In this weeks blog we look at the details that go into planning a weekend adventure climbing some of the Wainwright mountains of the Lake District, an update on selling our house and our feelings of moving on from our jobs after 30 years of teaching.
Planning for a Wainwright bank holiday weekend.
One thing about travel adventures is that half of the fun is in the planning of our trips. We have spent a couple of lovely evenings this week planning our bank holiday trip to the lake district. For those that are not aware, Wainwrights are mountains in the lakes that are included in the iconic 7 volume mountain guides by Alfred Wainwright. I received these books as a gift for my 50th birthday and they have become a mini-obsession since. We are slowly working our way through the 214 fells within the beautifully illustrated books.
Time spent with paper maps, guide books and OS Maps on the laptop is a simple joy, literally mapping out our adventures for the weekend ahead.
House sale update.
This week the movement on the house sale got very real as we met with estate agents to discuss the sale of the house. After not moving house for over 22 years, we are so out of touch with what to do it is scary! After discussing the process with the estate agent, it seems that it can be distilled down into the following steps:
We agree a value and engage an estate agent to sell the house.
For this service we pay 1.15% of the sale…does that sound a reasonable fee?
The house is marketed to customers through the estate agents office, social media and the right move website.
A buyer (hopefully) makes an offer.
The Estate agent certifies that the offer is a viable offer.
We instruct solicitors to handle the details of the sale.
Solicitors liaise with client solicitors throughout the process.
We move out.
We are now at the point where we need to formally engage an estate agent, as we are happily surprised at the value of the house. We just need to get the ball moving.
Feelings of redundancy at work.
For the first time in my career, I am starting to feel a bit like a spare part at work. This week has been another heavy week of recruitment dealing with the domino effect of my early retirement.
On the one hand, it has made me intensely proud of the appointments that have been made, as I have worked closely with these people for a long time. However, inevitably as we get closer to the end of the academic year, thoughts and planning turn to the following year… of which I will play no part. Jackie reassures me that this is perfectly natural and rational process, but it has un-nerved me. Of course I understand that I have no role in the plans for next year, but the feeling of personal redundancy is probably the first time that my decision to retire early has really hit home. We have no regrets at all about our decision, and I genuinely look at my ongoing feelings with a sense of curiosity, but there is no doubt that they are directly related to the changes that we are embarking on in the next few months.
Bank holiday fun and games.
It is Monday afternoon and we have just got back from the Lake District, hence the late publication of the blog after three blissful days with no phone reception. Plowing through our photos, we have decided to write the trip up as a separate blog later in the week, in order to do the trip justice in both words and images.
Some random thoughts...
If you ever need to change up your ketchup game- try Stokes Ketchup, its an absolute game changer. For most of my life I thought that my ketchup needs had been fully met by Heinz- how wrong could I have been? Sometimes it is worth paying just that little bit more for things that you value in life!!!
When you travel without kids...is that an automatic magnet that attracts the attention of other people's kids on a campsite?
Is it possible to look at a newborn lamb and not feel your heart melt and your troubles disappear? Perhaps we should fund lamb therapy on the NHS.
Have a great week,
Richard & Jackie
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