When you have all the time in the world to do nothing in, one tends to do nothing.
For the first time since I was 20, I actually have nothing to do.
I mean absolutely nothing.
Other than walking the dog, eating, cleaning the house and making sure I take a shower, there is nothing going on.
I had my first child at 20. By 28 I had 2 more children, by 30 I had remarried and inherited 2 further children. I was working full time and studying. By the time I was 40, we had packed our lives in and moved abroad.
For the past 10 years as an expat I've been juggling 2 homes over 3 countries, managing kids, lives, booking flights, trying to keep up with everyone, juggling 100 different things on a daily basis and aged 50, I'm now back in the UK with my husband, the cat and dog we picked up in South Africa.
We're back in our family home that I spent the time during covid repairing, fixing and painting with a few trips back and forth to see Peter in Dubai and packing up all our belongings and shipping them back to the UK, with the 2nd and last container arriving in July. It's all unpacked now and we're just taking stock of what we're going to do next.
We'll be staying put in this house for the foreseeable future, neither of us can face another move. I've lived on 3 continents and had 17 permanent homes as well as many short term stays as we've moved around.
We bought the house in 2002, it was 4 years old when we moved in, we had a loft and garage conversion back in 2007 and I've just replaced the carpets and a couple of windows. We need a new kitchen and bathroom and have plans for the garden. But as the kitchen, bathroom and garden are functioning, we're not in any hurry to get any work done.
I'm currently glued to the TV with the Olympics, I've sorted out birthday gifts and written cards for the month. I've kept up with the washing and ironing. I've written letters, walked the dog, enjoyed take out coffees, weeded the garden and harvested some crops and picked blackberries. I've paid the bills and renewed the car and house insurance.
I've had a couple of meltdowns with service providers about their lack of customer service and failing to provide the service I've paid them for. I've been frustrated at the sudden change of pace of life, going from being on my own in the day and when we've both travelled to being at home full time with Peter now he's retired, it's a huge change for both of us and takes some getting used to.
We really need to kick our arses into gear (once the Olympics are over) decide what work will be done on the house and who is going to do it.
I'm struggling to find things to blog about, everything seems boring in comparison to the last 50 years of my life. I stopped writing my weekly blog posts as it all seems so mundane. I found plenty to write about each week during covid. I'm not bored, I'm happy to be living a more simpler and quieter life.
You have had so much going on especially over the last couple of years it must be hard to have basically nothing to do apart from the day to day chores. I hope you are enjoying a relaxed life x
ReplyDeleteWe are enjoying having nothing to do for a while. makes a change
DeleteA change of lifestyle is always a challenge, in my experience. My husband also worked abroad for great chunks of his career and I was at home in the UK with 2 sons, 2 dogs and my own career. I was lucky enough to go part-time before I retired, whereas my husband was straight into retirement. It's definitely taken some getting used to! I obviously don't know you but in your posts you always seem so dynamic and I feel like a sloth, in comparison, sometimes! Lovely photo! #pocolo
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying some sloth time. My retirement was abrupt when we moved abroad, my husbands retirement has been planned over the past 2 years, I'm going to be looking at going back into the work place.
DeleteI hope you enjoy some relaxing time, you have worked hard x #pocolo
ReplyDeleteThank you
DeleteChange is always challenging, and not always for the reasons we think it might be. Take care - and remember, the paralympics will be here before we know it. #PoCoLo
ReplyDeleteVery much looking forward to the paralympics
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