What A Surprise!

There’s no doubt that I was expecting a bit of a reaction to my last blog post (you know, the one about selling the car and buying ourselves electric bikes). But the actual response… well, it did take me a little by surprise!

There were off-hand comments and surprised faces, there were concerned phone calls, chats and emails, there were even people totally lost for words and at a complete loss of understanding to our logic. I have to admit, I found it all quite an eye-opener and inspiration - especially when it came to the unexpected, ‘Oh, what a great idea. I wish I could do that too’ comments.

So, first of all, thank you to everyone who read the post and took the time to voice their thoughts and concerns.

Secondly, in response to the main topic that’s continually coming up in conversations…

Yes, believe it or not, everything we need for our day-to-day life as house-sitters DOES fit on the bikes!

We do have a fair amount of stuff in storage. (You know, family me memorabilia and household bits we’ll need when/if we choose to settle down again.) So that cuts down our luggage dramatically, plus, we’ve done an astounding job at downsizing, and, of course, much of what we use televisions, saucepans, etc, is kindly provided by the owners of the houses we stay in.

Besides if you really think about it, we need (please note I wrote ‘need’ here, not ‘use’) exceptionally little for our daily life.

Yes, I expect there are some women out there who could never even think of existing on as few clothes and shoes as I have now. But there is a certain amount of freedom in waking up in the morning and thinking, ‘shorts or jeans?’ ‘tee-shirt or jumper?’ That’s not saying it didn’t take me a while to get used to the concept, and to having no dresses and heels! But it’s true… a girl can manage on one (or two) pairs of shoes and the occasional visit to a good Op (Thrift) shop!

The advancement of technology has also been an advantage. After all, let’s face it - computers can hold just about all the factual stuff and other bits we need, and they seem to be getting smaller by the day. Even if our eyesight isn’t allowing us to use the tinier ones!

On the topic of food - we can now gauge the exact amount of food we need for a stay. Which means we carry very little with us. This includes using up items going out of date in the fridge when we arrive and leaving our few leftovers when we go. Of course, that doesn’t also mean we haven’t been seen to have creative ‘last day’ meals or bought the odd pizza.

So, there you go… as you can see, we’ve got it all down to a routine (or pretty close). Besides packing is all part of the fun of it (except when I’m down to my last pannier and for some reason it doesn’t all fit, meaning I have to start from scratch again!)

Hope that helps and reassures.

Anybody got any more questions or concerns they'd like answered?