Happy days!

I sit here in a pile of 3D Bugles, my favourite french crips, some cheap Lidl wine and a sprawled deck of playing cards. Having had the luxury of time to think what I would write, a thought entered my mind, that time does not always yield results. My musings therefore are a mixed bag of a man who has had a dangerous amount of time to think. 

 My starting point, well this is going to be Clare's thinking that I am determined. I'm not sure I have ever been that determined, I'm more of a stumble upon type of guy, and there seemed to be a perfect storm of situations that guided us into this venture.

Anyway, if you have made it this far with us then congratulations. It feels very odd to be at the end to be honest. 7 months of a life (there or thereabouts) is a long time when you are not in your home. The reality is though that 7 months is nothing. No more than a whim of time, a splutter within the context of a life. However, whatever the results of this whole thing, we can be proud that we have given it a go and crammed as much as possible into it, be it life experiences, places visited or people met.

There are great thanks to be given. Firstly a reciprocal cuddle, handshake, backslap, to be given within the four of us. WE have made it possible to have survived this far. I guess we all brought something to the party. Maya brought a cheery outlook at all times and the power to sing and dance about any theme that we happened to be indulging in, Jasper brought observational skills and a quiet digestation of everything he saw, Clare brought huge bucket loads of organisation and order, direction, and cleanliness, and my job, well, in essence my job was to drive and to try and bring disorder to our life. And so it was, I was reasonably accomplished at both, and as my brother just texted "Mission accomplished".

A huge huge thank you to our families. Support has come in various ways but the family contact through emails, face time texts and phone calls has made it all easier. The thanks continue and extend to friends of ours, some quite "old" friends and some quite "new". Thanks to all our friends and families at the school where we worked the school that the children attended who gave us such a good send off too!

My conclusions then, a line I have written many a time on the blog. Well, I guess the first thing to say is that we are so glad we have done this. We were very naive travellers, and now are a little less naive. There has been a real quality enrichment to life through the people we have met and the things we have done. Would we do it again? Actually, probably yes. We'd do something different, but the format is good. Would we recommend doing this? Absolutely, I hope that Jasper and Maya realise that normal life is good and fine, but that also taking a risk is good and fine. Let it be said, I have never been a risk taker.

So, as the wine glass empties, the crisps surrender, and the cards just cause me problems, we look forward to enjoying the wind down period as we tour families and close friends in Britain, before we arrive back at home.

Thank you to everyone who has texted, messaged, emailed, facebooked, phoned, read the blog, everyone we have met, and all the people who have extended their generosity in various ways, etc.

It has been a pleasure to have shared our adventure with whomever has decided to listen and read.

Happy days!