Let's get this show back on the road!!

It's rather strange that the whole reason for setting up this blog was to document our year away 'living the alternatives' and that only now, six whole weeks after leaving our old lives behind, have I got around to writing about our experiences so far. Since leaving home Lielle and I have immersed ourselves in our new experiences from morning to night, leaving me very little energy come evening for sitting down and writing about it all.

The original plan was that Dani would take a week or two after our departure to tidy up his work affairs and would then be joining us, but the weeks rolled on by until.... TODAY! We received a surprise phone call a few hours ago telling us that he is on his way right now! While Lielle and I have both loved the laid-back time schedules and holiday atmosphere I think that we both feel that the time has come for a little more routine and to start getting stuck into some proper work, both projects on the house and with the homeschooling.

So, a few updates since the last post:

* Never underestimate how important it is to have backup copies of all your important stuff on the computer! Shortly after we arrived in the village I spent several hours right into the night editing and filing photos of our trip. I must have been really tired or just generally disoriented but when I thought I was deleting an empty folder the computer asked me: "Are you sure you want to delete these 34,867 items?" Silly me assumed that it was the computer that was wrong, so I hit the 'yes' button and it prompted me with: "Are you sure you want to proceed as these are too many files for the recycle bin and will be permanently deleted?" I clicked 'yes' once more ... and within seconds saw all my 6 years of family albums flicker and disappear before my very eyes. When I checked out the file that I thought they were all in and found it empty I was devastated. I was never so thankful that I had taken the time to transfer all my photos and personal documents to an external hard disk, although unfortunately all the new photos of our visiting friends on the way to the village were lost. Some of them were able to be recovered when I was introduced to a program that can be downloaded from the internet to recover lost files - but I had left it too late to recover them all. Still, I've learned a good lesson.

* We must be the world's worst (but luckiest) when it comes to leaving things until the last minute. Lielle's passport arrived via France just two days before we left. The even better news is that since we left home it has been confirmed that I was due for severence pay from my last job which I held for around 14 years. The pay has already been put into my bank account and should provide a safety net for the project. Although we knew the project would be very low budget we also knew that it would be impossible to live without any money at all. It's very good to know that we shan't go hungry and can afford the travel costs between our various destinations.

* One of the last things we did before we left home was to spend a few hours on the beach watching the sun go down with the children and the grandchildren. These precious family moments are the ones that I shall most treasure and they make me realise that, with all the learning we shall be doing this coming year, the main thing is to learn about ourselves and each other and to relish living in the moment and being in each others' company.

* Now that Dani is on his way (he should be sitting on the plane right now waiting for take-off!), I am hoping that I shall find the time and a few quiet moments every few days to keep this blog properly updated. I have so many ideas in my mind of things to write about and share.

Final countdown - Only One Week To Go

This past month has just whizzed by. With so much to actually get done I have barely had time to sit down and write about it all. Now, with only one week (almost to the hour!) before we leave, it's time for a quick update:

• All our 'memories' (old photos, letters, kids' art, etc.) are all packed and stored. I decided in the end that there just wasn't time to make memory boxes for the kids as I had hoped. Never mind, that will be an interesting and nostalgic project to look forward to when we come back home, together with converting all our old family videos to digital format for future editting.
• I finally got around to sorting out my old computer and transferring all the files to an external, portable memory. It amazes me just how much of your life (documents, photos, favorite music, etc.) you can fit in something the size of your back pocket!
• Applying for Lielle's passport is a work in progress. We're hoping it'll reach us before we leave as new arrangements in the British Consulate meant that it needed to be processed in Paris. Fingers crossed!
• The last couple of weeks has been a time for saying goodbyes to friends. I spent a wonderful evening with 5 of my dearest girlfriends. The intimate atmosphere of such a small group generated such good energy and I have a lot of exciting projects to look forward to with them on our return. A couple of evenings ago we held a farewell, sushi-making get-together for our Couchsurfing friends. I feel truly blessed to be part of such a wonderful community. This whole plan of ours for a year of travel and personal exploration would never have happened without it.
• One of the highlights of this past month has been learning paper mache together with two good friends - and making two new good friends in the process, Tami and Uzi, who run the course. Wednesdays mornings have been something to look forward to as, in addition to learning a new skill of making beautiful and useful items out of waste paper, spending a couple of hours in such an intimate and open forum amongst trusted friends is just so good for the soul.
• After some uncertainty, we finally received confirmation that one of my elder daughters, son-in-law and grandson will be taking over our rental contract and moving in to our house. The furniture arrived a couple of days ago and they should be moving in tomorrow. Although a little cramped for two families it's only for a short while and we all gain from it. It's the house where my daughter spent a big part of her childhood and she has fond memories of it. For us it means we have somewhere to store a few things which is a big load off our minds.
• I sometimes wonder just where my faith that everything will work out fine comes from. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts our trip is very low budget and even now, just a week before we leave, we're not exactly sure where all the funding will come from. This last month has seen a few interesting developments in that field. A chance conversation with my daughter-in-law brought to light that I should have received monthly child benefit for Lielle, which for some reason we never received since she was born. I checked in out, and sure enough, somehow or other we had fallen between the cracks and within just over a week my account was credited with the amount due to us over the last seven years! Also, looking through all my old paperwork I discovered that I was owed severence pay for a job I had 12 years ago - a couple of hours in two different offices was all it took to arrange the money owed me there. It turns out that there are millions of shekels owed to people who don't realize their rights. Definitely worth checking out.
• Although Dani has been working hard to tie up all the loose ends of his business it's becoming clear that he won't be able to join Lielle and I right at the beginning of the trip (the part where we travel from Greece to Bulgaria visiting friends along the way). The plan is that around 10-14 days after we leave (about the time we arrive in the village) Dani will be joining us. I must say he doesn't seem too perturbed about it. That might have something to do with the fact that those days are the final ones of the World Cup ;-)

