Should I stay, or should I go?

On Tuesday this week, the chap from the British Heart Foundation is turning up to take away my unwanted furniture, and any other unwanted bits and pieces.  This weekend has been an interesting process of going thropugh all my stuff and deciding what I want to keep (and therefor will  have to transport to Glasgow, and store for the duration), and what I don't.

It's been hot and sweaty work in this heat, but I think I'm pretty much there now.

Other than a few bits and bobs, pretty much everything in the garage didn't seem worth keeping.

A large amount of things in the loft went up into the loft when I moved in, and haven't been out since, so that's going (saving a few mementos and nick-nacks).  I hadn't realised a: how much was still up there, and b: how much effort would have been involved in trying to bring all of it down the ladder myself, so a huge thanks to Naomi, Paul and Anna for helping to get everything down from the loft. Just passing it all down was 200% easier than it would have been trying to do all of that myself! 

Also, special thanks to Anna for putting my xmas decorations up one more time!  There's tinsel everywhere!  :-)

To Go!

More to go!

To keep.

Clean Living

I have done some research about how to go away for so long with relation to clothes. Normally if you go away for 2 weeks, you can take enough clothes with you to last. This isn't really achievable when you are going for 10 months.

Pack light and wash often was the recommendation I found. Seems sensible. They suggested these heavy weight ziplock bags to put your dirty clothes in, and to wash them in too! Small packets of laundry powder should be fairly easy to get in any launderette.

Then, whilst packing I discovered an old box of hand wash powder! I'm sure there will be no problems getting this through customs at all!

Little boxes filled with ticky tacky

I have started packing the house.

14 boxes done so far.
 
However, it doesn't look like I've made any dent in packing my stuff,

But at the same time it doesn't look. Like there's much left to pack!

Some sort of weird oxymoron.

No-one should be making comments about me being a moron.

"I love it when a plan comes together"

So, much planning and thinking, but nothing actually booked.  Desperate to just get going.  Got a buyer for the house, but.... I shouldn't hand in my notice at work (6 weeks) until I've got contracts exchanged.

But from Exchange to completion can be just a few days, or even the same day.  I don't want to have no house and 6 weeks to work still. 

I look into notice periods, and discover that there's not a heck of a lot the company can realistically do if you just stop turning up.  But that's not very nice, and I do try to be nice.  Also, it would be good if I could hand over to my replacement.

After some discussion with the lovely Mel (HR) at work, I decide to just do it.  Hand in the notice, get the ball rolling. Lets my team start officially recruiting for my replacement, lets me start actually booking trips and flights. Makes everything that much more real.

Going round telling people at work I was going was sad, but fun. Everyone seemed sorry to see me going, but very excited for me with the plans I had.  I think if I'd just been going off for another job it wouldn't have been as nice an experience as it was letting people know I was off, there wouldn't have been that 'silver lining' to the cloud.  I've made some very good friends at Perforce, and I am genuinely sorry to be leaving them.  But if I'm honest, the draw of my year away eclipses that sadness with excitement.

Talking with one of the people at work, they mentioned Trailfinders as a good company for this sort of expedition.  I'd heard of Trailfinders before, but never used them.  Worth a call to see what they can do.

Enter the lovely Camille. I explained what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go, how flexible I was, and 24 hours later she presented me with pretty much a full itinerary.  Tweaks here and there, an extra week in New Zealand, swap this trip for that one, and a week later, it's booked! 

I did get a call back later from STA Travel, but had to tell them that I had now already booked everything.  The chap seemed disappointed, and was sure they could have done the same thing.  I think the only difference was that when I called Trailfinders I had an actual GO date, whereas before I didn't. 

Working through the itinerary with Camille, she did suggest the Galapagos since I was going to be passing. Now, earlier in the year I'd already agreed to go to the Galapagos with mum and dad - date TBD, and I didn't want to disappoint them, so I phoned and asked if they would mind if I went as part of my trip. They didn't mind, but wondered if I'd mind if they came along with me!

