Long goodbyes

The limbo is almost over.

A year ago today we arrived at our very first WWOOF host, a year ago tonight we were sleeping in a tent. It got down to minus four twice in that first week, we were in bed by 8pm, having worked the hardest we'd ever worked before in our lives carrying wood up and down hills. We lived on vegan fayre, alcohol free after a life just days previously where we drank every night, ate meat every day and had baths, beds and sofas not to mention central heating, electricity and Sky TV. It was the biggest culture shock of our entire lives and yet when we left just two weeks later I cried because it was such a wrench. Dragon and Star still cite that host as their favourite and not a week goes by without us mentioning someone or something from there.

Fast forward a year and tonight we are sleeping in real beds. We've had a dinner of supermarket purchased food, lovely warm baths and a glass of wine after dinner. But this is temporary... and for all it is lovely to be enjoying the hospitality of friends we are all itching to get started on the next chapter of our lives. We are researching, emailing, phoning, writing in notepads and planning almost constantly. With every conversation with each other and everyone else we are coming up with yet more questions, more answers and more ideas. It is such an exciting, daunting and invigorating time for us.

We still don't have firm timescales, we still have so much yet to sort out but we have some firm starting points to work from and I am very hopeful that within the next week or so we will have a leaving Sussex / arriving in Rum date to start planning everything else around. We have chosen a static but need to pay for it and arrange delivery. We have a list of things we need to get ordered and arranged ready to swing into action on. We need to make decisions on our house - do we engage another estate agent? Put it back on the rental market? Drop the price? We have the remainder of our belongings to start sorting through and make tough decisions on as to whether we should bring them to Rum with us, get rid of them or find long term storage for them. I don't want or need my wedding dress in the static on a croft but I don't want to get rid of it forever either. We are realising the need to stock up on some items (loo roll! toothpaste!) that may be costlier to get delivered to the island, working out what we can buy from the shop (which is excellent, well stocked and very worthy of our support and patronage). I know our new postcode now, just not our address!

We all have that 'end of term' type feeling I think - the end is in sight, we are excited and raring to go. This next month will be full on and intense and I imagine we'll be in need of a holiday at the end of it. Fortunately we will have the most amazing destination to relax and get used to our surroundings in.