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Published: April 7th 2006
Waving Goodbye and Hello
Waving Goodbye to work and hello to the future!For those of you who don't already know.... Having been there for six years, I haved waved good bye to work! I am now officially a "Lady of Leisure" and will continue to be until we depart on June 30th. At which time my title will change to "Intrepid Explorer".
You maybe asking "why is she writing in the travel blog, when she is not yet travelling"? My excuse (and I'm sticking to it), is that this three months is an intrinsic part of the whole trip for me and I am going to use the time to visit places and do things that, (until now) I have allowed myself to be distracted from. It is also a rather effective way of keeping in touch with all of you who (unbeknownst to you) I have subscribed to this blog, you poor souls.
In the beginning... Last January both my boss and my role at work changed and unfortunately due to failings on both our parts, my responsibilties started to dwindle to the point where (by June of last year) I no longer "lived to work" but "worked to live". I had always promised myself that if that ever happened to me, I would not suffer it. So Marc and I discussed the situation and decided that it created the perfect opportunity to enable us to cut free and travel. For me I see travelling is a "valid" way of dropping out for a while and for Marc it is the realisation of a dream that he never expected to actually achieve.
The planning... So, since June last year, we have been saving, planning our route (with input from lots of people with more experience), Marc has sold his house (because renting it out was becoming more trouble that it was worth), I have the first of the two tenants I need here, we have bought backpacks, equipment, insurance, RTW tickets from STA (who were great) and more recently we started to get our numerous jabs.
As of today... I have left work, having been offered redundency three weeks before I was going to hand in my notice (now that is what you call VERY lucky). So I negotiated three months paid leave, a reasonable redundency payment, the waiver of the remaining marketing diploma costs and I get to keep my laptop. So all in all, I have been very very fortunate. So that is how I come to be in a financial position to be a lady of leisure for the three months before we depart, whilst Marc is choosing to work until shortly before we leave.
So that is our situation as of today.
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Claire Crammond
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Unreal banana peel! yippeee..congratulations! Sorry I have not got back to your previous email. I am all consumed in motherhood anf babyworld. We can't wait to see you and Marc in Oz. I s'pose I should get organised so that me and Barry get married while you're here. Although I will be starting my teaching career at that time too so it could all be a bit hectic. The whole wedding thing seems insignificant after having a baby. Speaking of which, Jasper is 11 months old this week. I can't believe a whole year has nearly gone by. Lets speak soon on the phone. My love to you both. bye for now lots of love and big kisses to you all Claire