Well, that's a rough update of things we've managed to achieve since the last post here. I still need to sort out health and travel insurance, and at the end of the week we have the Young Entrepreneurs' Workshop that I'm organizing for Lielle and her friends. I shall be attending a couple of evening paper mache sessions in a last effort to finish a couple of projects that I've started; and another evening I'm spending with my son Yair and his friends from the Rimon School of Music as they wrap up the end of the school year with music performances in a well-known Tel Aviv cafe. And last but not least, I really want to spend a quiet early evening surrounded by my grandchildren watching the sunset over the beach. A few weeks ago I was at the beach with them early evening and just as we were about to leave my little grandson, Israel-Shalom (almost 2), hypnotized by the sunset looked at me and said, in beautiful Hebrew: "Wow, what a beautiful sky!" I just had to sit down with him and enjoy it. Those moments are so precious.

Belt-tightening

Although our planned year away is very low budget there are still certain things that will need to be paid for: food and transport are probably the two main things. Over the past year or so we have surprised even ourselves at just how much we have been able to reduce our monthly outgoings in preparation for the trip. Here are some of the ways we managed to spend less (you'll notice that some of the 'decisions' we made were actually fate-induced), for instance:

When one of our cars was written off in a traffic accident we decided the time had come to make do with just the one we had left. And it wasn't so difficult. It did mean planning a bit more in advance so that we could each get maximum use of the car with minimum inconvenience to the other, but all in all the biggest difference we felt was the positive one of less petrol, insurance and repair bills. Several months later the other car suffered damage beyond reasonable repair, but this time good fortune stepped in and one of Dani's children who had upgraded their car agreed to loan us their old one until we leave. Although the ongoing expenses remained the same we are now thankfully relieved of the problem of selling the car at the last moment which is a big plus.

Similarly, a few months ago our second hand washing machine broke down and needed an expensive repair. My daughters who live nearby offered to help out and do our washing for us which is greatly appreciated. In order not to overload them we do some items by hand and are much more aware of only washing clothes that really need it. It's suprising just how much less washing we generate now than before. This has not only saved us having to buy a new machine, but has also caused us to adopt habits that will serve us well during our year away.

After becoming annoyed at the ever-growing cable TV/internet bills for less service we decided to cancel them. Not having the living room dominated by TV has been a big plus in itself, and the internet has been covered by using it during breaks at work, or picking up local wifi signal at home.

Other areas where we just decided to cut down (for varying reasons from "it's not that difficult to do", to "it's ultimately better not just for our bank balance but also for our health/the environment, etc") include: drinking only tap water (instead of bottled drinks) and cutting down on water usage in general by watering the garden with 'grey' water from the kitchen/shower and only flushing the toilet if there's something really offensive in there. None of us family members is offended by the others' urine, so when it's only us at home this saves a lot of pure drinking-quality water being used to simply transport this natural waste from one place to another. The water rates in general have recently been increased a lot and we have noticed a big difference in our water bills compared to our neighbors.

Some of these changes were achieved by a simple shift in mentality. Once you have set a goal in mind that you are passionate about, if that goal involves money to be saved or debts to pay off you actually psyche yourself up to get a thrill out of not buying something. Resisting the urge to buy something actually gives you a buzz as you realize it is in your power to bring that ultimate goal one step closer.

It also helps to look on the bright side and see the positive aspects in everything: cars and washing machines breaking down don't immediately strike people as being positive, but the way things worked out these things not only brought about a reduction in our expenses but also made us super-aware of just how kind, generous and helpful people can be.