Category Archives: Uncategorized

One day left. Not tomorrow morning, but the morning after that, we’re getting on a plane to re-invent our lives. We are both getting stabs of fear when we think about it, but that’s probably a sign we’re doing the right thing. As Katherine said earlier, the antidote is to think about the alternative We’ve spent the last week meeting … Continue reading

Given that my productivity, writing quality and patience have fallen away, and that it’s just a few weeks until we’re off, I’ve come to the fairly delightful conclusion that the best course is to stop writing for a while and focus on preparation for our departure, plus a certain amount of chilling out! Along with the decision, I realised that … Continue reading

My partner Katherine has 5 days left, before she’s a free agent. This thing is really happening! Meanwhile, my PhD supervisor has doubts about our June 25 deadline. Here’s hoping I prove him wrong.

My mother, who has been spectacularly helpful in offering advice and helping to kick ideas around has done some research for us on how to manage money while we’re travelling. It turns out that, almost universally, banks are charging exorbitant fees to access money internationally – the 2% ‘currency conversion’ fee is one particularly common one, which can be a … Continue reading

I have, with much assistance from Louise, my ‘virtual assistant’ living in Spain, determined a feasible way to stay connected. The main considerations were Wifi (open/paid) Mobile broadband (3G) from the UK, and roaming Getting a local mobile broadband account upon entry to a new country Mobile satellite The conclusions are: Wifi: Not accessible enough, particularly if we plan to … Continue reading

To give us a hand, my also-travel-bugged mother has compiled an impressive list of ingredients, utensils, and other bits and pieces that she and her partner Chris pack when they’re travelling with their camper trailer. She has also listed a whole bunch of recipe ideas. The guide was so helpful I thought I’d post it here.

The bane of every French student, or so I hear. Here’re my notes on conjugation. (in progress)

Fire going, glass of wine, banana cake and last.fm radio

We’ve finally booked our accommodation in London (or rather, started the somewhat manual booking process). It’s all happening.

Some research on buying a campervan in Europe. Note: This post is a work in progress

I’ve been keeping my notes on French in the note-keeping software Evernote, but in the interests of flexibility, persistence and avoiding Evernote’s nasty editor bugs, I’m going to start keeping them here. So far, we’ve been learning in a fairly ad-hoc fashion, using the Pimsleur French audio book series, which doesn’t really contain a written component, and takes a very … Continue reading