Renovation project - New year new start

Renovation project - New year new start

Well yesterday was news year eve and like everybody I have my list of news resolutions one is to become a lot more organised.

This has been such an amazing year and there are so many more things planned for 2015.

Normally I do a round up of my favourite blog posts over the year but as I have not been as committed to writing over the last few months, I think I will just do a monthly round up of what has happened until I get back to date.

We had a fantastic season with the B&B but one of the biggest learning curves was that if you are making your living from running a B&B you can't have family to visit. This meant that my daughter and baby granddaughter could not come to visit us or us go to visit them.

We also realised that you have to remember to book a couple of nights off or before you realise it you are fully booked and not once do you get to have a lie in or just slob in your home. You have to be on your best behaviour at all times.

So we decide that we are going to close after the season, we have declared that we will be a year round B&B on our tax returns and our registration, but I want a break. I also want a holiday, this is our first year without a holiday and it is killing me.

We close at the end of September and I book a week in Menorca with my daughter and the baby. I am so excited I fly out of the UK for the first week of October.

This was just what the doctor ordered, we fly from Manchester and the baby is the perfect traveller.

We have a week in the sun, I make the most of my time with them and let my daughter have a lie in whilst Poppy and I walk to the beach in the morning, play on the park and grab some breakfast. I am having the time of my life.

I have missed having this time with them and I also realise my love of Spain has been reignited, we had always planned on moving to Spain but somehow plans change and we chose Brittany instead, but walking along the Spanish island coastline and eating tapas, the love of Spain that had lain dormant is bursting out of me.

We have the best week ever, this is an essential part of moving too another country, having quality time with those that matter to you, so far I have not missed any of my baby granddaughters firsts and maybe have been there for more than I would've been had I still lived in the UK and been working my old job.


The week comes to an end far too quickly and we fly back too the UK (it was actually cheaper for me to fly to the UK and book a holiday from there than it was to book a holiday in France!)

I start to look for flights back to the UK and find a Ryannair flight, this means flying from East Midlands.

My good friend drives me to the airport, there have already been so many tears saying goodbyes, this has been the hardest time for me to leave, but maybe I will feel better at the airport?
I don't and I'm not the best traveller (I know I travel all over Europe but still freak when I get to an airport!!!)

we say goodbye and I can feel the emotion well up. I go to check in and the passport guy asks for my ticket and passport and asks if I'm going on holiday, it's at this point that I say no, I’m going home, but not that eloquently, as I have now welled up, I feel a fool but I can't help it, the poor old guy is great and he tells me to take a minute, oh hell, that was the last thing I needed somebody being nice to me, I'm now a quivering wreck.

I finally make it through and am sitting waiting for the plane, when I get a text saying my daughter will be coming to France next month for the baby's birthday. I feel great again, I'm going back to
John and our good life in Brittany, I have just had a fantastic week, it's time to get a grip.

I'm all positive until the next text, the flights have stopped in November, this happened last year and seems to be a regular thing, there are ferries but she won't sail.

I well up again, what are we going to do????

But then the intercom cuts in and the flight is ready to board, I'm going home, I will see the family soon, get a grip its been over 2 years now!!!!

I'm so happy to see John when I land and we have a great journey home, a couple of days later I talk to one of my friends, and say how I felt and she makes me feel so much better because she understands and feels the same at times when she leaves her family and she has been here for years.

Top tips

• No matter how long you live somewhere else you may still feel upset/guilty when you leave your family (it's natural and doesn't mean you have made the wrong decision)

• Passport control are used to seeing weeping wrecks at the airport so don't worry about it

• You don't have to miss the important bits of your family's life just because you are not there all the time

• Don't beat yourself up if you feel sad at times

• If you open a B&B remember to book yourself a night off

• Spain is still hot and sunny in October!