Harsh Karma

Tuesday Ivan the Iveco went for his health check and passed with flying colours. Fully serviced he should now be ready to face his journey.

After a wash and thorough brush up Ivan and Tatiana the TNT mug met for the first time. They seemed to get on well and Tatiana, having tried a couple of prime positions to be seated for the journey, has settled on the mug slot on the dashboard. She fits like a glove. Don't order your wedding hat yet but I think the future for these two looks good. It is almost like they were made for each other.

Packing has now got to the stage of just essentials left to be boxed but that will be left for the day before departure. We are relaxed and quietly confident that we have this emigrating lark under control.

The V5 for the van has arrived so all paperwork is now present and correct. We are looking good to go.

Then we got the call. The worst call. Our world fell apart. Our house buyers buyer had pulled out. The chain had collapsed. We were numb. Shellshocked. This was some harsh karma. What was this meant to teach us? After all our planning a two minute phone call sees our dreams in tatters. Not only our lives, but our buyers, our builders in Bulgaria, so many people affected.

It is now three days later and still we are numb but we know this means merely a delay, it is not the end of our dream. These things always happen for a reason and sometime down the line we will discover the reason for these events. We are staying positive. We have to. For now we have to refocus and get on with life and decide on our next move.........

 

"That'll be nice dear"

Monday 24th August 2015

"that'll be nice dear". That was it.

No drama. No tears. Nothing. We had just told my mum we were emigrating, not going to the seaside for a picnic. But no reaction at all. Maybe she had not understood us correctly? But she had. We had practised how to break the news to my family, how to cause the least amount of concern / heartbreak / derision but we may as well have announced the price of petrol had gone down again.

How often in life the planning, agonising over and dread of an impending moment consumes our every thought but passes and leaves us unscathed. If you can do something about a situation what's the point of worrying about it? If you can't do anything about it what's the point in worrying?

So that milestone of our preparation has passed and we survived.

Tomorrow Ivan the Iveco goes to the doctors for a full health check and some new tyres. He will get a thorough cleaning inside and out and be introduced to Tatiana the TNT mug. I will get some photo's of their first date on the blog tomorrow.

Sunday 23rd August 2015

Hi all. We will be using these pages to share with you our adventures as we travel through Europe in an old Iveco van bound for our new life in Bulgaria.

Why Bulgaria? We have found the people to be so friendly and genuine, the landscape is stunning at every turn, the pace of life is slower, there is an abundance of history and there are real seasons (in summer at least we will be warm!!). Then there is the cost of living which is a real bonus. We intend to integrate into the local community and live as Bulgarians do but hope to add a little something too.   

On this adventure is my wife Pamela, myself (Pete) and Maizi & Marple our two black labrador dogs. Oh yes, and an orange TNT mug! We plan to travel via Harwich ferry through Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and onward to our new home in Gorsko Ablanovo. We will camp enroute with no fixed daily mileages or destinations - just going with the flow, pretty much our new mantra for life.

We are 50 somethings who have had enough of the rat race and intend to step off the planet. My wife is a Reiki master and we plan to open a meditation retreat within the village. Who knows what the future will bring but if we don't try we won't find out. Sometimes you just have to jump and see where you land.

Friday saw us both leave our jobs which was harder than we thought it would be! So now it is long days of packing, preparing Ivan the Iveco and chasing solicitors so that we can finalise the sale of the house and be on our way. The first week of September is our target date for going but solicitors will be solicitors.........

Maizi & Marple

Pamela

Me in Rousse