Was It All A Dream? And Yes We Are Still Here

Almost 3 months to the day since we landed back in the UK and we are back where we began, at Esther's parents house in Buckinghamshire. Since our visit here in March much has happened. We've visited many places, spent time with many people and done a lot of both fun and practical things, not least of which was clearing out and finding new homes for the vast majority of our old, stored possessions. But still, returning to the place that was our first stop after our return to Britain, back when we still owned Homer and envisaged spending just a couple of weeks in Durham, it does feel a little surreal. Although we never really had a plan, we certainly never envisaged being back here and still in the UK after 3 months. After such a busy, emotional and action packed time we can't help wondering if the last 3 months were all a dream?
With so much going on it might seem strange that we've been so quiet on our blog for the past couple of months or more. Indeed, it does feel a little strange to us as well. There have been many times when we said to ourselves "we really should write about this" more often than not we felt we had to deal with another admin' issue or list a few more things on Freecycle and eBay first and never quite found the time. Or, even when we did have time to write, it wasn't entirely clear what to say. During the past 2 months in Durham a large chunk of our time has been spent putting our old affairs in order, selling our old home, giving away items from the 'old life' we had stored away 2 years ago and it was often a very emotional time. We were getting a lot out of it and learning a lot about ourselves, but in much the same way that we felt last summer when we were working out some pretty big emotional challenges in our relationship, trying to write about those lessons as we went along didn't feel quite right.

But now here we are. Our clearing out did come to an end (pretty much) and we did eventually manage to get the possessions that we still find either 'useful' or 'inspirational' down into just a dozen or so plastic tubs, plus some things that don't fit a tub like the guitar I've meant to learn to play for the past decade! There are still a few items following us that we weren't quite ready to get rid of just yet but we've come to realise that is part of our process of letting go, something I want to write about in much more detail in the weeks ahead along with catching up on some of the big events of the past couple of months like our Lake District trip, visit to London and the conference I gave a talk at yesterday which was part of International Continence Week.

But for now I just wanted to write this short post, really just to say hello again and confirm we are still here and are once again actively planning our next big adventure, not that we ever stopped of course. We know we have at least the next 3-4 weeks in the UK as we will be house and dog-sitting for Esther's mum and dad (along with using our new found clearing out skills to help them find new homes for some of their old things as well) but all being well it won't be long until we are back on the trail......... More updates to follow soon!