[Closed] Alternatives to 'normal' life...

Could you rent/sell your house and disappear somewhere to volunteer?

A friend of mine just returned from a (very) extended trip volunteering on everything from a ranch in Canada to a schools project in Sierra Leone.

He lived off the hospitality of those he was helping. Proper roughing it a lot of the time, but he came back a different person (in a very good way).

You might find that a year or two doing that will give you the clarity and direction you need to work out what you want for the next X years?

human trafficking is the career for you

I think everyone feels like this to some extent and at some point in their lives.

My sister and her husband just got back from walking the [url= http://www.pcta.org/ ]Pacific Crest Trail[/url] after taking 6 months off from work. Is there a something like this that you could do?

If I didn't have kids and had no plans of having them, I'd hope that I'd not be doing what I'm doing. Once they're older, I'm hoping to be in a position to do something 'different'; a colleague took early retirement and went to Africa to advise on science teaching.

It's a good idea and I've certainly looked at those options before. A few years ago I got quite stressed at the idea that I'd not contributed anything, I'd not helped anyone or anything. My job is just about lining the pockets of the top brass.

I think my wife might be in a different place though. I think she is just utterly disenfranchised with it all. I might suggest living on a barge, see how that goes down 😉

stick your house on the market then and do it.

whats the worst that could happen?

No bairns does give you the freedom to up-sticks. As always, though, these problems you're describing lie closer to home, and will not be solved by the usual 'yeah man, you should totally re-boot your life and move to Canada' type of thinking.

That's not to say you shouldn't try and hang your balls out and make a move for greatness, but it needs to be in the context of a really close, analytical look at where you are and what's making you unhappy. Few jobs are perfect, for example. Could you grow to love it by putting more in? Or if it's just never going to be like that then accept it and work on growing your interests outside of work to awesome levels.

You are lucky in that you don't have kids

IMO this is the thing that really locks you in to the life you describe

I had kids young, of course I don't regret it but it did set me on a very "safe" path which I do have pangs about from time to time.

Do it, sell up/ rent out your home. Volunteering overseas would be a great start - an opportunity to get some perspective on what your long term ambitions might be.

[i]I'm at a loss at what we should do[/i]

Rent your house out and travel the world. You have a great time and your tenant pays for it. Come home after a few years and you'll have a different outlook on life.

You have nothing to lose but your chains.

Sounds like you should embrace the festive period and then see what happens in the new year 😉

What about walking round the world?

Keep life simple by reducing your expectation/consumption.

Forget about those aim high bullcock motto coz they are only meant for some greedy barstewards.

For example, set low target so that you can achieve them without stress. Then depending on how you feel you may set another low target or simply be happy as it is.

Have you considered starting a drug cartel and moving to Cambodia?

Alternatively, go travelling, go get a job for a few months on an ice breaker in the Arctic ocean, get a job as caretakers at Halley Research Station in Antartica, get a TEFL qualification and teach English in Africa or Asia, get a job in the Alps and move there to work in the summer biking and winter snowboarding industry, move to Goa and work in a beach bar, get a job as a tea taster for Twinnings and travel round India and China tasting tea, take 6 months and travel around South America, buy a landrover and drive to Cape Town, go teach basic IT skills to nomads in Mongolia, move to America and get a job as a cowboy, buy a canoe and canoe as many rivers in the UK as you can, buy a canoe and find the source of the Nile/Amazon/Yankze, go build a school or dig a well in Africa, learn to fly, get a job with a global charity.

Write a book while you're doing it.

*you could also do what I just did, and sit down with your wife and just write down a list of amazing/ridiculous/stupid/funny/fun things you could do around the world. Then wittle it down to one thing.

Having no kids and few family ties makes things easier.

but it all depends on you finantial situation as to what your options are really.

Small Mortgage and Big equity with plenty of savings makes things easy, loads of options.

Big Mortgage and Small/Negative Equity and no savings makes things very difficult.

Sounds like you should embrace the festive period and then see what happens in the new year

Touché.

Keep life simple by reducing your expectation/consumption.

Forget about those aim high bullcock motto coz they are only meant for some greedy barstewards.

For example, set low target so that you will achieve them without stress. Then depending on how you feel you may set another low target or simply be happy as it is.

I agree entirely with that sentiment, and that is exactly what we are trying to do. We want a richer more rewarding life that isn't based on endless consumption.

Small Mortgage and Big equity with plenty of savings makes things easy, loads of options.

Big Mortgage and Small/Negative Equity and no savings makes things very difficult.

Sadly, the latter part of that statement is true for us, which is both our limiting factor and our desire to change.

sit down with your wife

No wife, no girlfriend, a job I hate.

Getting the **** out of dodge next year. Canada no less.

Huh - Zah

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243493 ]write to this chap for advice[/url]

I guess your options depend a lot on how much you're prepared to rough it, what you have in the way of savings to fall back on and do you want to leave the UK or not.

