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Category Archives: The background story

Times they are a changing.. We’re getting mains water!!

04 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, My home, The background story, The continuing adventure

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One of the most frustrating things about living in France is the beauracracy – or lack of organised thinking. You go somewhere for advice and one person tells you one thing, so you do that, send it all in, and then another person tells you that is not what they need at all and, in fact, they need a hundred and one other things!!

I know that if all goes ahead as planned the next year is going to be filled with this frustrating level of pig headedness, people who want to be more important than they are, helpful people, and doing the same things over and over again. I have resigned myself to it and just say to myself now ‘This is France!’

So after the gate last week, we are finally having mains water connected to our house. They have to pick the pipe up from the middle of the field opposite and it would be an understatement if I told you that we will not be getting much change from a lot of money. But at least then our pipes will not freeze, as they did last winter when we went without water for four days when the ‘Beast from the East’ arrived; and in the summer our water from our taps will be cold and we will be able to drink it. This summer it was red hot until the water that was in the pipe laying on top of the land had been flushed through!

For those who have only just joined my blog I wrote last year of how our well had run dry and we had no water for eleven days in the middle of the hot summer. It was only thanks to the kindness of our neighbour, who allowed a pipe to be connected to his water and go across his land, that we have had water at all. The blog was called ‘Une leçon de vie atout votre eau’ it means a lesson in life, treasure your water; and trust me I do!

But it is one of many lessons that Rich and I have learnt, that you don’t need things immediatly, you can survive, as we have with only a tarpaulin on our roof for three years – yes the water has run in, poured in sometimes, but we have not died. It is a true saying: ‘What don’t kill ya, makes ya stronger’ (has to be said in an Essex accent! I am an Essex girl after all!!)

Rich and I laughed when we showered each other using our watering can- especially when I had to climb a step ladder to get above Rich, me a little five foot four inches, Rich a tall six foot one inch! And now I don’t waste water. I know some petty people we have known have said that we are just surviving, well give me survival any day if you are happy when you are doing it. A lot of people who don’t have to ‘survive’ often seem as miserable as sin to me!

So yesterday as  I was  corresponding with the water company about additional work we required, as is the way in France, the lady I was corresponding with was telling me I needed to this and that, and make a payment before the work could be done. Then there was a ring at the doorbell and a man from the water company stood there and said that they can do the water today including the additional work! I am just going with the flow, he said I can just pay him when they get here! Who knows what we will end up with.

Water I hope….

C’est la vie!!

Watch this space

Moisy

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Another gate opens, another ship sales from dock, and the crew is getting bigger all the time

14 Thursday Jun 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, Friends, People, Reflections, The background story, The continuing adventure

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When I first started this blog, I chose the tag-line carefully….

I said in my intro to this blog that I was writing it for all the people who were wondering ‘What if?’ Or, like us, were thinking that there must be more to life than this – and not necessarily material things. who were thinking about making change, about people who were thinking about stepping off the path that we are all led to believe we should follow, and going off into the woods to see what life may hold.

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I have written about serendipity, one of my most favourite words, and something I believe in: A series of events that we were not looking for that add up to make something wonderful.

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I have written about our mini-bus of life, and asked who is on your mini-bus, how many people do you allow on your bus, give them a seat only for them to try and  influence you  to do what they think you should do, often because they want to feel safe in numbers, and need to know what they are doing is right?

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How often? When, in fact, you should not let them influence you at all. How many people have told you that your mad? That you need to keep doing what you are doing even if it is clearly killing you?

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I have had people contact me from all over the world to tell me that I have made them think. Not least when I share my experiences with regard to mental health (I am not going to call them issues, they are not issues they are just another part of the body that sometimes find’s it hard to work with all the shit we are bombarded with!!) Some of those people have made me cry, to know that my words have resonated with them. Some have made me smile when they start to make change.

