If you have been following our social media these last few months, you will probably know that we intended to leave the UK back in September 2018. We left our jobs in London in July. We’d bought a 2 bedroom maisonette in Southampton to rent out while we were gone and we moved down there for a few months to sort it all out.
Nate our youngest had been having some trouble with his leg turning out which we had been getting him private physio for. He’d also had some issues with his thumb. We hadn’t really thought too much about it as we’d been getting him treatment but we’d got a referral from our GP to a children’s hospital in London just to double check. By the time our appointment came through for the end of August we had already moved and were sorting/packing the last of our belongings. As we thought it was just a check up, Andrew took him up to London alone to save on the train fare.
I was at home making some very tough decisions about which shoes to pack when I got the phone call that we were going nowhere fast. Nate’s problem was a lot more serious than we thought and he in fact had hip-dysplasia. He was most likely going to be operated on and be in a full body cast for 12 weeks with potential physio and rehab afterwards so we were looking at leaving at the beginning of March 2019.
As you can probably imagine this completely knocked the wind out of me. We’d had our vaccinations, left our jobs, sold or got rid of a lot of our stuff, moved cities and were practically ready to go. Our house transaction had also not gone smoothly and we’d been technically homeless in Southampton for two weeks with no idea if the sale would ever go through. We had to rent a flat temporarily and sleep on blow up mattresses with no TV and no internet for two weeks. We had only just got into our new house with two weeks (or so we thought) to get sorted. I had been struck down by tonsillitis due to the stress and was just starting to feel better.
Anyway, we’re a positive lot and I personally fully believe in the Universe doing its thing and fate (Andrew thinks my Universe manifesting is a bit weird but it definitely works!). So we resigned ourselves to the fact we were staying for a while, got Matilda into pre-school and Andrew knuckled down and tried to grow his online business (the thing that would be supporting us along the way, along with some savings). Not one to sit around either I re-trained in some online courses to give us another potential income stream while we were away.
As well as the 12 weeks and recovery in the cast we also had to factor in the wait time for the operation (they were keen to get it done ASAP due to fast developing baby bones). We finally got a date of the 30th October. I was ecstatic to not be in limbo any more and so at least we could vaguely start to properly plan our trip.
At this point the flights were hugely expensive and we decided that we should stay for Christmas as it would just be easier than explaining to the kids why we couldn’t lug masses of presents around the world.
If you are wondering what we bought them due to downsizing it was mainly travel related or consumables. A small back pack each, collapsible water bottles, sandals and new head phones. A selection pack disposed of by eating, some small toys to take and some arts and crafts which once made were filed in the bin (sorry not sorry. Don’t think badly of me, I do keep most of the thousands of artworks produced daily at pre-school!).
By this time we decided that the 15th of Jan 2019 was our day to leave. We emerged from our Christmas cocoon and had two weeks to do what felt like two years of admin (I’m looking at you, international driving permit) and re-pack up our house. After all of the culling and chucking and downsizing it was still somehow unbelievable what we still had to pack or throw away.
And so the day finally came, we’d applied for our Sri Lanka visas, bought our mosquito repellent, packed and re-packed our bags and then rush packed at the last minute. I think we have way too much luggage but can’t think what we don’t need at some point. I’ll leave that for another post though.
For now, know that we finally left 3 months later than expected and arrived safely. First destination, Hikkaduwa in Sri Lanka!
