Plans and the suchlike.

This month sees the 20th anniversary of me leaving the RAF. So much has happened in those decades, most of which has been detailed in posts in this blog.

There has been down, and there has been ups.

But I think we are now at the point of claiming victory over the sleep/work/eat/sleep cycle.

And as I said before, we know how lucky we are.

We have gone from being cash rich/time poor to cash richish/time rich. So much so that we have to think carefully how we are going to spend both.

In the last two or so years, our plans for travel to places like New Zealand and Mexico have been gazumped by Svalbard, Italy and India. At least, so we hope to make a list of places we want to go.

Having said that, other things have jumped the queue, so we're doing those first.

First up is an early Spring trip to Cypress so I can go orchid hunting. Both Jools and Jen are coming along for the holiday, but not the orchids. We will be out there for about ten days. Its all booked, along with the flights.

In August, there is an eclipse in Spain. We have been planning for at least a year, and waited for month to hear from a hotel Jools found. We got fed up waiting, I checked on a well-known hotel portal, and found one on the line of totality. And they had rooms.

So, I thought I'd try to book direct, and was shocked to find the same room was being offered at £41,000 per night. Jools tried and got the same price! So we booked through the portal, and its all confirmed too.

That brings us to the third, or maybe a part of the previous trip, as we could combine them into a mega three-week vacation in southern France and northern Italy. I am going on a summer orchid trip in the French Alps, that is booked too. But instead of flying, we will drive down in our car again.

So, hope that whets your appetites.

Before then, we will be having a kitchen of distinction!

This is all now agreed with the supplier of the units and the builder who is going to fit them and make good the walls and ceilings. Centrepiece will be an American-style double fridge-freezer, so the utility room has been designed around this large piece of white goods.

This month will be filled with church visits, and at the end of the month I will be attending the national monument for those from the RAF Armourment Trade who have been lost. Beers might also be drunk.

We shall see.