I had my Andy Warhol moment. Although it lasted a little longer than 15 minutes.

Our friend Edie, who is on the social committee at my old tennis club in Derbyshire, asked me if I’d do a ‘bit of a chat’ about our travels one evening. Edie is so lovely, she’s not someone you’d ever say no to. “Yes, of course I will. I’ll put a few piccies together to show on the telly and think up a few tales to share”. I then realise she’s selling tickets. Hmm, the stakes have altered somewhat. There are expectations now.

I spent a couple of days pulling together a bunch of photos, a few video clips and a couple of animated graphics. I was very proud of my animated graphic as I was able to show on a map roughly where in the world the boat had travelled. The fact the ‘moving boat’ went over land a couple of times due to slight operator error caused a bit of hilarity and it certainly broke the ice for the evening.

It proved to be a really fun time. Dave reckoned there were probably between 35 and 40 people there, many of whom I knew from tennis playing days. They were thankfully a forgiving audience.

I wanted to make sure the talk wasn’t just a linear explanation of where we’d been. That felt a bit dull. So I included some sections on people we’d met, why we set off in the first place, iconic places we’d visited and a few adventures we’d had along the way. My Miss Marple story about apprehending the sandal thief in Bora Bora landed nicely.

I thought I had enough material for about 45 minutes of presentation and guessed that 15 minutes would be plenty for any questions. But I rattled on easily for 90 minutes with lots of questions along the way. I do need to give Dave some credit as he chipped in too, particularly on the spannering questions. He did a really good job of ‘batting away’ the chap who was obsessed about how were we able to afford this lifestyle by working hard to convince him we weren’t actually multi millionaires. 😀

Spring turned to summer then autumn and winter. That’s how long we’ve been in the UK.

That’s pretty much it in the UK for us till next May. Time to head back to NZ for some sailing and summer sun.  I’m on a train to meet up with Dave for a Savage family pub supper. The train conductor has just delivered his spiel, and concluded by saying, I’m Kevin the Conductor, and your driver today is awake.  I like Kevin.

The main project this summer was to get our house back from the tenants, spend about a month doing it up and get it on the market to sell. We did get the house back, a few days late but that’s another story. We did do it up but it took much longer than anticipated, another story. And as I sit here heading towards the Savage gathering, we have a buyer and assuming the solicitors and surveyors do their stuff, tomorrow night will be our last night in No. 2.

We were really happy in that little house before we set off on Grace. That south facing vista over the village and the countryside beyond is exceptional and possibly the best view anyone has from their front door. But it’s time for a change and selling the house will hopefully facilitate that.

I’m feeling excited about the future. I know we’ll both be sad to close the door behind us for the last time. I’ve spent hours pottering in that garden. It made me very happy.

Think I’ll leave it there. Don’t need to say anything else.