Wednesday 19 December 2007

The missing bits of the blog

I have just realised that his blog explained nothing unless you already had the information contained in our Christmas letter!
Here, belatedly, are the relevant bits that give you the reason why we started this blog spot.
Next year our Christmas communications will be from a Mobilehome somewhere on our Great Trek around the outer limits of Europe. This planned Great Trek necessitated the trip to Daunt Books to acquire the travel guides and maps. John and I discovered that we were planning to travel in opposite directions around Europe. We also had somewhat different cultural expectations. Extensive consultation of the Rough and Lonely experts will put us on the right track and together.
We are probably joining a cohort of travelling sixty-year olds looking for cheap ways to keep warm. Downsizing to a Mobile home seems a sensible training exercise for our future life as pensioners in modern Europe. We will be able to afford less space, less water, less heat, and have less money anyway but this option we hope, will give us more freedom.
John says that first we have 3 months of partying as retirement preparation, then before April 5th, we set off on our 12 month tour. We start by heading for Poland and Moscow, go left to Finland, Norway and the midnight sun. Back again through the Balkans to spend the winter in Turkey or Greece - or even Morocco.
Finally in 2009 we will stop and put down roots - perhaps in the Languedoc region of France.

Hopefully this blog will allow us to keep in touch with you - family and friends - all year and not just at Christmas. Please stay with us - we hope for your wisdom and advice and comments at each point on our route.

Tuesday 11 December 2007

You found us!

Now that you know about our plans and have found our blog we will have to start telling you what we are doing talking about our trip in cyberspace.
It is at this stage everything is experimental. We don't know how pratical it will be to manage this blog from a camper but we are learning all the time.
First the name of the blog! Some time ago as I was half listening to the radio I heard a discussion with an American writer who joked that we think our lives are a story with a beginning and an end until we are over sixty and find we are an epilogue!
Does anyone know which writer I half-heard? Was it Vonnegut?
I hope to find out someday.
Obviously this gave us the title for our blog! It was to be EpiBLOGue and have a smart font and colour style. Too bad that the idea has already been snaffled and I don't know how to personalise the font on our blog - yet. We are left with the more cumbersome epiCBlogue.
I have more to tell you but not today. We will post more images. John plans to post his own words which will be as different to mine as our letters are to each other.

Thursday 6 December 2007

epicblogue


Here we are at the wonderful Daunts Travel Bookshop in Marylebone High Street with £100 of travel books and maps. We had just finished a two day retirement seminar in London laid on for us through John's work and this seemed the most logical first step of our planned trip for April 2008.