Welcome to the new blog. Once again I’ll be sharing my adventures with anyone who can be bothered to ready about what I’m up to and my observations on life.
After a very few days in the UK, where we managed to squeeze in flying visits to both mine and John’s mum, we once more set out on our travels. This time we loaded our new mammoth holdalls (Less than £44 for two from a Guardian reader offer) into the car and headed for France. I managed to persuade T Mobile to upgrade my ancient handset to a blackberry and set up a new email account so we hope to be in regular contact on the move. I’m also hoping that they’ve fixed the ongoing problem with the sim card which has prevented me from sending texts when overseas. We also discovered that, far from not even having maps for Wales preloaded, we just need to change the country on the sat nav to use it for the whole of Europe!
I’m calling this blog our ‘Adult gap’ since in our day you went straight from university to the world of work (or in John’s case straight from university to university) and got on with the business of earning a living. So we’ve decided to take that gap trip now, whilst the opportunity presents itself and see some of the world which it has never been possible to do when cramming it into a two week break or sandwiched between meetings on a business trip. For forty years in John’s case and twenty five years in mine, work has been our main raison d’etre so it feel s strange not to have that for a little while. However, the thrill of being footloose and fancy free more than compensates for the occasional moments of concern about what the longer term future might look like. Most exciting is the opportunity to spend some time together without the stresses and strains of making life work in a new and challenging working culture. Ever since our wedding, the prospect and then the reality of living and working in Abu Dhabi, have been our main concerns. We’ve had some great experiences together and seen some amazing sights but it hasn’t been without its challenges and disappointments. The idea of spending a few months together with my beloved husband, without any work commitments fills me with light and joy and I am really looking forward to this time.
The first step of our itinerary is taking us on Condor Ferries from Poole to St Malo. The super quick ferry is a miracle of technology – a huge catamaran which takes only 5 hours including a stop in Guernsey. Squeezing the car into a tiny space was interesting but the sea was pretty calm and the club lounge furnished a nice G&T and a salad lunch. With a hotel booked in St Malo for the first 5 nights, a French road atlas and a couple of brochures and web sites we’re going to do what I’ve always wanted to do – spend a few weeks moseying around France going where the fancy takes us and exploring this delightful country. It should be great fun and give us ample opportunity to sample the food and wine we both enjoy so much. I spent the few days in the UK to reacquaint my unfit body with the joys of a daily run so hopefully we can indulge in this food and wine without having to buy a whole new, whale size wardrobe!
