IT’S OFFICIAL – WE’RE ON COUNTDOWN

For several years now we’ve been seeing the world in instalments, dreaming of the day when we can call time on our careers and travel with freedom with no time restrictions. Well, it’s official, and our dreams are about to come true. We will be retiring before Christmas, and then setting off on our Grand Tour somewhere around the end of January. No more worrying about flights home, no more checking when the next ferry off the island is, no more catching a red eye flight. Well not unless it suits us.

So we’re on countdown, there’s less than 150 days to go till our last day at work, and we are now busy putting all those plans in place. The world map – pins everywhere – is on the study wall; we’re poring over the travel books, we’re thinking logistics. There’s a lot of home stuff to consider, like who looks after the house, who tends the garden, who picks up the mail. Like who avoids a freeze in winter, like where do we leave the car. Like how do we get travel insurance for a long trip at a sensible cost, how do we insure our empty house. It’s an awful lot easier once you’ve got all your banking and bill paying on line, but there’s still plenty of other things to think of, and to organise, ahead of the trip commencing. But we’re doing it, because suddenly it’s real, we’re over the huge hurdle of the R-word decision and the dream is becoming reality.

And it is a dream: we have been planning this for what seems like for ever. We have a World record size bucket list, from places to people to activities, from cultures to events to cuisine. It’s a pretty big list!

The plan for this Grand Tour is like this. 3 or 4 months travel, then come home for a couple of weeks to see family and friends, followed by 3 or 4 months travel, then home for a couple of weeks to see family and friends, followed by 3 or 4 months….you get the picture. Until we’ve had enough, or get too old, whichever comes first. Or maybe that bucket list will just keep getting added to…