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Travelling Spain with Two Dogs & a Parrot

With a good internet connection, I can work remotely from anywhere, so my husband Rob & I took advantage of this & are travelling Spain with our pets & everything we own packed into an estate car with roof-box.

How Many Pairs of Shoes Do You Have?
Friday, March 8, 2019 @ 9:26 AM

"How many pairs of shoes do you have?"

This was a question I was asked recently.  I'd flown to London for a meeting with one of my clients, her team & board.  As I work remotely, although I'd been in contact with everyone by email or phone, I'd actually met very few of the people there.

Some may have known that I was based outside of London, but few were aware that I lived & worked from Spain.  Naturally they were curious & wanted to know more about my lifestyle.

Learning that all hubby Rob & I own fits into a car prompted the question about the number of shoes I have & a peer under the table to see what I was wearing!

This was funny & I half wished I could show something more shocking than my smart brown & red ankle boots!

12 pairs if you're wondering, plus wellies.

In just under 18 months, I've never worn my black kitten heels or cream wedge sandals, whilst there's a few other pairs have only rarely been used.

With wide size 8 feet, fashion footwear has generally never fit so when I find smart comfy shoes, I look after & keep them for as long as possible.

So even if I worked in London, I'd still not own many more pairs than I do now, but then I'd never work in London & consider myself fortunate not to have to conform with appropriate attire to be accepted in the corporate world.

Not when being a Virtual Assistant has given me the opportunity to work from Spain in my flip-flops!

We pack carefully, having a couple of suitcases in case we go on holiday elsewhere, but with most of our clothing & a change of towels & bedding in vacuum sealed plastic bags with the air sucked-out.  This idea didn't seem quite so bright once I realised continental homes have tiled floors & no vacuum cleaners...

I resort to first rolling on the bags to expel air & then sucking as much more out as I can by, well, sucking!  It's the reverse of getting light-headed when blowing-up a balloon laugh  But it works well-enough.

I have a few packing cubes for our smalls, but did cram so much in these that some of the zips broke.  My shoes are in a (now tatty) canvas storage case & I stuff my socks into the boots & trainers.

I have to be organised with packing so I know where to find everything.  This works most of the time as we have toiletries bags, a blue holdall for wires, cables & extension leads, a cream one for small electrical items (hairdryer, straigteners & travel kettle etc), a bag for my sewing notions, large laptop bag for my computer & accessories & nylon backpack for pet paraphernalia.

But there's always a last-minute bag or two for all the bits & pieces that naturally collect on tables & worktops, or that we need right-up to leaving a home.  These are the items that drive us nuts when we attempt to find them & cannot remember in which bag they may be.

We've undoubtedly left stuff behind, but if we cannot remember what & haven't missed it, then we cannot have really needed whatever it was we left!

We've never been possession oriented & I'm appalled by today's throw-away society & shiny-object syndrome, having to have the latest new thing, when the one you already have still works fine.

I've been surprised that I haven't missed anything we used to have but don't now.  Admittedly, we need to rent furnished property & accept the varying degrees of comfort, how well the kitchen is equiped, (or not) & someone elses taste in ornaments & art.  But that's a minor detail to the life that we're enjoying.  We move stuff around to suit when arriving somewhere new & hide the most appalling clutter, then put it all back when we leave.

No problem.  Where to next? 



Like 3




2 Comments


Paul Simons said:
Saturday, March 9, 2019 @ 10:36 AM

I have 3 pairs + working boots + wellie boots. Is this just a blokey thing?


nancybenn said:
Saturday, March 9, 2019 @ 5:38 PM

@Paul Simons - my hubby has six pairs & wears just two pairs on a regular occasion. I could easily manage with less shoes, but as they all pack neatly into the carrier, I've kep them ;-)


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