Get out of the rat race!

I have had a lovely day today. The sun was shining and I had a bike ride, chopped some wood, filled up with water, did some washing and chatted to my neighbours in the sun. Simple things but so satisfying.

One of my heroes, Henry Thoreau said

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation ..... A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them for this comes after work.

From 'Walden. a life in the woods'

This was me a few years ago, but now work is play and amusement. I just love the boating life!

It might help any prospective boaters out there if I fill you in on how we got to this point:-

I was working long days, at least 6 days a week for about 16 years and although I had a nice job, It could be exhausting and I started to feel burnt out. One Monday morning before leaving for work, at the prospect of another 12 hour day, having had no break at the weekend, I just said to P that I didn't think I could do it for much longer. We have been married for long enough for him to take that comment seriously.

We had often walked along the tow path of our local canal and I was just fascinated by the boats and the lifestyle. P remembered this and over the next few weeks he researched everything to do with boats. One day I got home from work to find a brown envelope on the kitchen table which had written on it 'If you open this be careful - it may change your life!' P had done a complete costing of ingoings and outgoings and the outcome was that I didn't need to work ever again if I didn't want to!

I instantly said 'yes' the speed of which surprised P! But we got straight on with it and have now been living aboard for nearly one year. It was difficult selling the house in the current climate, but we knew what we wanted and set the price probably below what it was worth just to get a sale, which we did quite quickly. I sold loads of stuff on ebay which I found actually really liberating!

And to finish with another little quote ....

Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.
Democritus
 

More about the logistics of moving to a boat later ......

Al :)