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Wednesday 31 January 2018

2½ big moments

Yesterday's big moment:




Van swap day went fine, thanks largely to the professionalism and approachability of Brad and Jason at Oaktree Motorhomes. Most experiences we have had with the 'autotrade' over the years have been dreadful. It was refreshing to come across a place that seems genuinely committed to customer service and seemed honest and up-front when you dealt with them. We had an opportunity to have a good look at the new van this morning, some of our concerns about having sufficient storage space for long term touring have proven unwarranted. In fact the rear garage is bigger than Maisy's and there is more cupboard space inside than first appeared. In fact we are delighted with it. Although it has  2013 plates the van was registered in late December so now is just over four years old. It has only 6000 miles on the clock and apart from a scratch or two on the stainless steel sink the vehicle looks unused. In effect we have a Burstner that looks brand new but cost £20,000+ less than a similar one with 2018 plates. So, we're happy, if a little shell shocked at having purchased the poshest thing we have ever owned. I mean us - Pete and Gill - we don't do posh as a rule. Shame we won't get to play with it for a couple of months, because...

Tomorrow's big moment:


We're heading to Heathrow. Singapore, New Zealand, Shanghai here we come - goodbye winter, hello to mid-summer in the Southern Hemisphere. We planned the trip last July, so long ago in fact that it had ceased to be something we were excited about. Now suddenly it's imminent, but somehow until our Singapore Airlines A380 is bowling down the runway tomorrow evening I won't believe it is really going to happen. 

Today's not quite so big moment:


I left work five years ago today. At the time I was adamant I had not retired. Aged 57 I had fallen foul of a merger. The University which acquired the small further education college where I worked already had someone in place doing exactly the same job as me, I went through the charade of a competitive interview but I knew what the outcome was going to be. They offered me a role as deputy at £15,000 a year less than my current salary. That would never have worked, so I sued for voluntary redundancy. It was a tricky time. In retrospect I can see that by the time I left I was far from well, neither mentally nor physically. The only positive aspect of the whole sorry experience was how lovely my staff were, supportive and kind even though many of them were less than fully secure under the new regime.

Now unemployed I thought about doing some management consultancy working around the Masters degree I had signed up for. In the event I enjoyed being a student so much looking for work went on the back burner. A few months later we bought Maisy, Gill reduced her hours to half time. Gill's management increased her area of responsibility, fully expecting her to manage a bigger work load in half the time. Impossible! She resigned. Now we were both on reduced occupational pensions earning a third of our full-time salaries. However, we were free - mortgage paid-off, no debts. So we became happy wanderers on a shoestring.

Of course the last five years have presented challenges, but in the main we have lived life to the full, travelling southern Europe for five or six months of the year. Looking back at the person who left work five years ago I am a little over a stone lighter, fitter, healthier - happier and more positive. In fact, apart from being a little less supple and suffering the odd arthritic ache, actually I feel younger. We have to enjoy the here and now, there are no guarantees, the future is always a big unknown.

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