Kill your wife and bury her in the garden. Then just carry on as normal.

Some have said you're lucky that you don't have kids... I'd like to say the opposite.

I've never had "a richer more rewarding life" now that I've got a couple of dust bin lids.

I had some of these thoughts at the beginning of the year. I decided to make a list of things I actually wanted achieve, or goals for my life, and then figure out the best way to get from here to there.

decided that i want a place in the alps, and sufficient time to spend there before I am too old to enjoy it.

it was quite eye opening, and led me to make some hard decisions. I quit my permanent job and am now contracting.

Hopefully in a few years, I'll be able to shift to taking a few months off at a time each year. Whether or not I'll buy a place in alps is not certain yet - I've got a van now, so might fit that out and take to touring about.

Not quite as drastic as you're talking about, but it might be useful for you and your missus to sit down and decide what you actually want from life, and then decide what you'd need to do to get it.

Dave

Small Mortgage and Big equity with plenty of savings makes things easy, loads of options.
Big Mortgage and Small/Negative Equity and no savings makes things very difficult.

Sadly, the latter part of that statement is true for us, which is both our limiting factor and our desire to change.

That does make life changes quite difficult, but not impossible.

If you sold up - everything - would you have anything left, or would it all have gone paying off the mortgage ?

I suppose there are two possibilities. I've built a bunch of bikes for people or couples who sell up to travel the world, and it does sound wonderful - but they usually have to put up with an awful job for years first to get enough money to get to that stage. Then what happens when they get home?*

Our alternative is different, we both gave up proper careers to do our own thing, and though we'll never have enough money to travel the world (and a kid doesn't help with that) we have a happy life with no debts, no mortgage, nobody telling us what to do. No money either, but money doesn't make you happy for long.

*One couple got a tandem, and cycled off on their honeymoon to Beijing. They took six years, got within spitting distance of Beijing, and decided they didn't want it to end so turned around and headed back again...

May I suggest the traditional/creative craft industry, wood craft, hand weaving/spinning, maybe even into food, Chocolatier perhaps?

It'd probably take you a decade to build up the skills required to make a living out of it. But once you do you can drop out of the rat race, but maybe not the grid.

You wouldn't earn much, but you could get by...maybe
e.g. http://www.durness.org/Balnakeil%20Craft%20Village.htm

If your considering selling the house, then maybe buying something that you could use to make a product.

http://www.forestharvest.org.uk/business_what_is_wild_harvests.php

No idea on the practicalities I'm afraid

I work on a social services emergency duty team and meet lots of folk who seem to have chosen an alternative to normal life. Not sure many of these are for me, but if you can't be arsed to travel and want some low cost alternative options you can do from your own home, drop me a mail 🙂

Our alternative is different, we both gave up proper careers to do our own thing, and though we'll never have enough money to travel the world (and a kid doesn't help with that) we have a happy life with no debts, no mortgage, nobody telling us what to do. No money either, but money doesn't make you happy for long.

Wise words

i have a mate who had a similar outlook on life as the OP (in fact i too have a similar outlook... i think most of us do but we just carry on knowing about the futility of it all as its easier to plod than it is to jump into the unknown).

he got rid his life of possesions... wittling it down to a Vito van, his bike, his snowbaord and a suitcase full of clothes. he has kitted his van out and made it a very comfortable place to be - if a little small. he guides in summer and teaches boarding in the winter and pisses off somewhere exotic during the seasons between seasons. when guiding and teaching he gets put up in hotels.

he seems happy. saying that, due to his lifestyle he does have a bit of money to throw around as he wishes. whether that will change in five years time when he is bored of his nomadic existence, i don't know...

drug mules

Our alternative is different, we both gave up proper careers to do our own thing, and though we'll never have enough money to travel the world (and a kid doesn't help with that) we have a happy life with no debts, no mortgage, nobody telling us what to do. No money either, but money doesn't make you happy for long.

I think it's that really. That sums it up for us, but it's working out how you make that possible. I'd rather have time than money.

I work on a social services emergency duty team and meet lots of folk who seem to have chosen an alternative to normal life. Not sure many of these are for me, but if you can't be arsed to travel and want some low cost alternative options you can do from your own home, drop me a mail

I'm interested. I'll drop you a mail.

If you sold up - everything - would you have anything left, or would it all have gone paying off the mortgage ?

We'd have something left I think. Not much but about 10-15k.

A friend of my dads sails posh yatchs around for v rich people. He sails them from France and across the Atlantic and what ever, they are always looking for people. Mind you it's terrible money ( almost nothing tbf) you get treated like shit by rich people and he still feels trapped, bored, in a rut!!!

Its not your life that's wrong it's your happiness that is

Mind you, I dumped who I think is probably the love of my life and have been pretty selfish lately, so what do I know!!

Having time rather than money is easy. Just don't turn up to work.

