words by Williams

I'm sitting at the kitchen table in my pyjamas and dressing gown. Yesterday I dismantled my home 'office' and today I start planning for the future. Coincidentally, it's July 4, the day Americans celebrate as 'Independence Day'.

Not strictly accurate. Mrs W - Caroline to be formal, Cal to pretty much everyone else - and I started thinking about this around Christmas 2021. We were in our lovely flat, situated in the beautiful grounds of a former school for the blind, wondering at the fact that while we were asset rich, we were cash poor.

Circumstance, not least Covid, had set us boundaries that we were finding hard to breach. And for what? We have no-one necessarily to 'hand everything on to', and we both had a desire to break out of our routines. We decided pretty much then and there to change things while we had the legs and lungs to do it.

It was a simple plan. Sell up. Go rented. Buy a motorhome.

So, how come that took more than six months and, actually, we're only at the deposit stage with the motorhome?

Our sale was actually agreed in February (another fabulous job by Bev and Greg Sloane at Ewemove, Shrewsbury by the way) but these days it seems that selling a house is like giving birth to an elephant.

Eventually, the sale went through in June. We'd already found a rental property in the middle of nowhere - in the same SY5 postcode district as the flat, but 20-odd miles away and actually much closer to Much Wenlock - and we'd been moving stuff in bit by bit for a fortnight before we officially moved out.

Dunno if it's post-Brexit, part Covid, or what, but getting things done these days is a nightmare. People just don't seem to want to do the job they're paid for. Whether it's removals companies or delivery agents, it seems as though if it looks like hard work, it's not worth the trouble.

We had to find a new removals company because the people we'd originally chosen suddenly upped their price 50% from their quote. And even when the new guys came to move us, the four-man crew were in near-revolt because no-one had informed them about the 34 steps they would have to carry things down. Apparently, the 10 steps from truck to front door at the new property were of little consolation.

Anyway, that's that.

Next is the motorhome. We've put down a deposit on a seven-year-old A class. Which is a start.

We started looking for the ideal 'outfit' in February, since when we've been members of the Caravan Club. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. But you do learn stuff.

We nearly bought an almost identical vehicle from a lovely lady, Jenny, in Gloucestershire, a private sale, but she was suddenly surrounded by suitors and with Mrs W's price stipulation (which lasted all of 24 hours as it happens) we thought it only right that she should be free to maximise the potential of her possibilities.

As it is, we pick it up in mid July and we've already got an itinerary blocked in.

Really looking forward to it.

More as we go.