I have made people laugh and I have made people cry, but most importantly for me I have inspired people. Not least our friend Karen:

I share her blog often, Dylan’s Welshie World. It is a blog about her puppy and her antics, but it is not just a blog about that, it is a blog about how that puppy has changed Karen’s life, how Karen has stepped off that cliff (or fell off! As she said the other day!) at a time when she needed the love that, sometimes, only a dog can bring.

You should read her story it is a young blog , but it will make you laugh out loud and make some others who have been on the hamster wheel for so long ask themselves if they need to make that change too. Karen has been brave, she had to overcome the worry of opening up to the world – but the response she had has been life affirming.

So I have inspired Karen, she has set up her blog after years as a high-flying editor she went back to writing, doubted herself because it had been so long,  until I convinced her and now her blog has become a hit and she is receiving high praise for her writing. – See, she just had to believe and have someone believe in her, of course she could write!! The things we come to believe!! Because we listen to that spin doctor in our head!

A series of events led Karen and I to being back in touch and closer than ever; sadly Karen’s dear mum died, her last remaining brother died a short time after, and, as death does, it started Karen on a path to looking at her life and the career that had defined her. Then a person who she had known for many years and got back in touch with showed that they were not the person that she thought they were all along, and left her at a time when her life was in upheaval. Just as that happened we got back in touch, I had sold a story to one of the Magazines that Karen edited, and, although we had seen each other over the years, I came back into her life at a time when she needed someone who would listen, had been through something similar, and would tell her the truth. In addition my husband makes her laugh all the time, and she needed that.

So Karen came over to see us, fell in love with our dogs (who couldn’t)….

 

Karen returned home with the firm intention of finding a Welsh Terrier puppy. They are hard to get, and there is normally an eighteen month waiting list, but serendipity clearly had a plan for Karen, and she rang a breeder who had just had a little girl puppy rejected because she had a kink in her tail. The breeder  liked Karen, liked the way she talked about the breed and just knew that, although others were waiting, Karen would love this Welshie with all her heart, and she does.

In the September Dyls came home to live with Karen, and the rest, as they say is history…

As Karen came over more and more and fell in love with the serenity of France, it made her think about her life again. No least watching Dylan run free around our garden like a mad thing helped her decide to come to France and spend the summer here and see where life takes her – she is starting to understand that she is not doing the driving!!

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So  today Karen packed up the car with the final bits and bobs, and she is now in France, with Dylan, and on her way to our house. On Saturday she collects the keys for her rental and she will be over here for at least two months, maybe more, who knows what we will find in our house hunt.

We have a new member of our family, two in fact, and she helps me in the same way as I help her. We are both straight talkers, and so alike, whoever is driving this bus knows what they are doing!! Not only that Karen loves my husband and his mix of madness, and vulnerability at times.

But it does not end there…. In August Jen, another old friend who we have all got close to again over the past year, is coming over for another adventure, travelling on her own, something she has not done for some time! Who knows where life will lead her; and then there is my other dear friend Mary, who has been inspired to sell her home in Herne Bay and go to pastures new in the countryside of England and take that chance. She says I have inspired her, and for that I am truly honored.

So over these last three years, I have read the Tao, learnt to let my ego go, to still be kind (even to arseholes! Oops!).

I have learnt to unlearn all that I had learnt – that material things are not important, and often make you unhappier, to not plan way in advance – you only have this moment that is all you are guaranteed; I have learnt to laugh in the face of adversity, to know that you can survive even when that spin doctor tells you that you can’t. Of course you can you wake up tomorrow and you are still alive! I know the people that count are sitting on my mini-bus and that all the others, whilst of course allowed to have an opinion, are not the ones whose opinions count where I am concerned.

I am thankful every day.

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I have read others stories as part of my book research, and my heart has broken all over again for those people, and I have learnt to just be me, and happy in my own skin.

But most importantly I have learnt that I can touch people with my words, from all over the world. Whilst it is an honor to be in the top twenty expat blogs in France, it is the people who I inspire who make me want to do more and more. For that I thank you all…..

