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Mid life madness??

Wet Sundays are always a bit of a danger zone for us - who knows what conversations can take hold? It's on a wet Sunday we decided to 'just look' at another dog and Bertie arrived within the week. It was also on a wet Sunday we talked about a new friend for Bertie for when Scooby was gone...and very nearly came home with Nigel (the English Bulldog / mahoosive great big bull in a China shop dog). So today was wet and windy and a conversation which has been circling around the house just a little took hold and took a life of its own - be warned!

Every time we get The Week there is at least one amazing property, normally in Yorkshire, generally about half the value of ours and equally as nice. Every week Glenn shows it to me and comments on what a bargain you can get up North. Every week I think the same "if we did that I could escape the rat race and we could live a different life, a slightly slower life which doesn't leave me exhausted by Thursday and crawling to the weekend...". Recently I pointed this out and hence the conversation that's been circling, just a little, up until today. Today (being a wet Sunday) we started to talk about the idea a bit more seriously and actually started to discuss locations, what life might be like if we actually took the decision to do something mad like this, and why the hell not - you only live once.

After all the work we've done on our house it would be madness to leave it, but on the other hand all the value is tied up in it and I don't want to wait until I'm in my 60s to benefit from that. We still see friends being stopped in their tracks by illnesses they didn't expect, or life events they couldn't have anticipated, and it had definitely made me realise that you have to enjoy the journey not just work towards the destination. Add to this a very uncertain and pretty unsatisfactory workplace and it all adds to a desire to throw the cards up the air and see how they land. Obviously being a Beaumont it's even harder. We have an appetite for adventure and rocking the boat is in our DNA - why take the financially sound (but dull) route when there's a magical mystery option which may destitute us but it's pretty unlikely. 'Choose life' as was once said by a drugged up Glaswegian... watch this space.

While it rained today it was lovely  yesterday and we all got to do something nice. Abi was out hunting all day with Angie, Izzy out with a friend and Glenn had the afternoon to ride. I headed out in the morning to do a longish run, aiming to do 10 miles, the longest I've done this year. After about 2 miles I met another runner, a girl who was obviously a bit lost and so stopped to check she was ok. After a bit of a chat it seemed we were heading in the same direction so we agreed to run together for a bit. It turns out she was from London, staying with her sister and training for London marathon. She was planning to do 13 miles so I said I'd stay with her for a bit. After 6 miles or so she started to suffer and in the end I didn't feel I could leave her so ended up doing the best part of 14 miles together. It was a lovely run - because she wasn't feeling great we took it really steady and it was a perfect lesson in slowing down but going further. Even when I got home (much later than planned but no one had sent out search parties!) I felt fine - maybe that marathon is lurking in there after all?!

Tomorrow Abi has her WW2 day and will be heading off in 1940's dress to learn what it would have been like to be evacuated. It's been quite thought provoking seeing her with her gas mask and label. The idea that we could have been waving goodbye possibly never to see her again is unthinkable. Imagining parents sending kids to the country alone or onto the Kinder trains must have been heartbreaking, particularly for those in Germany that knew that would be goodbye forever. We are so lucky.

So back to work, blink and the week will be gone. I can't complain - this week it's Weybridge on Monday, Reading on Tuesday, London on Wednesday, Oxford Thursday and home Friday. That counts as a 'good' travel week - you can see why I want to slow down!

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