Well, Esmerelda is finally finished and looking beautiful. We have become so attached to her its embarrassing! Look at the photos and this is our home for at least three months this spring/summer - she will do us proud I'm sure. Steve has worked very hard in Esmerelda - decorating, laying vinyl flooring in the kitchen area and weatherproofing her to the enth degree externally. We are so proud of her and so looking forward to staying in her on our travels.
Things are moving along very nicely - we have both put our notices in at work - the relief that offers is indescribable. Steve has an image in his mind of living a kind of hippy lifestyle - travelling, fishing, cycling, walking, eating and drinking so that he was separating himself from the need to organise our trip in my opinion. He has come around now though and is on board with the research and organisation for our adventure. It will be so good to escape the rat race and we realise that we are so lucky to be able to do this now. I have been researching travel insurance - that is another eye opener. Travel insurance as we know it actually involves leaving and returning to the UK - not what we want at all! Annual travel insurance covers multiple trips each year of a pre-determined length of stay - usually 30 - 45 days - not long enough for us and we aren't returning to the UK. After a lot of searching I found out that we need a one way trip insurance and there aren't that many companies insuring for that means of travel. We will insure with one though and if the worst comes to the worst and one of us requires hospitalisation (perish the thought) we will be taken to our destination i.e. Cyprus - rather than the UK where we would get MRSA, ecoli and anything else that the wonderful NHS has to offer - NOT!! We thought it was a case of just buying some insurance but nothing is that simple we have found out. We will not be deterred though.
We have also progressed well with our planned trip through Europe. Based on the Campingcheque website described in previous blogs we have toured through Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy and have got as far as Venice (oh la la). With the problems in Kosovo at the moment we intend to have two plans to include both the Adriatic coast and the Amalfi coat so that we don't get hijacked in Serbia. We would both love to see the Adriatic coast but not in a dangerous situation so the Amalfi coast will be a superb alternative. Then we will get ferry from Italy to Greece to avoid the Balkans and their troubles at the moment - what a shame!! We shall have to see - they may have established a peaceful compromise by the time we leave - we can only hope.
On another note we have finally been able to book a local pub for our leaving do. Our original plan for the Golden Grove in Chertsey was thwarted due to management problems there - one of the owners has been imprisoned for six years and the pub is to be sold - that is one huge management problem for them. For us it leaves us uncertain as to the availability of the pub in April so we have had to look elsewhere. The Cricketers in Rowtown have come up trumps. Yesterday Steve and I went for lunch there and saw the rooms on offer and discussed the menu for the cold buffet. It suited us brilliantly so we have booked it. All our family, friends and colleagues locally will be invited for us to say goodbye and have a bit of a knees up. That has been booked for Friday April 11th from 6pm onwards - so if any of our friends or family are reading this and can come along - PLEASE DO. You will be most welcome.
Steve has sadly lost his mother in the past few weeks and whilst attending her funeral he has made contact with some members of his family that he has lost touch with during the last few years and longer. We hope they will remain in contact and will certainly be invited to our leaving do. All my friends and colleagues from work will also be invited for me to say goodbye to them all as well as past friends on the staff that I have remained friends with. It will be a great event if everyone turns up.
We have also organised trips to our families in the UK. We are going to Derbyshire to my daughters and grandchildren in March and I am bringing Caleb, my grandson down for a few days to stay with us before we go. Then, when I take him back I will stay with them for a few days to have some special time while Steve goes to work as usual. We have also arranged to visit Steve's father, sister and niece in Southampton to spend some time with them as well. Some of our friends have recently moved to the south coast so we have arranged a weekend in Winchester to meet them half way and spend some time with them - its all go!! Hopefully these and many more people we know will also come out to stay with us in Cyprus so that we can maintain our contacts and friendships with everyone and hopefully introduce them to our friends in Cyprus as well. What a glorious prospect.
Steve has had the enviable task of writing to the tax and national insurance office to inform them of our leaving date and potentially get some tax rebate and nil tax on our savings in the future - whoa!!! He liked that.
We are still emptying our home of unnecessary articles. Ann and John have fetched a king size divan base to use for their son Luke, we have a garden furniture set, hose reel and stepladders for my girls in Derbyshire and Debs in having one of our sofas down in Southampton - far and wide they are spread and great that they can all be used again.
So things are still moving on with intention and the time remaining is reducing faster than ever. Watch this space, read the news and see these pics - good eh??
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