This week, we continue our move towards early retirement. We look at some life changing wisdom from a forest Monk, start our Easter adventure plans and tackle some of the various questions about downsizing our house and relocating.
Forest monk podcast & book. I stumbled upon this particular podcast which has had such an impact on me this week. It seems to have brought together all of my collective thoughts and feelings of the last 12 months and brought some clarity to the trauma we have experienced.
Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad spent 17 years as a Buddhist monk in the jungles to Thailand. He learned how calmness can encourage clarity of thought and how freedom can be found when we free ourselves of material possessions.
Don’t worry, I don’t intend to become a monk (I love Jackie too much), but his thoughts on life and death really resonated with me and brought me great comfort of understanding. The podcast was recorded shortly before Bjorn passed away from a progressive illness that he knew was going to end his life. He knew that he would not be alive when the podcast was released, yet he talked with such calm compassion about his life and his situation, fully at ease with his imminent passing. This 60 minute listen had an instant and huge impact on me.
I immediately bought his book- I may be wrong: and other wisdoms from Life as a Forest Monk, and I am currently devouring it, loving each page of Bjorn’s wisdom and hoping that I can somehow incorporate some of his insights into my own life. Update: be warned the chapter about Bjorn's father's death made me cry!
Relocation issues. You may be aware from our earlier blogs that as part of our early retirement plans, we are looking to downsize our 3 bed family home of 20+ years, to relocate to the Yorkshire Dales and purchase a small property that would be suitable for casual air BnB rentals when we are travelling.
We are in a dilemma and we are not really sure what the right way is to proceed. We know that we need to sell our house, but with the market as it currently is-bloody crazy- we do not really think that it would be reasonable to hold up a chain for us to wait for our ideal early retirement house to come on the market. We don’t even think that we would have that option to even ask people to wait in a chain. The alternative is to sell early, move our stuff into storage and look for temporary accommodation when we then become in effect cash buyers ready and waiting for when our dream house comes up for sale.
Thats the plan, but there are so many unknowns- what happens if we sell super quick and have a long time in temporary accommodation? How does storage even work? Do we use a removal and storage service? A removal and self storage? Just a removal service?
Work developments. The search for my successor continues at work. Being involved in this process is a little surreal, however I am enjoying the process as it somehow helps me to hold onto the excitement for our early retirement future. It continues to keep the feeling real- which at times can be really daunting, but also brings us great comfort in the certainty that it is going to happen. This week saw the shortlisting process and the planning for the interview process next week. Exciting times!
Easter travel plans. As we have mentioned before, the temptation to dart off into Europe for a couple of weeks was really strong, but we have reflected on this urge and decided to stay in the UK for Easter for a number of reasons. Going to Europe in the current climate is quite expensive- in terms of petrol and ferry costs. We have realised that this would be ok of we weren’t limited to just a two week break. We know that we have many years of adventuring ahead of us without the time restrictions of work, so we made the sensible and economic decision to stay in the UK.
We have been slowly discovering Scotland over the last few years, and we have targeted Arran, Kintyre and Cowal as our next adventure. Our guide and inspiration comes from two reliable sources that we have come to trust and love- Take the Slow Road-Scotland by Martin Dorey, and the Wild Guide to Scotland. They both get us off the tourist routes and into the back and beyond to find the hidden treasures of wonderful Scotland.
We were a little shocked to find out that we couldn’t just book a ferry of our choice to the island, as certain days were already booked out to full capacity, but with a little flexibility we managed to book a crossing for us and the van for around £25- which is pretty good value. The next task is to book a few campsite stopovers, but easier said than done. Very few of the sites have online booking systems, so it's back to what feels a rather antiquated system of emailing or calling for availability- at least we don’t have to resort to snail mail! Even so, we are enjoying the planning process as it only enhances the excitement for the forthcoming adventure.
Initial plans are getting the ferry from Ardrossan to Brodick, a pootle around the Island for a few days and then off the island via the tiny (non-bookable!) ferry to Claonaig. A circumnavigation around Kintire followed by a web of a route around the Cowal peninsular before we head on home. How long will it take- we haven’t got a clue, but we are determined to take our time and reduce the driving distances from our previous Scottish trip to fully immerse ourselves in the local area.
So that’s it, another week gone and another week closer to our early retirement. Next week brings the the true reality of early retirement, with my work successor being appointed ready for the next academic year.
As a reminder, if I had one must do from this week, it would be to listen to this podcast and then purchase the book...it's a life changer!
If you are currently having the Sunday night- Monday morning jitters (I am!), have a look at this blog post for a few tips and tricks for remaining calm.
Have a great week,
Richard & Jackie
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