Waiting game

With just over 2 weeks to go, it now feels like a little bit of a waiting game. The past couple of days have been taken up with emptying more of the the garage and in the process filling up the garage at my parents. Ju’s pushing on getting the admin sorted out, cancelling the Virgin media contract (bye bye broadband in a few days; what a shock that will be), researching travel insurance and so on.

The van’s heading back to the garage on Monday to get the suspension sorted and once that’s done we can start loading it up with food, clothes, tools, books, laptop, outside chairs and table, maps, GPS, kitchen utensils, bikes and so on and so on. It’s an interesting proposition trying to think what you may need for an entire year’s travel when you’re not really sure where you’re going. We keep reminding ourselves there are shops abroad!

There are a few more bits and bobs going on eBay, including a computer desk which the winning bidder just didn’t bother to pay for and collect. That’s the first time in years I’ve had that problem and my feeling remains that people are generally worth trusting.

We’ve had some interest in renting the house, but unsurprisingly not everyone wants to rent an unfurnished house for only 12 months. We’re getting the place emptied anyway, with the hope that the letting agent finds someone soon. We’ve also written to the Revenue as since we’ll be out of the country, we count as ‘foreign landlords’ and will get taxed 20% on any rental income we get regardless of whether we actually owe the tax. Something to look out for if you decide to let your property while you travel abroad.