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Moisy

The woman of lists

05 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by in Reflections, The background story, The continuing adventure

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Talking about mental health is an important thing to me ever since I had a mini breakdown back in 2014, having burnt myself out in my career.

I worked for the NHS in England and, for my sins, was the Head of the Patient Experience Department in one of the biggest Trusts in England and then headhunted to a failing Trust, to assist in it’s regeneration. What I did not realise was that it would be like stepping back into the 1970’s with regard to working practices and attitude, at times I felt that characters from The Sweeney would come screeching round the corner!

It was, quite simply, shocking!

As my role was to work with and help people who had concerns about their or a loved one’s care, the level of emotion that myself and my team had to deal with was staggering at times. Add to that the emotions of the staff involved with complaints, or the patients whose families had complained, combined with the arrogance of some of the people who worked in a, supposedly, caring environment towards both the patients and their colleagues, including the bullying and lying that I experienced, and it was a highly charged vile environment at times. It was a political environment so I learned to bite my tongue, so it is hardly any wonder that eventually my brain was burnt to a crisp. I have written about this in my post ‘A little bit more about me’.

The problem was that at the time I just did not realise it.

So over the past few weeks mental health has been brought to the fore in the press, and people that I am close to have experienced difficulties due to life changing events, that make you review what life is offering you; in addition a fellow blogger has written openly and honestly about the problems her son, who has autism, has experienced and I thought it was important to step up to the plate and say what has happened to me in the last two weeks.

I will be honest, with my book being considered I wondered whether to rock the boat. But that is just it, we should NOT feel like that, mental health should not be used as something to judge someone by. I have always said that I will write what I fucking want to, because if I worry about what others think then I won’t write anything. After biting my tongue for so long in my shitty career I won’t do that again.

When I was ‘mad’ my counselor told me that I was known as a ‘doer’. This type of person get’s things done, spins hundreds of plates at the same time, juggles many things. But since my illness I can not spin as many as I have in the past.

In addition a ‘doer’ will fill their day getting things done; will see it as a failing if they sit down and do nothing. I had to learn to give myself permission to stop. I was off work nearly six months and after returning decided to leave my career.

So over to the present day: over the past few weeks Rich has been working hard (yey! All good), and it is; but this kick started the ‘doer’ in me. I felt that I would be failing if I was not working all the time he was out of the house, forgetting that I would then be cooking dinner and still working when he got home.

So I would get up with Rich, feed the cats, make the tea, make his sandwich, clean the kitchen, load and unload the dishwasher, put the washing out, load some more washing, make the beds, clean the litter tray, clean the fire, promote my Etsy shop on social media sites, and then sit down and write myself a list of what to do for the day!!

Add to the mix we have friends coming to visit on Sunday ( and don’t get me wrong I cannot wait) and I decided that I should be working harder. I added to my list to erase the mold from the kitchen, and the bedroom they would be staying in (no mean feat!) and then I decided that it was essential to decorate the toilet! In addition I would add things to the list each day; as a friend said to me ‘don’t tell me, if the list isn’t long enough I bet you add to it!’ She was right, I did! I was, quite simply working from 6.30 in the morning until 9 o clock at night by the time I had cooked dinner.

So a week last Sunday Rich said something a bit flippant, something I would normally just say ‘fuck off!’ to. But this time it flicked a switch, and I could feel myself, me ‘positive, reads and follows the Tao Mois, starting to well up with tears. I knew it was stupid, that we were in the best place we have been in for a long time, so why did I want to cry?I sat down in the chair to get a grip, closed my eyes, breathed deeply, and it would not budge. I knew I had to pull myself back so I went upstairs, away from Rich to write my journal. I knew I was in a bad place when my brain started to put me to sleep and I could not write my journal, because that is what happened to me before, I would just fall asleep.

