Hello! Greetings avid readers of literature that rambles! After 12 plus days of not posting on here – mostly on Instagram with the pictures and all its time to give an update on what has been happening. Its… well.. long-ish. Grab a coffee and settle in!

A few posts ago Sas and I (well. mostly me with the typing but hey you know Sas contributes too!) discussed that we have plans to move to NZ and live a Van Life.

Well.

The first phase was half completed over the Christmas period where I downsized all my boxes and got rid of a lot of the large furniture – hurray!!. Sas supervised. See – he contributes! I now need to finish getting rid of all the oversized furniture by booking the city trash collection and finish filtering out all of the books I still have. It was ambitious to try and do this in three weeks with essays and other work however it was a start and during the next long break it will be completed!

So. Phase Two. Phase Two was booking driving lessons and learning to drive. I am ecstatic to announce that yes! I have started driving lessons and that my first non theory, actual getting into a car and drive, driving lesson will start on Monday. Ive already had several hours of theory to go over before even setting foot near a car!

Sooooo YEAY!!!! Another step closer to van life and the freedom Sas and I need!

Hold up. So before we go further, the original and still ongoing plan is to move to NZ however a project which I put on the back burner a year ago after being repeatedly told it wasn’t feasible and was too large, has resurfaced and its one I believe that could be an excellent business if done right. What this would mean though is that Sas and I don’t go to NZ but back to the UK (nooooooooooo!) for logistical reasons due to the nature of the project.

So many things have to happen for that to occur though, so for now Sas and I are going forward with our initial plan of NZ until otherwise stated. I guess its a case of wait and see!

Back to our OG plan. After the driving lessons its a case of again sourcing moving companies/ shipping companies because the original price quoted was considered to be too high – by the shipping company themselves! Although looking at it – I still think it was fairly reasonable all things considered. I’ve sent emails to pet travel companies and haven’t heard anything back yet so Im just going to save and save and save. One thing I am concerned about though is the vaccinations for Sas plus quarantine and PCR tests and quarantine for me. Its more a case of timing and costs. Oh and paper work.

Soooooo much paperwork!

Sas as always has been an absolute gem and source of calmness – even when he drives me crazy. Recently he has not been sleeping well, he has been waking up late at night expecting to play and I have had to take him out for walks close to midnight, early hours of the morning. During the day he is lazy as a sloth and avoids me like the plague (or covid – or both!) when I encourage him to come out for walkies.

My changing work pattern – no matter how hard I try to keep it consistent – affects him and I think now I am seeing just how much it does in terms of companionship. When I’m home he curls up on my bed next to me as I study and work. When I go into another room or make a coffee he sits there watching me until I return and then he doses back off to sleep. Any separation anxiety kicks in if I am late from work either because of work or just because of the traffic and buses – which I try not to do. I get a little short with coworkers if they delay me so now they wait until the next day and honestly I do think that I get a little separation anxiety when I’m away from him for too long!

My golden cookie bear. 🙂

Well, thats it for now I guess.. Sas and I will keep you updated on our progress and any further shenanigans we get up to as the year rolls on don’t forget to check our our pages below and we will catch up again soon!!

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