The 1st Year marker

It has been a whole year now that we have been full time emigrants or ex-pats as most Brits seem to call themselves, we think of ourselves as "Globalsapiens" or simply european.

We have achieved a great deal in the 1st year, far more than we actually thought we could, but there are somethings we thought we might have acheived but which is still out of reach.

So what have we achieved then:

Well we have moved here lock-stock-and motorbikes. Registered the car and one of the 3 bikes which was real easy. 2 more bikes to go which are prooving a challenge. We have created a viable business know as RidersRest and recieved, accomodated, fed, and entertained a plethra of different people from all accross the UK, Sweden, Holland and Belgium, all of whom claim to have had a great stay and all pledging to return in the future. Indeed some already have made a return trip.

I do not think the B&B would have been such a great success if it had not been for Wendy's cooking which always seems to hit the spot even for the most fussiest of eaters and vegitarians alike. We have consumed a huge amount of Red wine and Biere Blonde though so I suspect this has also helped a little to relax the guests and us.

The house has lent itself real well to it's new role. The Barn, now a fashionable Bunk Room with it's 3 en-suiet bathrooms has seen much use, and with the exception of one shower tap has held up to the abuse of its occupants and actually still looks brand new, Those who have styed in it have sung its praises and left with stories of returning with friends to ride the area in groups.

The Attic room has become known as the Cannard Room which is French for Duck or Kinard English slang for what happens if you do not duck. Everyone who has slept in this room sported the head rash associated with not ducking but all swear that it is a very comfortable and romantic room. Not bad for a bit of attic space.

The two rooms in the house which we use for B&B are also still looking surprisingly fresh considering the amount of wet bikers brandishing helmets and hard cases, so we are well please at the little maintenance we will be involved in this winter.

Did we make any money - Yes we have made suffucient money to live comfortably since May and that should last until December before we spend the now 25% depleted pension, Depleted due to the exchange rate of course, but we are still doing Far better than we had hoped when we first came over.

What we now need to do is take a holiday and we have planned to get down to Spain with wendy's mum and get some relaxing sun time, and I of course am looking forward to more riding.

So have we made the right decission to move over to france? - You bet we have!

If you have missed the pictures over the last couple of months then you can see what we have been up to on the WhereIs web sites as we have been entertaining an riding mostly. www.whereistonynow.co.uk

We have done very little to the house since April. We will however start working on the house again once the weather changes from the now Sunshine (cold evenings) to rain rain and snow. The projects are to Decorate the front room and bring out all our objedah which is boxed behind the sofa and turn it into a real home. We also need to look at the kitchen units and layout of the diningroom, though it does work as it is we would like something more modern and robust ;) We also have our bedroom and bathroom to sort out. Though these are projects non of them actually (save the front room) need to be done in any hurry, and we may even wait until the exchange rate is in our favour.