Doing it for and by myself!

Do you know how you don't write anything for ages and then one post seems to uncork your brain and ideas that must have been lurking there half-formed for ages suddenly push themselves to the forefront and demand to be written about?

Neither the Best Beloved and I had any dreams about round the world cruises when we retired. At the time I was happy with that decision and we did spend a great deal of money on an extension to our house, feeling we hoped to spend a lot longer in it. We could also justify our decision in terms of reducing our carbon footprint and other worthy explanations, but the truth is more mundane and less worthy.

The Best Beloved's responsibility for an aged mother meant she could not contemplate too many or very long holiday breaks.Even that last phrase arouses in both of us the PWE or Protestant Work Ethic abhorrence of possibly going away on something as frivolous as a holiday! We're not Methodists for nothing! Although only one till five years old, I still seem to carry around a lot of Catholic guilt with me. I am unsure though whether our desire to stay within our comfort zones and not be too risky was also a major factor.

However now the responsibility for aged mother is no longer 24/7 we can contemplate more breaks, for longer durations and for greater distances. We have looked at winter sun holidays and heard on Tuesday of someone who had flown off that very day to Tenerife on a 7 day break of £500 pp having booked it on Sunday on lastminute.com.
We have not yet been bold enough to do that. We are planning to go on a month's camping trip to France in June. We shall have a pop up tent for overnight stops and the proper tent for when we find somewhere we want to stop for a while. We shall wander south by route national rather than autoroute, probably to the South West corner as our visits there have been less frequent than other parts of France. We are planning another canal boat trip in France with friends this year. I have gone off my train journey across the USA idea. However I have discovered the Western Discovery tours and want to do them this year or next. The Best Beloved and I also want to visit New York and New England.

For me though the biggest discovery is that one of the joys of walking is being alone and telling the tales afterwards. This is an important realisation. I have been trying to fit my practice walks involving the Wayfarers Way and the Solent Way around other people and commitments, rather than relying solely upon myself and fitting the other commitments around me. I must be able to equip myself for the cold and wet as well as the fine and dry weather.

I was actually better at this when I was teaching but probably because it was like snatched time from terms or preparation time. I might just sneak under the radar with my 2:2 degree in order to join David Cameron's elite teachers. The sentiment is worthy but ill thought through. In my time as deputy head I had to monitor and assess a number of prospective teachers. My opinion was sought at the end of their time doing "school practice". In some cases I would and did fail candidates. Some of these were the cleverest of the crop but my bottom line criterion was always would I want my Zoe and my Alice to spend all day in the classroom with this person. Mind you, I applied the same criterion to mini bus drivers I used to assess - would I want my two kids riding in the back of a bus driven by this person? I realise this was subjective but it meant I wouldn't wish any less for other people's children and would look back over the other more objective summaries and judgements I had to make.

I am trying to recapture some of that sense of urgency about my walking. This is the year and now is the time to make a start! I need to clear my head and some of the commitments that I keep using as an excuse to cover my lack of effort and drive.