So now that is booked too!  I will meet them in Quito (Ecuador) for a few days, then we are off to the Galapagos, for 10 days sailing about on the Daphne. After that, back to Quito and a few days in the cloud forest at Belavista (recommended by Nick from work who was there on his honeymoon).  Then it's down to the Amazon for a few days too.  Packing it in! :-)

With all of that coordinated, it was time for the nasty bit - paying for 10 months of flights and trips in one big lump.  As it all classes as a single trip, it all needed paid for 60 days before departure which, Camille informed me, was 3 days away!  £24k is a lot of money, and is effectively all of my life savings, it's blooming well going to be worth it though!  To save my ISA, the Bank of Mum and Dad have kindly given me a short term loan till the funds from the house sale comes through.

This is really happening.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Who the heck is Moo?

Most of you will know me as Martin, but there are quite a few who know of me as Moo. Weird nick name, right? Care to know the origin story?

Read on!

What it boils down to is that Moo is my online gaming name. My first ever character in World of Warcraft was a Tauren (think minotaur) Druid called Mooragor.

When you are playing these online games with friends, we quite often we have voice chat going, to help coordinate and for some friendly chat and banter. And you need to call a person something, and the easiest common denominator is the character name. 

 That's how people who know me as Martin, and also play online games with me, also know me as Moo.

A group of friends at IBM whom I played online games with would get together socially too, for BBQs and birthdays and things. There were 3 of us there called Martin, so Martin wasn't a terribly useful name to be using. My online name quite naturally spilled over into real life, and my friends, and their children, would call me Moo.  

There was a real sense of joy when I came back from one of those BBQs, covered in bits of grass from mucking about with the kids who were all calling me Moo, and I realized that I had a new name and I loved it.

 

Whats even better is that because I often play online games with my brother, my niece, Alexis, has picked up this name for me too. I'm Uncle Moo!  (or Unc' Moo)

I never had a nick name when growing up. I was called names as I was regularly bullied. I really dont care to repeat any of those names and I'd love to be able to wipe some of those memories from my mind, but I suppose it all contributed to who I am today.

Moo (aka Martin).

Selling a house is a pain

I'm expecting this to be a short one, I imagine the story of selling my house not really that interesting for most people!

Estate Agents are an unnecessary evil.  I feel fairly confident that this is a sentiment everyone can understand, even if they don't agree with it.

When the concept of quitting the job, selling up and going off round the world appeared, I thought I'd try my hand at selling without the overhead of an estate agent.  I posted an add on the Facebook group for the local estate to see if anyone knew of people interested in buying here.

4 people replied.  2 came round to see. One came back 2 days later and put in an offer!

I got on really well with Elvira - she's a tech person like me, very straight forward and to the point.  She already lived on the estate, but was looking to downsize.  Her house wasn't on the market yet, but we hoped it wouldn't take long to find a buyer.  I went off to New Zealand for 2 weeks holiday with my fingers crossed, but it was not to be.  2 months later, she still hadn't managed to find a buyer, and I was getting frustrated waiting.

So, back to an Estate Agents :(

On with them for 2 weeks, dropped my asking price by £10k.  Another 2 weeks, another £10k.  Then...

An offer!  Nice family came back for a second look on a Friday evening, and made an offer on the Saturday.  There was already one more person booked in to look on Saturday evening, so I held off till they'd been, just in case!

Open the door on Saturday evening, and there is a face I know!  Kitty from the Sandwich shop in Wokingham, where I would occasionally get my lunch.  We were both a bit surprised to see a recognizable face, but we've always chatted and gotten on well.  She was looking for her mum, who also worked in the shop.  My place was nice and close to Kitty's, had a small but nice garden.  Ideal!  Kitty came back with her mum the next day, and that was that!  I'd far rather sell to someone i know, and both of them seemed really taken with the place.  Nice to know it'll be in good hands.

