We’ve moved

We’ve done what we do best and moved. You can find the new Van Girls blog on our new website:

http://vangirls.co.uk/category/blog/

The Lonely Legends

Great double post from us this week! Love hearing Charlotte’s angle on the life of a lonely, or not so lonely legend.

charlotteroach

Pringle goes skiing.

Thoughts:
1. Yaaaaay secret holiday!
2. Nobody is criticising my cooking?
3. My days are really lonely *looks around*.
4. Hello 1am. Again. This is not a holiday!
5. Business would be awful alone.

Actually I have spent few hours of this week alone. I am lucky to have a strong support network of people both in and out of business. All crucial in adding perspective to what I am doing. What is important, how long can it wait, does it really matter?

Returning from a night out, I bump into my flatmate. We walk home, slowly (a serious lack of suitable footwear and decent level of inebriation). She asks whether I am proud. Not something I had considered to date. I haven’t really done anything of real note. It seems preemptive to be proud of anything we have done at this stage. She pushes, you should…

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Van Girls are hiring!

Van Girls are hiring! We are looking for an Executive Assistant to make the Van Girls office their home. Take a look at the Job Description and if this sounds like you, get in touch.

Executive Assistant Job Description

One of our super powered moving wagons

New Van new Van Girl

In the last few months we have had two new arrivals. First came our second full time Van Girl, Justine! She has been a part time Van Girls almost since the start and in July came on board full time. She was working in the fitness industry before here so brings superior strength and fitness to the team. Many of you will have already met her on jobs or if not you soon will so be nice.

 

Here is Justine standing next to our other lovely new arrival ‘Second Wind’ our new Luton van. At a massive 17 cubic meter capacity she will help us to do bigger jobs up to two bedroom flats and houses and taking galleries to art shows. So if you need a bigger job doing just remember ‘Second Wind’ is at your service!

Epic (marathon) April!

So the Van Girls, Kerrie, Kelly and Sally and two honorary Van Girls (Richard and Chris) had an epic April and we thought you might like to see how they got on.

THE MARATHON DES SABLES

Rich gave everyone some inspiration by completing the Marathon des Sables and he wrote a (we can’t help thinking slightly tongue in cheek) quote for us about what it was like and how Van Girls helped him through.

 

“Having spent 7 days in the Sahara desert, completing 6 marathons in 6 days I am in a position to say that the Marathon des Sables lives up to its billing as the “hardest foot race on earth”.  I am so grateful for all the support shown to me throughout my training and the race, especially from Van Girls who know a thing or two about hard work. In some of my darker moments during the race when carrying a 10kg rucksack, 240km across mountainous sand dunes I took courage from my Van Girls cap, knowing that somewhere back home a Van Girl would be hard at work carrying much heavier loads through the London rush hour traffic made my task just that bit easier. Thank you to all you Van Girls, I am thankful for your amazing support.”

 Happy to help Rich!

 THE LONDON MARATHON

Then as the mighty London Marathon approached the Van Girls, Kelly, Kerrie and Sally and second honorary Van Girl (Chris) took courage from Rich and head off on to the streets.

They all did an amazing job getting over the line in between 3 and 6 hours with varying degrees of near death experiences, injuries and plenty of determination.

We proud of you girls and boys! Van Girls forever!

If they ever send me their photos from the finish line I’ll publicise them widely 🙂

Van Girls win Row to Rio team competition!

Well we’re a physical bunch of girls as you might guess so we thought what better way to support the Reaching out for Women’s Sport campaign than by entering a team for the Row to Rio competition!! Well that and we really like winning stuff.

So, we set out in a quiet room in deepest docklands to lay down a marker … we did it for our amazing customers and supporters, we rowed out (in our minds) in to the Atlantic. Well, OK we went a little way out of London but still …

And guess what … WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We will be running a competition on twitter and facebook to see who can guess how far we rowed and in the mean time … keep your eyes peeled for more jolly japes in the Marathon des Sables and the London Marathon.

Our thoughts and love go out to the participants and crowds at the Boston Marathon and their families.

Van Girls get physical!

So we’re a pretty active bunch, the Van Girls so we’ve added a page to the website where you can find out a bit more about what we’ve done before. Take a look here http://www.vangirls.co.uk/About-Us%282673470%29.htm

ALSO two Van Girls legends are running the London Marathon this year and are training hard as we speak … stay tuned and we will post more about their progress (and some other crazy things we’re up to).

Cue Rocky theme tune …

European Jaunt

So, we recently did a mad dash (well over 12 days) around Europe taking hats, and things to put hats on, to two menswear shows in Florence and Berlin!

Along the way we found out some things:

As the safety card suggests, it is important to bring respiratory protection when travelling freight on the Eurotunnel as truckers have limited opportunities to wash!

Gale, our van, is quite small!

Kelly is very strong! Yes I know everyone does that and it’s cheesy but there is nothing else to do in Pisa!

It is not legal to park in front of the Berlin Wall!

Park and fly outside Berlin does not look as safe as it sounds!

Florence is warmer than Berlin!

I hope these factoids inform your future jauntings around Europe! They certainly will ours 🙂

The Olympic Playlist

As we’ve been working (or should I say sweltering) away through the Olympics we’ve honed our Olympic playlist (to make us still feel involved despite missing ‘one Mo’ medal’ and much much more.

So, we thought we’d share with you our playlist so you can get PUMPED for the Paralympics.

Be warned though, it has made us carry out jobs in superhuman time therefore doing ourselves out of money, who knows what negative effect it could have on your productivity. So, here goes …

1.         First Steps – Elbow
2.         Shake it Out – Florence and the Machine
3.         Rocky Theme – Starlight Orchestra
4.         Dizzee Rascal – Bonkers
5.         We are the Champions – Queen
6.         Every Little Thing She Does is Magic – Sting (for Jessica)
7.         Apply Some Pressure – Mark Ronson
8.         The Winner Takes it All – ABBA
9.         Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
10.       Gold – Spandau Ballet

Enjoy, and remember do not attempt any physical activity directly after listening to this without at least stretching first!

‘Teaspresso’

Every van girl knows that on the dashboard of Gale Force (the first in our soon to be expanding fleet of vans) sits a thermos, complete with trendy stag print exterior, full of freshly brewed Teaspresso.

The trick to making a truly reviving Teaspresso, a shot of which provides a much needed injection of caffeine before the van girls leap in to action after a long drive, is the recipe. This recipe has been handed down from generation to generation in the van girls family and must be observed with the same diligence and attention to detail as we apply to every job we undertake.

The recipe

1. Boil kettle
2. Drop two teabags (cheap) into thermos
3. Fill with boiling water
4. Replace thermos lid and swill
5. Leave for 3 minutes
6. Fish around with teaspoon (too short to really reach in far enough) until teabags are out
7. Add half a teaspoon of sugar, just half mind (preferably same teaspoon as for fishing around so sugar sticks to it and makes a bit of a mess)
8. Replace thermos lid and swill
9. Add only enough milk to leave an appearance of strong coffee
10. Replace thermos lid and swill

Now remember van girls enthusiasts, Teaspresso is not for the faint hearted, is not be confused with espresso (it’s powers are much greater) and this recipe is to be guarded closely and executed to the letter.

Van girls cannot be held responsible for acts induced by a sudden rush of energy, cleverness and strength brought on by Teaspresso or disappointment in any of the aforementioned areas of personal improvement due to incorrect execution of ‘the recipe’.