Bless Rich he came upstairs and asked me what was wrong. I answered him honestly and said ‘I don’t know’. Because I didn’t and I hoped that writing my journal would help. Talking to Rich helped, as did talking to my close friend and I knew I was doing too much. I cannot do it anymore and whilst I find it frustrating, it is who I am now. I was forbidden from writing lists and was categorically told that I was not decorating the toilet.

The problem was it had kicked in, my brain was addled again. So during the week when I went to the pharmacy in town I lost my car keys! I had left them in the car! In the ignition! I started to find myself forgetting what I was doing, not being able to find things, and getting angry at the smallest things. All because I kept writing myself fucking lists!!

Now I am writing a different list, remembering what my counselor told me; I am writing a list of what I do, instead of what I hope to do. Just to help people, who I know do the same, here is the list of what I have done today:

Made the tea, fed the cats, fed the chickens, pegged the washing out, put washing in, cleaned the kitchen, unloaded the dishwasher, loaded the dishwasher, made a chilli, promoted my Etsy shop, promoted my blog, rung the publisher, who told me that my book has been referred to another part of the company and to trust them that is a positive and it is still under consideration; washed the mold off the bedroom wall, stripped the beds, cleaned the bathroom, put the ironing away, sorted the bedding out, got the washing in, folded the washing and now I have written this blog!! I am just about to prepare dinner.

But I have allowed myself half hour breaks, to read some blogs, and sat in the spring sunshine with my knitting and a cup of tea for fifteen minutes.

I am writing this for all those doers who don’t see that they achieve more than most people do in a day, it is time you started to see it. I challenge you, write down everything you do, because everything counts, and it will frighten you. So give yourself permission to sit down!!

Look after your mental health, it is so important.

Moisy

A house is not a home….

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Posted by in Reflections, The background story, The continuing adventure, The good life

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Three years ago yesterday i moved out of my beautiful house, by the sea, to start this adventure. I loved this house, have always said it was the most beautiful house I would ever have the privilege  to live in. Edwardian, with so many original features….

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I had put my heart and soul into it, worked so hard on it renovating and decorating and making it into our home.

We were so rushed when it came to moving day I do not even remember closing the door for the last time, but I do remember sitting in the pub that night with tears rolling down my face. When my book comes out you will understand why the house,  for Rich (and now, as time has gone by I realise  for me also),  had become contaminated; it could never be the home we thought it would be; and as three years have passed I have come to realise that.

So then we found our house on the pinnacle of the rolling hills that are Ambrieres les Vallees, and we fell in love. For me it was bittersweet, it was not the house I had left, it was not the house that had taken part of my soul. But over the three years, despite the well running dry, the crappy cesspit (literally, all over the cellar floor sometimes!!) and the mold on the walls; it has shown me this …….

 

I sit in my bedrom and I look out at this my favorite tree and I feel at peace

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And over the years I have realised that a home is about love, companionship, laughter, and tears; it is not the house, it is the people in it. I look at my husband, and he is happier here. I know neither of us could go back to a house where you could reach out and touch your neighbour, surrounded by people and noise. We are too used to the peacefulness that surrounds us; and I have finally come to realise that I do not miss my old home, it was ONE of the most beautiful houses I lived in; but this is the most beautiful home. It has not taken my soul it has replenished it.

 

A chair is still a chair, even when there’s no one sittin’ there
But a chair is not a house and a house is not a home
When there’s no one there to hold you tight
And no one there you can kiss goodnight

 

The late great Luther Vandross..

 

Have a good Sunday folks.

 

Moisy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reminisces – January 2015 – packing away

05 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in Reflections, The background story, The continuing adventure

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Found this as a memory today. A retrospective blog about packing up our house in England for our adventures, showing how hard making this type of decision can be. But now I sit in my home in France and look around the room, and my friend was right: people make a home.

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Packing away:

I realised as we packed away Thom’s room that we never did get around to changing his carpet!

