A Grand Plan a-forming

Philippa and I have had a couple of intense days of chatting, formulating, being honest, and acting like mature responsible adults. All very strange, but it feels good.
We thought we’d better get our heads straight with what we wanted to do before we go back to the housesitting agency again on Friday. They’re not very well organised, so it’s a good idea for us to be that way so we can take control a bit and steer them where we want things to go. It sounds a bit manipulative, I know, but isn’t that the way we have to be sometimes? Isn’t that the reality of dealing with the Modern World?
So……. anyway……… we’ve decided to sign on for the long sit in Suffolk, and we’re both really excited about it. Philippa likes the idea of being further away from work and family at the weekends. I like the idea of being further away from EVERYTHING, and we both like the idea of knowing exactly where we’ll be for the next two years. The owners don’t mind if we have people to stay, so Sophie and Tamara can kip over sometimes, and they don’t mind about the place being occasionally unoccupied, so we can actually go away on holiday! We had a look online, and there are some lovely footpaths and parks near where the house is; and Philippa has found a nice sports centre within a few miles so she can even join a new badminton club. I’ve spoken to Head Office at work and they’re sending me a “Transfer Request” pack which I can fill in immediately and hopefully sort out moving to a store in Suffolk! It all seems to make sense, and could actually be a lot easier than we first thought. And the timing all fits in nicely as well - Philippa wants us to buy our own place when we finish this sit, and we’ll have a nice bit of money saved up by then, and she wants to start a family in our new home, which is still scary for me, but now I have a couple of years to get myself ready for it! And I think I WILL be ready for it. I’m as committed to all this as she is, really. The excitement of the nomad lifestyle is wearing a bit thin now. It’s been great to live in different places but it is stressful when we have to move again, and the thought of us being settled down in a place of our own with children playing at our feet is one that now fills me with warmth and hope.
The strange thing is I’ve always hated people who plan too far ahead. I’ve never wanted to be like them; I’d always rather concentrate on where I am and what I’m doing NOW than concentrate on where I MIGHT be in the future. I’ve always seen myself as too carefree and spontaneous for that kind of thing. But sitting here right now, we have the next five years of our lives pretty much mapped out and you know what? I am absolutely fine with that. 

RC 22-5-14