And So It Begins

I’m not sure how many husbands get on so well with their mother-in-law but we had a really lovely few days relaxing at Mum’s – the two of them bonded over wine, films and blueberry cheesecake! And how appropriate to spend our last day in the UK doing something so quintessentially English as going to the village fete and listening to the silver band playing ‘Our House’ by Madness! It started feeling a bit like the eye of the storm – calm but the sense of impending madness never far away.

Was the head-spinning excitement from cottage-sale-day slightly dampened by two days of stressing over sorting out the incorporation of our business and trying to invest the cottage money somewhere safe for the long term?…..or was it more to do with the fact that what we are about to embark on is so incomprehensible that my brain is less able to grasp it the closer it gets? Either way, driving down the motorway on a one-way journey towards the south coast had our hearts in our mouths, grins on our faces but still nothing more than a slightly surreal feeling that something strange was about to happen.

And something strange did happen! We got on a ferry and 24 hours later arrived in Spain and our new lives. Our plan was to set off early this morning and follow an eight day off-road route through the Pyrennes, but driving from Bilbao to the camp site near Pamplona last night I asked James whether he fancied having a wander around Pamplona before we go. He said we could do whatever we wanted and I think it sunk in for the first time. We can do. Whatever. We. Want……….