A Sunday in January

Rich and I sat in the back room today, our snug, with the log fire burning, music playing. I got tearful about leaving our house. It will always be one of, probably the most beautiful houses I have ever had the privilege to live in. But…….We talked about the whole picture, how Herne Bay is a lovely place to live, but if you asked me if I want to live in this town in another ten years the answer would honestly be no.

I am bored with the walk along the beach path. I have done it nearly every day for the past ten years. Life is for embracing new things. There is a whole world out there to see and experience.

One of the deciding…

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iPad and other inconveniences – and then the good part came

04 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in People, Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The background story, The continuing adventure

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Over the past few weeks I have been without my iPad. I had dropped it many moons ago and, despite it being in a case, it had a wobble for a couple of days and then righted itself. But it is old and two weeks ago it was ooompah loompah’rd by the Barnes Wallace of the house also known as Wiglet (She has so much coat, and such a fat arse that she looks like a bouncing bomb!!)

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She jumped onto my poor pad and that was it, the screen would no longer respond.

I was lost, more than I thought I would be; because I do all our admin, emails, my Etsy shop, this blog, Instagram to promote our shop, Facebook on the iPad.  I don’t have a smartphone and, to be honest, i don’t need one and don’t miss being bombarded by social media all through the day. Just using my iPad kept me measured. But now I was lost.

As you know then ‘The Beast from the East’ arrived and our water froze so things were tres difficile.

But now I am back, a lovley man in Mayenne replaced the screen sensor, the BFTE has departed, our water came back on Thursday and I gave thanks for a lovely hot shower. Since our well ran dry in the summer I have truly respected water!!

A lovely friend of ours called us up and took us for a meal (simple but wholesome) and our logs are slowly being split and stacked. Overnight Spring has sprung, and we are embraced in a balmy twelve degrees!!

More than anything I have finally sent my re_edited book to another publisher, and received an acknowledgement to say that they are considering it! I have already been asked where it can be purchased! All good, all good.

Positive thoughts, always believe.

Have a good Sunday folks.

Moisy

A little bit about me – why I won’t be a sheeple.

06 Tuesday Oct 2015

Posted by in Reflections, The background story, The continuing adventure

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In my first blog I touched on why Rich and I had decided to make the move, have an adventure. Our jobs, being on the hamster wheel, how most people (not all I hasten to add) in the NHS struggled with feedback. I think that before I post any more I explain a little bit more about me, and also explain about sheeples.

A sheeple is a term to describe herd behaviour in people (we all know the reference to sheep when everyone just follows the crowd.) It describes those who voluntarily acquiesce to suggestions without any thought or analysis of their own. These people tend to take these statements at face value, especially if it is cited in mainstream media (look at facebook recently) or religion. These people tend to me conformist people.

Or as I look at it sometimes people who don’t want to rock the boat, life is…

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For those who are looking to find out a bit about me – you may want to read this post from 2015 – It is entitled ‘A little bit about me – why I won’t be a sheeple.’

04 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by in People, The background story

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In my first blog I touched on why Rich and I had decided to make the move, have an adventure. Our jobs, being on the hamster wheel, how most people (not all I hasten to add) in the NHS struggled with feedback. So, I think that before I post any more I explain a little bit more about me, and also explain about sheeples.

A sheeple is a term to describe herd behaviour in people (we all know the reference to sheep when everyone just follows the crowd.) It describes those who voluntarily acquiesce to suggestions without any thought or analysis of their own. These people tend to take these statements at face value, especially if it is cited in mainstream media (look at Facebook recently) or religion. These people tend to me conformist people.

Or as I look at it sometimes people who don’t want to rock the boat, life is easier to not rock the boat.

I’m not a conformist!

