As I've only just begun this blog, this is a flashback to the notes I made when we first decided to packup our home on the North Notts/North East Derbys border & travel!
I've been a virtual assistant since spring 2010, full-time since summer 2013. I love the flexibility, being able to work from home, on holiday if I choose, from a coffee shop or bar or on the train. But, although I did this travelling to & from clients' offices, or killing time between meetings, I'd not actually considered the reality that I can work from anywhere in the world!
Hubby Rob enjoyed his job as an independence worker for a local charity, but on a zero hours contract, he wasn't the main bread-winner. He's also been disillusioned with the UK, the government, rising costs & taxes, the cold, damp climate & general negativity of the populace in Britain for as long as I've know him. This actually has nothing at all to-do with Brexit as I've known him a long while - we celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary this year 
So we decided to travel....
We rented our home in the UK, the kids are all grown-up with their own homes & relationships, my elderly mum-in-law has always been aware of her son's wanderlust dream & my parents thought I was brave & accepted our decision to live elsewhere.
So where to go?
As we have pets, flying across the world wasn't impossible, but wouldn't be easy & although we'd holidayed many times in Europe, there was so much we hadn't seen. Decision made! We'd take our car & travel Europe.
In March 2017 I bought a one-way ferry ticket to Santander in Spain for the 24th September to actually land on Rob's birthday on the 25th. This wasn't planned, it was just the first date in September that the Brittany Ferries Pont Aven ship had two large kennels available for our two dogs.
I'd looked into ferry routes & we decided to miss France & head straight for Northern Green Spain, a destination on my bucket list. The Brittany Ferry routes to Bilbao & Santander required research as we didn't want to leave two dogs & a parrot together for long hours in the car. The dog friendly cabins get booked-up very quickly, as do the kennels, then a couple of calls to Brittany Ferries identified that we needed the ship with ventilation & heating in the car dock as the parrot would have to stay in the car. Their flagship Pont Aven.
I'd planned to take two weeks annual leave & my VA associate would cover my clients as she usually does when I'm on holiday. We'd take the time to slowly travel to Plymouth, overnight nearby, then on the ferry for a night. We'd have just over a week to settle somewhere in Asturias, then I'd be back to work from my new temporary home office.
The decision had been made & the ferry booked leaving just six months to research legalities for the car & necessary paperwork for the pets.