Huffkin & Chudleigh

So, we were making progress. We now knew where we were going (roughly!) and when we would go. The next question was - for how long?

Because our travel plans were part of a much wider ‘lifestyle change’ there were only a few constraints that really affected our decision; money and cats. Huffkin and Chudleigh were those cats and today they could be found in their usual daytime spot – in the living room of our little house stretched out on the back of the sofas. These two beautiful British Blue cats were twin brothers which became part of our ‘family’ when they were just kittens. Clearly it would be a huge wrench to leave them, but cats are fairly independent animals and provided they had someone to look after them whilst we were away, we were sure they would be OK. Never-the-less, we didn’t want to leave them for too long.

Over the past couple of years, I had amassed a large number of frequent flyer points gained on my various business trips whilst working for a large international retailer. We had decided to use these to get us back from Thailand at the end of our Overland Adventure and so today we were browsing the British Airways site looking for flights that may suit our needs.

All things considered; the journey that we were embarking on, the money we had available, our concern for Huffkin and Chudleigh and the things that we wanted to do following our return, it felt that this, our first travel opportunity should last about three months.

That decided, we soon found the perfect flight: A midnight departure from Bangkok to London Heathrow in mid April, allowing us to be back at home in Steeple Morden by Easter.

A couple of mouse clicks later and it was done. For 80,000 Airmiles and £245.20 in taxes we had reserved two seats on flight BA0010.

A shriek of excitement from Karen startled Chudleigh enough that he half opened an eye. But with a large sigh, a stretch and a yawn he was soon fast asleep again.

Summer Barbeque

As we approached mid August at least the summer rains seemed to have eased off. However, sat out in the garden of Andy and Ange’s beautiful thatched cottage, I couldn’t help feeling that it was still cold for the time of year. Which in some respects was appropriate, as we were here to talk about skiing of all things!

We have been friends with Andy and Ange since we first moved into the village and when they suggested back in March that we should do a skiing trip together, we jumped at the chance. However since then, Karen and I had floated the idea of the ‘Overland Adventure’, and in order for those plans to progress, we needed to firm up the details for our snowy excursion.

Fortunately, the decision making process for the skiing trip had been made considerably easier by a mutual friend who lives in the next village. A seasoned skier, she had lent us the brochure of a small company that she had used before, specialising in select chalets in Val d’Isere. After a little research, we discovered that Val d’Isere would meet our requirements perfectly; a vast and varied ski area providing a selection of exhilarating runs for our differing abilities, world-renowned, easily accessible off-piste skiing along with good food, vibrant bars, tons of atmosphere and a rather charming old village. On top of that, we had the lure of the chalet itself. We selected ‘La Croix’ a refurbished farmhouse dating from the 1620’s complete with wood panelling and an original stone fireplace for us to congregate around in the evening; sharing a bottle of wine or two and recounting our stories of the day.

Andy and Ange were quite flexible on travel dates, and so we opted to go quite early in the season. After all, Val d’Isere is pretty snow sure with its high altitude and glacial skiing and if we could return before the end of January then Karen and I could depart on our ‘Overland Adventure’ that same month.

So it was set: Andy, Ange, little Oscar of course, Karen and I would head for the French Alps, returning to Steeple Morden by the third week of January. That decided, we could now turn our attention to our wider travel plans.