So my story:

I have always worked with the public. I did enjoy it, I still do when it is just me dealing with the public and with no politics attached. But as my role in the NHS changed I began to enjoy it less and less where my career in the NHS was concerned. Mainly because I could not help the people that I was there to help. Help them find answers, to understand what had happened to them, or someone that they loved dearly. I wanted to help them but I just kept coming up against defensiveness, brick walls, and hostility. At times the lack of compassion from some of my colleagues within any of the organisations that I worked was mind blowing. Especially when my working environment was meant to be a “caring” environment

I have been patronised in front of members of the public by people who, quite simply, had no concept of how this made them look. I have been sworn at in public places by senior members of staff when I challenged them , I have heard one too many times that the “outcome was inevitable”!

Whether it was because the NHS is such a political environment, or whether it was because people felt that they could not rock the boat because,as I have had said too me many times,  “they had mortgages to pay”, or whether it was simply because people were following the “crowd” mentality I do not know. But I learnt to bite my tongue, I challenged, I questioned but in the end I was told to “keep my head down”.   I did that for too long, when, in fact, the behaviours that I was experiencing and witnessing were quite simply wrong, and I should have challenged them more.

Those who know me know that I am not one to follow the crowd, and although I did it for too long I could never become a fully fledged sheeple. That’s why I left and why I could never go back.

Why have I told you all this?

I am now going to write, and I am not going to bite my tongue. If I feel the need to write something in my blog I will. I will never name people but I will at times highlight behaviours good and bad (or not depending on your viewpoint) but those that drive me mad and and those that have made me laugh.

Let me give you an example. Rich is registered for work, as a handyman and general chores that include mowing lawns. I replied to an advert placed by someone that needed some work doing. I then received a pm from someone else asking me to register him on a website over here, for specific roles. Telling me “it would be great” if I could do this, to add insult to injury it finished with a “thanks” which implied that said person thought I was going to do what I had been asked (or told, which was the underlying tone) because I must,  and would feel the need to follow the crowd. I don’t!  Sorry to all if they are going to be disappointed but I am not a “follow the crowd” kind of girl. I am not a Sheeple.

I considered the message and decided against registering, or replying.

On a positive note I also asked on a website about a good place to buy logs. I had a couple of initial replies, one from a very funny lady who made me laugh with her comments and with who I had a good and funny conversation via Facebook, she even taught me something about logs and the meaning of the terms that you used re the size of your order.  She signed off signed off with “here endeth your first French lesson”. Made me laugh.

After that I stepped out of the conversation as everyone who then joined it seemed to be taking it so seriously. I had bought my logs – thank you to that lady.

I think that it is important that I explain to all of my readers, that at times I will rock the boat on my blog. It is part of the reason I signed up for a blog. It may upset some people, but no-one will be easily identifiable so if you recognise yourself I don’t really know what to say, how do you know I am talking about you?

The other is, I hope, to give courage and spark to those that are thinking about jumping out of the boat and having an adventure. Remember I am living life as if someone left the gate open, and that means that I am going to be honest in my writing, because otherwise I would be lying about the great adventure if it was all happiness and cup cakes!

Sometimes in life you just need to tell people to f*** off!

I hope that most will respect that, will appreciate my honesty, because quite simply I am no longer shackled by convention where work is concerned. I hope that the majority of my readers enjoy someone saying what they possibly want to say but may not be able to, or feel able to. I am free  I AM NOT A SHEEPLE!!!

Thanks for listening

Moisy

 

Common questions and remarks about our adventure

21 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by in People, The background story

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I found that when I told people about my plans they (though it is important to say not all) invariably said one or all of the following:

“Do you like France?”

I wanted to say ” No I Am going there because I hate it!”

Instead I said “Yes!”

“Can you speak French?”

I wanted to say ” A little but that is part of the adventure.”

Instead I said “A little, but I can learn.”

This was often met with looks of disbelief?

However the  most incredulous has to be:

“What will you do when it all goes wrong?”

Seriously! Who is to say it will all go wrong? Why do people naturally assume that? That’s what I wanted to say, or

“Oh no what will I do? might it all go wrong”

Instead I said “who is to say it will all go wrong?” This normally shut them up at this stage.

