Hello Again!

7/6/18. Well, it has been rather a long time hasn’t it?

Looking back at the blog, it seems we left things hanging somewhat last August with us expecting to have to resort to calling in the bailiffs to evict our tenants. In fact we did call them in but, luckily for them, the tenants moved a few days before a team of beefy men turned up on the doorstep and so we were able to get into our own house in the middle of September – almost 5 months after the end of the tenancy.

Thankfully our worst fears of the state of the house were not realised and there was surprisingly little damage, especially considering the obviously low ethical standards of the individuals.

We settled back in to living in one place easily and, as autumn and winter progressed with the typical British weather, even Stephen’s enthusiasm for cycling diminished. (Christine’s had evaporated into the distance at the first sight of the cold and rain!)

In December the arrival of Reuben Miles Smith meant that we became grandparents for the first (and, hopefully, not the last) time. We couldn’t be happier! We have been to visit him (and his parents, of course) in Bahrain twice. Here is just one of the many photos we have.

And here’s another because he’s just soooooo adorable!

While twiddling the pedals over the previous two and a half years on the road, we had been contemplating what to do when we returned and had pretty much decided that the time had has come for a move. With the kids all gone, the house was far too big for the two of us, much though we loved it, and so we put it onto the market in mid November.

But where to move to? Having small but well dispersed families meant that we had a pretty much “blank sheet of paper” – which was exciting but slightly overwhelming as the range of possible locations was wide. Once we received an acceptable offer for the house we embarked on a road trip through the southern Midlands from Cheltenham to Rutland seeing many lovely places in a part of the country that neither of us really know.

In the end we found a house just to the west of Worcester and the purchase is proceeding at the moment. In the meantime we have completed the sale and so are homeless again.

And guess what that means!

Yep. We’re off on our bikes. We have been staying with Christine’s parents in Taunton since the house sale (apart from a quick blast of grandson sitting in Bahrain) but will be heading off in the next day or two (we are still “flexible” in planning our trips!) along the South Coast of England (to fill in two gaps of our Round the British Coast jaunt which has been on hold for a few years) and then heading towards Lake Constance where we have a family holiday planned for early July.  It is the intention to add a few posts while we go, so do check back here (assuming you enjoy reading these ramblings!).