The estate Agents then messed things about buy giving a sellers form to fill in, rather than a buyers form, which delayed things another week, but then finally they got the memorandum of sale to my solicitors and the legal ball can start rolling.

That was a week ago.  Going to poke my solicitors tomorrow to see if there's been any progress.  It's a short chain with 2 cash buyers (no mortgage companies involved), so fingers crossed it will be swift!

Getting this idea off the ground

I've done bits and pieces of traveling before, but nothing like this. It was a bit difficult to know where to start, so Google was my friend (as usual). I found a few travel blog websites that had some interesting ideas, and I got started.

I had a few long talks with a chap at STA Travel.  They do specialize in round the world trips, and a bit easier on the budget than Explore (they are aimed more at student travel I think). But then it was crunch time.  I couldn't actually plan/book anything until I had a going away date.  I hadn't got a firm buyer for the house, and I hadn't handed in my notice, so had to focus a bit more on that (See next blog for the house selling story).

Also, it seems that you need to know the route for your 'round the world' ticket right from the start. It's not as simple as buying a ticket and then going and waiting at the airport for inspiration, so back to the planning too!

I listed all the places I wanted to go.  I knew I wouldn't be able to do them all, but it was a starting place. I realised that the majority of the destinations were 'warm', so to make things easier I took the cold destinations off the list - I'll do them later!  Bye bye Antarctica, Greenland and 'seeing the Northern Lights'.  This should let me pack for, and acclimatize to warmth and sunnyness, before heading more permanently back to Scotland!

I've been away with Explore before - my safari trip to Tanzania with mum and dad (some photos here).  They have been away with them several times, and it's always been fantastic.  Unfortunately they seem to specialize in individual trips, rather than the entire round the world experience, but I used their site for a lot of inspiration.

So, by now I have the house on the market, and had unofficially told work about my plans, with the caveat of 'I don't know when I'm going, depends on when I manage to sell the house'.  I could have tried to keep it all a big secret from work, they have no 'right' to know anything before I actually hand in my notice, but I didn't feel right about doing that, and also I'm crap at keeping secrets.
My planned route by this time was as follows:

• Florida Keys/Everglades
• New Orleans
• Grand Canyon and surrounding parks
• Tour through Central America
• Peru - Machu Picchu, Titticaka, Nazca
• South Pacific Islands
• NZ
• Australia
• Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam tour
• China
• Possibly Japan
• India
• Home

But still waiting for the house to sell, so not much I can actually do.

Testing. Testing. But not for much longer!

This is my first ever blog post, and it's bound to be rubbish. 

Suck it up and send me feedback, I'm trying to learn!

So... I have done it.  I have handed in my notice at work, am selling my house, and am blowing investing wasting spending my life savings on a trip around the world.  In addition to this, I'm starting this blog so you can keep track of what I'm up to, should you so wish!

What started all of this madness then?

I've been working down here in England doing Software testing for nearly 20 years now, first at IBM for 12 years, and now at Perforce for nearly 7. The people are lovely, and it's still a good place to work, but I felt it was time for a change (there may well have been a case of 'the grass is greener' going on). A year or so ago I decided to start looking for 'other opportunities'.  I didn't find any locally (well, none that wanted me), so started looking further afield. I had decided a long time ago, that if I was going to move house for a new job, it would be back to Glasgow to be closer to family and old friends.

After going through a few interviews for Glasgow and Edinburgh based jobs, I was chatting with my brother (Simon) who casually mentioned that if I was seriously looking at changing job and moving house, I should contemplate making use of the break and take some time off to go traveling.

I couldn't think of a single good reason not to do that.

Mum and Dad, who have not long returned from 8 years away cruising the Med for their retirement, couldn't think of any good reasons why not either.  I was sure they would come up with something, but nope, nothing.

And that was it.  The start of my mid life crisis.

More to come!