern or (as I would be) ..aghast!
Tim and I had to keep chasing the owner and leading hand to get any answers. We got no answers, only a few maybes that it might be ready on Thursday. ..

To condense the next few hours - there was police reports to the station from us, 2 hour phone call to our insurer, a crime scene established by Police, a forensics team ordered to dust for prints and DNA, a needles/sharps search ordered by our Insurer....and a $500 kick-in-the-ass payment by us for the excess.

Now, the waiting game.
As usual, we wait for everyone to do their jobs before we can take Grumpy home. Again.
We are going to

I can't end on a s**tty note.
Our insurer, CIL, was amazing. Their wait time was long, but that was because of the horrendous floods across the state. He lady that took the call (by a very upset me...) told me straight away - "don't worry, we will fix this".
Lithgow Police Station was also AMAZING. They took our statement straight away and told us they would prioritise it and go up and interview the owners the same day.
They were empathetic, kind and so helpful

We will update as we know more
Queenie 🐛 🦘🌱💛