Week 30 of our early retirement journey sees us in a week of sad goodbyes, both nationally and personally, a return to the UK to get things moving with our ongoing house purchase and exciting preparations for our next travel adventure.
The Queens funeral
It was an odd, but a strangely beautiful day that we shared as a Nation on Monday. We choose to spend the day with Mum in Yorkshire to share the once in a lifetime experience together. The drive up was surreal, with the roads quieter than on any Christmas Day- never have we experienced such a national shutdown.
Like most people, we spent the day watching the events unfold together on the TV. We are not royalists, but it was a very moving affair. Having suffered our own fair share off loss recently, our hearts went out to the immediate family of the Queen- having to grieve and mourn their loss in such a public way cannot have been easy and something that we would not wish on anyone. The day must have been so long for the family, and in reality, they probably just wanted to get to the family proceedings later in the evening so that they could say their own private goodbyes to their mother, grandmother, etc.
Goodness knows what the rest of the world must think of our British society with all the pomp and grandeur on display. As a Brit, it would be hard to explain all the interwoven aspects of history, politics and tradition that were central parts of the day. Some of the uniforms were pretty spectacular…and very British.
Dads anniversary
This was the week that I have been dreading for a while- a year since my Dad passed away.
As predicted, it has brought up memories of our last few months together and the feelings of emptiness in my life without him. He was such a big character that I miss dearly. Not a day goes by without me thinking about him or wishing that I could once again benefit from his wisdom. Last summer was such a horrific time, watching Dad slowly pass away- I do not think that the memories of those last few months we spent together will ever leave me.
However, I have reached this milestone intact, I have made it through the first year of loss that people acknowledge as the worst year of grief. I could not have done it without my soul mate, my confidant, my rock- Jackie. We are now making memories together having made a number of life changing decisions this past year and I am loving every minute of what we do together. We have only just begun our early retirement adventures and it is already so much more than I could have ever hoped for.
Life is too short. Life is now…it is not held in future hopes and dreams, life is happening all around us. The only thing that we truly posses is time and we have that right now. The only truth in life is that our time is limited and will eventually come to an end. We need to spend our time wisely each and every day, because once it has gone we can never reclaim it or buy it back.
My Dad and I spoke at length about having no regrets in life. We need to live in the now- being present in each day, not ruminating on the past or dreaming of the future, but truly valuing the moments we are living today.
A week of life admin'
We have been back home for a week of admin' before our next adventure begins. Well in actual fact, we have been at Jackie’s Mum’s house this week as we still don’t have a home! We have done the washing, cleared out the van, started to prepare for Scotland, harassed our solicitor for house purchase updates, caught up with paperwork and chased the last bits of by brothers probate arrangements. A busy week in a very mundane way, but all necessary in the rich tapestry of life!
It is quite nice having a house to come back to at the end of the day, but after only a few days we started to feel the itch to get back out on the road. It is nice having the space to spread out in a house, but we also miss the cosiness and simplicity of living in the van. I guess we just need to get a balance in our lives that we are happy with…and that will come with time.
Preparing for our next adventure
It didn't take us long to start getting excited about our next adventure...but we nearly lost our nerve.
As September draws to a close, we were nervous about the weather conditions that we have predicted over the next couple of weeks. This involved regular checking of the long term forecast and comparing various regions across the UK. In the end, we realised that we were being a bit precious about our travels and just needed to go with what felt right, and the weather would do what it would do anyway!
We decided against the Outer Hebrides as the time for our next trip had been curtailed to only 10 days by the very mundane demands of Jackie's car needing an MOT on the 5 Oct... Oh the excitement of early retirement wanderlust!
We have decided on a trip to Mull, revisiting our first Scottish Island adventure from a few years ago. We remember it as a stunningly beautiful Island, but we are interested in how we have developed as travellers in that time. On that first visit we planned everything with military precision and stayed solely on campsites- too nervous to wild camp in the wilderness. How things have changed!
We are hoping that the island should be quiet, the last of the summer sun may hold out for a couple more weeks, the seas will be warmed and the sea otters will be around to say hello.
The extent of our planning has included booking the ferries, creating a meal plan and doing the food shopping for the first week, charging everything that could possibly need a charge and finally repacking the van...including the essential seasonal kit of wetsuits, fire pit and fire wood.
We are so excited to get out and about again in the UK, heading north of the border and no doubt experiencing first hand the changing seasons on one of the most beautiful islands that we could ever wish to visit. Fingers crossed that the storms don't catch us.
So that's it, another week of early retirement done and dusted. It's been a pretty mundane week compared with the previous month, but life is not always unicorns and rainbows- sometimes we just need to get on and do stuff that is not always that inspirational.
Have a brilliant week,
Richard & Jackie.
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