Funny how you can live 48 years and there are still so many things left to learn. I don’t just mean the big, obvious things, like languages, science and other more cerebral subjects, but those small life-skills and tips which ease the way – or make it more enjoyable. So, now I know if you take the time to toast your nuts, they taste better – but never quite as good as the first time you did it!
That revelation came to me on yet another plane, while snacking and entering some more thoughts in my specially purchased purple notebook which I now take on all my trips. When I travel I often have time for thoughts and notes as I am removed from the daily routine, and, as we all know, travelling involves quite a lot of waiting around – in airports, in hotels, at traffic lights and in queues, lots of queues. Mulling your thoughts like wine can distract the brain from the frustration of being in yet another seemingly unending line of people or cars. Sometimes someone around you can add the spice too!
So, back to the planning of my “crise” – the French word sounds less desperate than the English. And part of the plan must be to improve my French, although I am still figuring out where that fits into the crammed days of my life. I have managed to add some exercise into the mix by getting up stupidly early 2 or 3 days a week and then adding a weekend session with friends which is also our mutual therapy session! Shame they dont speak French too – that would work timewise!
So, the plan is, to travel round France, Spain and Portugal for 4 months in 2012, and my 50th birthday will fall somewhere towards the middle of that. My first thought was to buy a house in France as a holiday home. Quite a few of my clients are in France, and I have to visit Languedoc Roussillon in particular several times a year. But that would tie us down to one spot, and add the headaches of maintaining a property remotely. OK, I thought, what about a canal barge? Then I checked out the price tag – ouch, that would just eat my budget without the investment angle of a property. After some more consideration, the current plan is to buy a motorhome and a scooter. I have owned a scooter before, and my parents had a caravan, but a motorhome is a relatively unknown quantity to me. More life skills to learn!
So, this is my plan – am I nuts? Or will I soon be toasting them on a barbeque somewhere in Europe?!