All good things

Well that’s that then. We’re back in the UK (with Mary) and home later today. In the end the journey was fine. We left on Sunday, half way down the Spanish coast, and got to Calais on Wednesday in plenty of time to get our duty free. We ferried on Thursday, stayed with Richard and Caroline (thank you!) on Thursday evening and were in Godalming on Friday. Doris purred along, we didn’t use the French tolls and it worked. We could have done it a day quicker without work and using the autoroutes, and that’s a thought for next time.

welcome home

The good news is we fell back in love with motorhoming and particularly Doris. Sure we knocked her a couple of times, but everything worked and we didn’t complain about her once. She needs a good degunk, for sure, and that will happen. And we might take her out again in the Spring, but even if she ends up being our autumn home on wheels, that will be good enough for us. Anyhow, really well done her.

Being a digital nomad hasn’t sat well with me. It’s a halfway house. I don’t feel as engaged with work as I want to be (although people have told me they don’t notice) and, when I’ve not been working I haven’t felt rested. As such I can’t see this happening again. And with our late January skiing on the horizon, I’ve got some serious thinking to do. This job has a large emotional element and that has made our Spanish sojourn, and any further breaks, a struggle. Maybe any or all work has that effect on me? I don’t know. Lots of things to consider then.

This morning’s run

Mum’s house has gone, which is a relief. You don’t need to know the particular details, but C and I are sharing any of our cash with Bex and Jen. It will be a nice fillup for them. So thanks Grandma Eileen and Grandad Colin. In the end the sale was straightforward, having lost a buyer early on. Sure, the fall in property prices across the country did impact on the selling price, but I suppose that meant that the people who bought it have a smaller mortgage, which can’t be a bad thing. 

What’s next? Well home today. It will take some time to sort everything out but I will be at my desk first thing tomorrow. In many ways I’m looking forward to the routine – certainly more than the balancing act of the past six weeks. Our next traffic light is Christmas. Bex, Steven and Henry are coming home, but they will spend the actual day with his mum … we had them last year. Whatever, it will be fab to see them. And particularly fab to see Henry who, approaching three, now has an expanding vocab, even if his tongue is too big to make every work explicit. It’s going to be a delight.

That’s me. We’re fine. Without work, and disregarding Brexit, we could have stayed in that part of Spain indefinitely. We had really started to get into the groove, as if we were fulltiming again. The weather (and cheap coffee!) clearly helps.

Stay safe everyone.