Tuesday 5 January 2016

Highlights of 2015 #2 - A storm to remember!

When Auntie Clare and Uncle Chris came to stay in March it went from 23 degrees the day they arrived to 0 degrees in 24 hours. A heavy snow storm and strong winds wreaked havoc across our valley and we were without electricity for 3 days. No electricity meant that, as well as no light, there was no heating and no hot water. 

I don't think it was the visit that any of us had envisaged but we made the most of it with improvised cooking, lots of candles and our trusty wood burning stove to keep us warm, plus lots of snow fun in the garden and around and scrambling adventures in the nature reserve...
























Monday 4 January 2016

A new year means new adventures!

And so 2016 is here. I can't quite believe how fast time is flying these days and we are now three and a half years into our Italian adventure. Before leaving the UK we planned a 5 year plan (if that makes sense!) - move to Italy, stay for at least five years, settle in, get the kids in school, make wine, grow vegetables, enjoy the mountains. As simple as that. And I think we can say that we have achieved most of it.

But now new plans are afoot. Now starts the planning of phase two of 'Our Family Adventure'. It has long been our dream to travel round the world, what better way to do it than with your children? We are certainly not the first and we certainly won't be the last, but for us, it will be the biggest adventure of our lives. 

Since starting our research a few months ago, we have come across lots of families with crazy ideas like us that are giving their children 'a worldwide education' and not one of them has said anything that has made us think twice about what we are going to do. We just have to make sure we get the timing right.

So, the sketchy outline is: take the kids out of school, leave Italy behind for a little while and travel the world for 12 months, visit Asia, the far East, Australia, New Zealand, Central America and if we have time we'll throw in the USA and Canada too. It is going to take planning, budgeting, saving and more than anything a lot of courage to throw out the rulebook of normal life and standard school based education, but we've done it once, so I'm sure we will get there!

So, while I wile away the hours dreaming of our next adventures I'm going to leave you with some of the highlights for us of 2015 over the next few days, starting with last years trip to Edinburgh.

Keep following, keep commenting, but most of all keep dreaming...

Enjoying the Haston's Hot Tub! 

Waiting to see Wicked at the Edinburgh playhouse. Amazing show!  
Hot Chocolate to warm up while waiting to go and see Stick Man at the theatre

Views of Edinburgh as we make our way to the castle

The approach to the castle


The boys meet the Royal Scots Dragoon Guard!

Inside the Castle Walls
Selfie Moment!
Boys and guns!

Boys and guns!