Writers block...

Today I have a writers block, honestly, I don't know what to tell you, it's not like Central America where we were moving all the time from life threatening situation to life threatening situation, it just feels quite normal here, having a house.

I remember when we met our Japanese friend Jun (who by the way is safe in Japan at the moment) we met him in El Salvador and he said, 'the thing with travelling is that you are still you, still the same people, just in different homes' (actually I think he said it much more articulately than that but that's the gist of it). Well that's how it feels right now, like we are still the same people, living the same lives but just on the other side of the world, and possibly a bit wiser and more relaxed than when we were in England. In fact this feels like a place to assimilate what we have learned as we have traveled. I don't mean to sit down and analyse everything but just to let it settle.

This is probably the most relaxed we have all been since we set off and it's probably because for once we are not moving, and we don't have to move. We moved a lot in the first three months and although we slowed down for the second 3 months we were living in the van and in hindsight it was pretty cramped and living on campsites is hardly relaxing when you have been doing it day after day after day... so here we are, thanks to lovely friends we have a place to rest. Not only do we have a house but we also have lovely neighbours who we have had dinner with a couple of times and who we will be surfing with later today...like I said, it's home from home.

We are also starting to think about the return journey - I guess it's because we only have just over 4 months to go. This month has flown by (it's been the fastest month for me yet) and whilst it's brilliant that we still have quite a while left it's also exciting to think about getting back and seeing friends and family as well as re-building our lives when we get back and perhaps altering the bits that weren't so good and applying the lessons we have learned on our travels. People often ask if I would like to live in Oz or NZ now, but I wouldn't. It's really nice here and great to be in the sun and by the sea and to see all the amazing things we have seen but I miss England. I miss the dirty, grimy streets, the culture and the history. I miss the rainy days and the smell of spring, I miss the seasons and I miss my horse.

So there we go, I didn't have writers block after all! Picture attached of Sam digging a hole at Hot Water Beach in NZ.