Difficulties and how to Overcome

Just to tell you that although we are having a ball, there are some difficulties with all this travel

1. Living out of a suitcase for a long period of time is the pits, I can never find anything I want. Also I have found I have brought stuff I probably will not use and left stuff I need. Mainly because we are here for so long.

2. Laundry is very difficult not many launderettes any more. We have found ourselves at caravan parks with the permanent caravan dwellers (enough said) and I really want to put on an ironed shirt or at least one that has been ironed and not folded into a suitcase. We have been luck staying with family and friends, but this is still an issue.

3. Getting lost not a problem on holiday, but all the time feeling lost is both exhilarating and frustrating.

4. Hotel rooms are never big enough and there is always something that either does not work or keeps one awake.

5. Eating out lovely but every meal! Thank goodness for family and friends feeding us great food at home. But I still long for a week of sensible cooking. Breakfast is tempting when it is paid for but bacon and eggs (and sausage, beans, toast, tomatoes, hash browns) is too much every day. Lunch do we have a cooked lunch or see if we can find a sandwich? (sandwiches are expensive might as well have got a cooked lunch) and do we have a drink? Might as well we are now in a pub or restaurant. So the alcohol intake has gone up! Then dinner fabulous meals, but do we want them every night, no I want something simple (and in front of the TV – naughty I know)

6. Sightseeing is expensive, doing it every day is costly. I keep finding souvenirs I must buy. We have joined National Trust and English Heritage but there are enough of the other places that charge and even for pensioners it is around $25 each. Not that I begrudge it upkeep on these places is expensive.

7. Some purchases are difficult too. I cannot update my Norton on line, as I can only buy the English version different price to Australian version. The website therefore demands and English credit/debit card. The same with telephone top ups.

8. Not having an address is also sometimes very difficult, where do we get things sent to such as English Heritage cards! Thanks again friends and relatives

9. Car rego and insurance need an English address, and insurance was very difficult as we are not able to supply an English bank account. Again thanks to relatives we got it sorted with an insurance company for Aussies.

10. The internet is a nightmare. We cannot get it in the house as we do not have an English bank account to make the payments from. I purchased a mobile Wi-Fi and it cost the equivalent of $50 for 3 Gigabytes which lasted 2 days and was so slow I could not do anything, except swear. When asked they said I cannot leave it on all the time as it uses data all the time. I am now back to tethering to my phone which drops the connection every few minutes causing me to reconnect all the time, more swearing.

11. When we returned from France (see next email), the immigration guy told us leaving the country and coming back does not allow a restart of 6 months, he said the fact we kept coming back means they should use 6 months from when we first arrived. I think he was telling us to twist the truth when next we enter the country and tell them we are here for a short holiday!!!!

Just so you do not get the wrong idea I would not change what we have done for anything and am anticipating the next year or so. I cannot wait to see what adventures we have. I hope you are happy to follow them with me as the retelling is fun. I just feel it is important to balance the magnificent times with the few stressful difficulties all of which are surmountable with fortitude. What does not kill you makes you stronger after all.