I have been told by some people that people say this because they care about you. Really?! The people who have said this never seemed to care about me in any obvious way when I was living my life on the hamster wheel!

My advice to anyone who will think of taking an adventure in the future is understand that these people are afraid because you will be, by your actions, making people think about their lives; and for some reminding them that they are standing still. Therefore to justify their existence, to themselves because you’re not asking, they will ask you this stupid question.

One of the other common coments was “I hate the French”. To which I would say “do you know any French people?” They would say ” Oh no I have never been to France”.

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i would then say “So how do you know that you hate the French?” Often met with a dumb silence, or the comment ” oh I just do”.

Not all people were like this, but I hope this post has made you laugh, just at the ridiculousness of what people say.

We have had fantastic comments, but sadly from a lot less people, mainly:

” I admire you, I couldn’t do it but wished I could”

” You have made us think”

“Good luck to you, knowing you both as we do we know you will make a success of it.”

So I would like to thank all those who wished us well, of which there were many, not least on Facebook, but a special thanks to:

Our fantastic joint best friend Nic, who has never doubted us for a minute.

Our beautiful friend Mary, and Den, the O.B, both of who you will hear more about often. We couldn’t have done it without them, and they are coming over soon with a camper van of stuff for us!

Jo and Mike, for always listening, looking after our plants, and supporting us even though they did not want us to stop being their neighbours, ever.

Last, but never least our wonderful friend Terri, who encouraged us all the way, and inspired us with her Cornish adventure.

And yes I am writing this whilst sitting in the garden, in temperatures of 28 degrees at 8pm in the evening.

Sante everyone.

Moisy

The story

19 Sunday Jul 2015

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This is for those people who may read my blog and think that they could never do it, never make that move.

For over eight years Rich and I fell in love with France since our first visit in 2007. But we had a son who was eighteen at the time, and his friend who also lived with us of the same age. When they left home to go to uni in 2011 I suddenly realised why people felt so strange when their kids left home.

We had a beautiful Edwardian house in Herne Bay in Kent in a road that led down to the sea. It was idyllic and I know that most people would ask why we decided to move. The house was big, we realised over the years since the boys left home that we hardly used any of the rooms in it. We felt caught on the hamster wheel, having to work long hours, for people that were frankly at time arseholes, some days getting up at 3.30am so that Rich could go to work as a delivery driver for a building firm for £7.50 an hour!

My job, as Head of Patient Experience and then as a Patient Experience Manager for a well known failing NHS Trust was thankless. Dealing with members of the public whose lives had been changed forever and who were understandably distraught to people whose expectations were so high they could not be met was relentless; added to that the feeling that once someone had raised concerns it was the responsibility of the PALS or Complaints Department, and not those who had caused the concern in the first place I was clearly being dumped on! It quite simply made me ill.

To keep our house we had to stay on the hamster wheel, and we started to feel was it really worth it?

We knew that life in rural France was vastly different, simpler. No we would not have lots of money, but we would not need it! We needed a simpler life, a change of pace, but at the same time we also needed a challenge.

It was not easy. I loved my house, and I was truly lucky to have lived in it. After the offer had been agreed last November I found myself often with eyes full of tears, stroking the walls, not believing that I was giving her up; continually reminding myself that it would be the “last trip to Canterbury”, the “last walk along the beach.” Leaving our neighbours was hard as they were, and still are, our very close friends.

But all I can say to people is  do you want to continue to live the life you are living? Are you happy? Do you want to be where you are in ten years time? For us Herne Bay had a large number of elderly residents (although new families were moving in and it was changing) whose houses were falling down around them, and we knew that we did not want to stay and “wait for God.” There was a big world out there and we wanted to make that change, live our life and see where life took us.

I am a true believer that life will show you the way. I hope that you will enjoy our journey, warts and all, and my reflections on life – after all I don’t have to please anybody now so I can say what I want!!

I hope it inspires others…..

It’s all copy!

Moisy