Well, it all started as a bit of a joke really. “when we retire we will get a camper-van and see all the parts of England we haven’t seen” But then we thought: “A camper-van! Wasn’t that something that old people do?” Indeed, I have fond memories of my first in-laws heading off to Scotland for a few weeks each summer in their self-converted rudimentary dormobile and bringing back slides of glistening white beaches and remote Scottish communities from Tarbet to Tobermory and we would sit each September and pass round the 35mm slide viewer, drinking home-made alcoholic ginger beer, me giggling and noting their collective beauty. But whilst I loved Molly and Doug very much, they seemed old and from a different world to me, a place I would never inhabit.
Roll on 35 years and somehow life has a happy way of catching you out! We have suddenly found ourselves a relatively young retirees without children to care for, which was strange, at first. We are now mortgage free and have taken some of our pension entitlement early so I have to work fewer hours than I used to, and I am free to pick and choose from the many opportunities presented to me. I am lucky I guess, I have been head hunted by companies to write for them and have had loads of tutoring work since I took early retirement from teaching a few years ago. So we have both income and time, a luxury for us and not afforded to enough people.
Anyway, we have invested some of our savings in a camper-van to be called “Boo-mobile” (after one of our cats) and this summer we are going to, Tobermory and may even get as far as Shetland in the North, with a
visit to St Mabyn in Cornwall to visit my cousin in the South.
You see, some people don’t live as long and I feel I have a duty to make the most of my days, making each one count. Every opportunity is a blessing and I want to live life to the full because every day is a gift.
I don’t go in for these silly affirmations generally speaking but Live well, laugh often and love much seems to be the right thing to do, enjoy !
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