The first days of not being together!

It’s Friday afternoon and Charlie and I are home alone, Jay is at work. It seems so surreal saying that, even more surreal watching him leave in the morning dressed in suit and tie!

This week, despite the rain, we made it out into Derbyshire a couple of times to make the most of not being at work. On one occasion we only made it out of the car for a couple of minutes because of the weather (and because we forgot to take a towel for inevitable muddy pooch), but it was still nice to get out of the house.

While Jay has being doing post production work on the video we filmed at the back end of last week, I have started my assault on the garage. Umpteen boxes have been opened and their contents sorted into piles for car boot, eBay and house. This process is going to take a good couple of weeks, but I’m making progress. I’ve cleared a little path down the middle of the garage now so I can get to the back, and the first few items have gone on eBay. It’s amazing how therapeutic it is.

After seeing just how much stuff we have to get rid of, we’ve decided that this Christmas we don’t want presents from anyone, so we’re slowly breaking the news to people as we see them. So far the decision has been met with relieved looks, agreement and thanks, maybe we’re not the only ones who think Christmas is getting a tad too much. We’re not being ‘bah humbug’, we want to celebrate Christmas with our family and friends, but after being away for so long, spending time together means so much more than the latest bit of plastic/electronic whatever which will fill up our already overfull house.

Our Broadband connection went live on Tuesday, how happy were we?! We hardly spoke to each other all day as we got caught up on all things web-based. So sorry if you’ve been in touch since we got back and we haven’t replied, we were using our limited data supply to try and find jobs. Which brings me to being home alone again.

Yesterday was the first time in ages that Jay and I had been apart for the whole day. He headed off to work at 7.45, and feeling guilty because I haven’t got a job yet I set to work tidying the house, more garage sorting and taking Charlie for a long walk. When he arrived home we were both shattered, so we made a quick trip to see Jay’s parents (and have a ride on their new stairlift) then treated ourselves to Chinese takeaway on the way home. Crispy aromatic duck has never tasted so good.

So that’s how we’ll be living for the next few weeks I guess. Jay heading off to work, me looking for a job, pooch sitting and emptying the garage. Not the exciting stuff you dream of or want to read about, but for us a necessity for now. After all our travelling we still have a list of places longer than both arms that we’d love to visit, and ideas of things we want to try. We’ve got plans to help us become financially free so we can visit all those places and do those things, but we need money to put those plans into action, and I need a full time job too. So, here’s a cheeky request – if you know of any Marketing Campaign Management positions going in the Nottingham / Derby area, please get in touch and let me know – here’s my LinkedIn profile to prove I’m up to the job!

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/juliebuckley/

Have a great weekend, and hope you’re heading out and about in your motorhomes this half term.

Ju x

13 replies
  1. grumpy2 says:

    miss your posts so much cant wait until we go traveling in a couple years, good luck with the job front,hope u get on the road again soon.
    Ron and Deb

    Reply
  2. Dave says:

    Hello, I’m like many and will have to wait until I retire before setting off on such a big adventure…only three years to go now. Your website is fascinating to all of us who can only dream about life on the road. Putting aside the cost of buying a motorhome, equipping it, insuring it etc, one thing that I’m keen to get your advice on is what you’d say is a comfortable daily budget…how much do you need to live on? My wife and I will travel with our dog as you did. I do understand it will have a lot to do with choice; campsite, aires or wild camping, how much you eat out, how much fuel you burn etc etc etc. I would be interested in what your thoughts/estimates are if, sorry when you go again.
    Good luck with the job hunt.
    Dave

    Reply
    • Jason says:

      Hi Dave

      As a very rough rule of thumb, €45 to €50 gave us enough to happily cruise about with the odd ferry, 3G internet access, some campsites, entry fees and modest eating out. You’ll be shopping at Lidl and spending at least half your time overall free camping. If you’re up for helping out as a warden or at hostels etc, where you’d stay put for a couple of months at a time, you can easily get this out down. Also, we met folks who were closer to the €35 a night mark. Our costs are probably a bit higher as we moved a lot, hardly ever staying out in one place for more than a couple of days. We met some folks who would stay on the same beach for a month or even three, obviously their costs would be much lower too.

      Congratulations on your upcoming retirement, there is an awesome world out there to be discovered.

      Jason

      Reply
        • Jason says:

          Hi Dave

          It’s Julie here. I’m in the process of pulling together a piece about the overall costs for our tour, but in the meantime you might find my 600 day costs review helpful

          https://ourtour.co.uk/home/600-days-on-the-road-how-on-earth-did-we-afford-that/

          Also, if you look in the ‘Guides and Reviews’ tab on the blog, under Country Guides there is a comparison of several countries we visited, along with individual breakdowns on some of the countries. These show cost per night (gives an idea of how easy it was to free camp) and miles per day – as you’ll see we did quite a lot of driving!

          Hope they all help a bit with your planning.

          Julie :)

          Reply
  3. Marius & Joan says:

    Hi J&J
    Jobs, garage junk and t/a duck? Nah. Grecian sun (24C today), Fifi the mhome with only what’s needed and ‘home cooked whatever washed down with Greek Riesling. Delfi on Monday and Athens after that. Nothing too stressful …! Cheers!

    Reply

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