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Saturday 16 April 2016

An update on the Travel Blog That Never Was

This post will mainly serve as an aide memoire for me for posterity, given that it was three and a half years ago now that I vowed to keep up with my travel blog by kicking it off with a post about our travels up to that point.  Well, a little like I described in that post about the numerous attempts at a travel blog before that, my idea never really lifted off.  It really tried, bless its little soul, it really begged, bugged, popped itself as an idea every so often into my brain, but it's owner and author couldn't keep up.  Yes, that's me. *she types with one hand whilst guiltily lifting the other*.  

So... a refresher on that post and subsequent trips that did get time devoted to them before I move on:


And whilst going through this list, I have realised that I drafted up 2 further travel blogs - one for Croatia, Bosnia & Montenegro in September 2013 and one for our Thanksgiving trip to the US in November of the same year and I never finished them.  I guess it's kind of understandable since December 2013 is when Dave's dad fell very ill and we needed to make some pretty quick decisions about our - and his - living situation which meant that most other stuff just had to be put on the back burner for a while or cancelled altogether (including, ironically, an anniversary trip to Helsinki that year), but I just can't believe that I didn't finish what I had fully intended to post.  

Just for the record, they were entitled "Beautiful Bosnia, mad Montenegro and chilled Croatia... all in a mini road trip!" and "An American Tale and a home away from home for the holidays".

So whilst they don't have their own posts, they are included in my renewed list of travels with photo album links below, in continuation of the Travel Blog That Never Was (aka The TBTNW).  

Ready?  Right... deep breath... here we go!


We have a few travel plans already in the pipeline this year, included a 3rd annual family trip with Dave's cousins, but next up will be a short hop over to Dublin to spend some time with a very dear friend and soaking up some music and then it's my beautiful South Africa next month... only 33 sleeps to go!


Almost there and nowhere near it

.... all that matters is we're still going.


Family health issues.  Loss of loved ones.  Money worries.  Job insecurity.  Big Brother-y living situations.  Since December 2013, we've had all of these in abundance - I'd confidently argue that I'd be pretty content never experiencing any of these ever again, unrealistic as that sounds.  BUT... that's not what this post is about.  It's about all the silver linings, the things amongst the tough stuff that has kept a smile firmly on our faces.  It seems that all we've done is jump over hurdles the past few years, but you know what?  I've come to realise that that's just life.  So enough of all of that, most of it is SO last year!

Despite all of the obstacles, we've slowly but surely picked away at them so that most of them don't matter anymore - either by design or by force (Me?  No, never.) - and for the most part, we've been living a relatively stress-free life for the past 8 months.  We've had some pretty awesome family time at the end of last year, which is always a major bonus for me, and we've both acknowledged that by the end of last year, all of the built-up tension and stress we had been carrying had all but melted away.  It was a really liberating feeling to acknowledge it, even if I didn't realise it was happening at the time.  We've continued to travel, although not as frequently as in previous years and we have come out of our hermit-like existence this year to make an effort to see our friends more.  It's been a great few months actually - we've shrugged the heaviness off our shoulders and are finally feeling like ourselves again.

The last major stress hurdle for Dave and I to overcome is the fact that he still, despite every effort literally every day for over a year, hasn't been able to find work since having his contract ended in March last year.  He has had his ups and downs - the downs being periods where I literally have never felt so useless - but the ups and the expectation and anticipation of the next new adventure make it mostly okay.  At the moment, he's almost there.  We're almost there.  And then what?  We may cash in those life credits my cousin told me about.