Staying put!

It's harder than you'd think!

Staying put?

What a bloody marvellous concept and just a week on from making the decision to actually stay put, we are getting with the program, sort of.

It will all take time! Honestly I can't believe that this time last year, next month we were leaving France!

How time flies and there has been an awful lot of indecision to get to this point in time.

I also can't believe we decided, given everything, that staying on this farm would be the best thing for us for at least another two to three years!

Feels like 'forever' to me right now.

We are both still in shock.

You see, after bouncing around the world for 37 years, this 'staying here, right where we are' lark is rather alien to us.

The need to move on, generally kicks in at the 6 month mark always, so we are now having to push back against it really hard!

Override.

Stop.

Behave.

Get a bloody grip!

This will be good for us?

I do hope so.

I think we can finally admit, that the 'itchy feet' thing is now part of our collective make up. I'd count the moves to date for you, but it would take a while and require a lot of recall! I simply can't be bothered, so let's just stick a pin in it and say 40 plus!

One of the most stressful life events is moving!

Explains the madness I suppose!

Him in doors said to me recently 'we've never just waited, stayed and built'.

No shit Sherlock !

No, I didn't batter him with the crepe pan (I'm going to throw out), even though I wanted to, but pointing out that this is clearly all his fault is pointless at this stage, right?

He's the mover and shaker. I'm the follower. His career sent us around the world not mine. Thats a fact. Although oddly, folks have often said to me 'Are you never going to stay put?'......Boy are they asking the wrong person!

Had I married someone else, would it have been different?

Nope. Don't be daft!

I started moving around the world earlier than P, as my parents emigrated to South Africa just as I turned 5!

The dye was already cast!

Different?

I very much doubt it, because I'm always looking forward, I need adventure, get bored easily but I believe the difference now is simply age related. No bold moves for now anyway, if we want to be able to live well in our old age.

Breathe. Consolidate. Think.

France hurt both the pocket and the heart, a lot. Investing in a French wreck was a risk. Some you win and some you loose eh? It is what it is. We have to move forward.

I do think we aren't the norm and certainly not tv worthy BUT the story needs to be told eh!

Now don't get me wrong, I do not subscribe to age stopping movement of any kind. Not at all. In fact, I think past 50 is the perfect time to realise a little or a lot of what you want, love or need in your life. The 'bucket or fuck it list' makes complete sense to me! It's our time.

Society meanwhile has us geared, no....tied to the pension years incoming. Our piggy bank was empty nearly 11 months ago and so we need to continue to do everything we can to get back to where we should be.

I will always struggle with the 'stay in one place' for all of one's life thing and I can't fathom it when there's a whole planet to discover. Tied to a house for life? We grow? Why would we stop discovering?

Lord, who am I kidding, I've never stayed put, so what would I know about it?

Ziltch.

Sometimes, I've found myself yearning for that hard standing, somewhere to lay my hat and all that jazz but still travel from that home base, frequently. This is where a camper would help us to both move around and settle. I do think thats the answer! Have camper, will travel at will.

Need a Go Fund me for my dreams petals, I do!

If we can't explore some more, who even are we?

Rooting isn't entirely possible until we can buy a permanent base and It's entirely out of my comfort zone to settle in a rental, unless I can knock down walls and add an extension, whats the point in unpacking?

No point and we haven't fully unpacked here yet. We must!

Anyway, I digress or waffle, you chose which!

I just know I'm going to find the next couple of years tough, fighting my internal, infernal, pack up and go personality, fruit loop that I am, especially as this rental house needs some upgrading! Double sided sticky tape may help?

It will have to do!

It is possible to stop moving with his career, now home based since Covid and given that he's decided he won't retire until he's at least he's 75! Therefore another foreign wreck isn't out of the question is it? Once bitten, twice shy and all that? I mean? Who knows what life will throw our way in the meantime? Still, if he does work to that grand ole age, we now have 17 years of working life left. It's a while, a gap to fill? Okay then!

I applaud his work life positivity bless him. In contrast, I've met a lot of retired miserable and regretful folk lately. I get it. We are not the kind of couple that can live on a state pension income only. Stuff that!

Even as I write I am struggling with the concept of buying the forever home, the one to last until the undertaker is called.

I like the idea of it, sure.

Although it now feels like a death trap to me!

We clearly can't be the same person as the home bought decades ago, can we? There's only so many extensions and refits one can do to continue to make it fit? To me it makes sense to keep changing one's environment, especially if it's making you miserable. Of course happiness could be tied to a house paid for and a decent pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but don't you get bored of your surroundings?

The same with downsizing! No ta! I'd rather modernise and future proof! I've also met many down-sizer's who regret the lack of space.

I'm not judging those sensible folk that do and are happy. I'm not sensible and I'm rarely happy!

Of course, I can't promise we will stay put forever here, it's not our's and we want to buy again. Maybe we've already started looking for the next wreck? Will it be a wreck? It kind of has to be, because neither of us wants to be saddled with a huge mortgage.

I can promise you that we need to save and thats going to take a while to gather momentum. It takes as long as it takes. Patience is a virtue isn't it? We've also both agreed, that we don't want to move from here into another rental and so we will wait.

Maybe that's where Mr H and I meet in the middle. We are always willing to give it a go regardless.

We know who we are and what we want from life.

Maybe for now, all we can do is unload that lorry and settle in for a while whilst travelling WHEREVER and in search of our forever solution, whatever that might look like?

I for one am going to embrace the changes and order a chicken coop. I'm also going to plant those bulbs for next spring. Why not?

It's time!

Love & Gumption!

D x