I tend to agree although I went through this process of thinking 5 years ago in my mid twenties.

We went through the "what if" thought processes at separate times, too. It created a big blocker between us for a while as our aspirations began to diverge. We brought it back before it was too late.

I have two good friends who threw it up and changed out of the norm. We all trained as lawyers at the same firm. They always had a plan that they would do it for so long (it's a shitty job TBH), save up what they could, and then move to southern France to open a bar or restaurant.

They went. they did the right thing. I'm now "stuck" deciding to apply for a job with a 10k pay rise or stay where I am and cash in the share options next year. What did I become?

Small Mortgage and Big equity with plenty of savings makes things easy, loads of options.
Big Mortgage and Small/Negative Equity and no savings makes things very difficult.

We managed the former, to an extent. Partly through luck and partly through planning.

Luck: we got married in 1999 and bought a house in 2000. Our £55k house became a £115k house.

Planning: we always knew that we'd have kids at some point and that we'd want one of us to look after them, so we bought the house based on just my salary.

Even before we had kids, the planning enabled me to quit the job I hated and to retrain. We moved house after having kids, but kept the mortgage based on just my salary. In a few years, we'll either both be able to work part-time or we'll both be able to take lower paid jobs that we want to do or take the risk of going self-employed.

Of course, with house prices now being stupid, this isn't as much of an option nowadays.

Have a look on Alistair Humphreys site. Lots of inspiration ongetting out of a rut both big and small

It might help you. It certainly helped me

Plum

I felt like this at 26, some 17yrs ago, when i got divorced. First thing i did was a crash course to pass my motorbike test.

Then bought a Fireblade and scared myself witless.

I then met a girl with no ties like me, i sold my house and we travelled the world for 5 yrs.

We came home, she got pregnant, we split up.

Best 5 yrs i've had, i haven't been out the country again because i've been to the most amazing places, and i'd struggle to top it.

Also makes me appreciate my life now, and this wonderful country.

Do it.

with 15k in the bank and no commitments I'd be buying a one way ticket somewhere nice.

with 15k in the bank and no commitments I'd be buying a one way ticket somewhere nice.

You don't even need that. I know of at least one couple who funded emigrating with credit cards that they had no intention of paying off.*

You'd have thought that the CC company would have spotted the one-way ticket they bought their dog, and the Canadian immigration lawyer they were paying, wouldn't you?

*I do not condone this course of action

mook bark

I'm not buddhist and have never totally agreed with this but something about the sentiment always rings true:

A man said to the Buddha, "I want Happiness."
Buddha said, first remove "I", that's ego,
then remove "want", that's desire.
See now you are left with only Happiness.

I'm not sure humans can do this but identifying where your happiness comes from is a good start, clearly you and your other half get happiness from each other, but what else makes you happy?

Is it friends / family? Experiences? Sharing knowledge? Recognition and a feeling of worth? Money (very rarely is it money even if you think it is)?

When I travelled I found that all the problems I had at home went with me, a different life / location didnt change that. So before you up sticks make sure you have a grip on what specifically makes you both happy. Then take that with you on your travels.

EDIT: blimey can I bulls**t with the best! lol 😉

On that note, you could follow in Bob Kulls footsteps

http://www.bobkull.org/

I quite liked the book

Edit: Look at the fun you can have; http://www.bobkull.org/Photos/Spring%202001/Pages/62_Tooth_CorCom.html

As others have said you need to have a talk amongst yourselves about what you want.

I have heard of people who:
- Rent out house here and then work for guiding / holiday companies abroad.
- Rent out your expensive UK house and rent somewhere cheap such as Asia or South America. Live cheaply on the difference.

Takes some guts to chuck in a good job, pension or whatever. Not sure I could have done it after daughter was born.

[i]"I'm called 'the poorest president', but I don't feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more," he says.

"This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself," he says.

"I may appear to be an eccentric old man... But this is a free choice."[/i]

from the poorest president link...

I think both my wife and I agree that money holds little value for us. The problem was when we purchased the house we thought money was the route to happiness so we ended up with a property that although modest, was more than we could comfortably afford.

I think in hindsight buying the house we are in now was a mistake and ultimately it left us in a position whereby we had to do utterly soul destroying jobs just to fund it and also in a position whereby the threat of redundancy terrified us because we would be out on our arse immediately. As a result of that anxiety we attempted to buy happiness by buying 'stuff' and thinking that products and hobbies were the route to making all the crap in our lives tolerable. It didn't.

We have both stripped back over the past 12 months and left ourselves with just the things that we hold dear and enjoy doing together, namely our bikes. It's nicer just having that and we both fee better for it rather than having multiple cars, motorbikes, big boys toys to fund and maintain but I think actually the house is the on thing I personally would like to get rid of. A big downsize or even something alternative (we once looked at living on a barge because we thought life would be more interesting) might make life better for us both.

We are not greedy so we don't have desires for anything grand, we'd rather just have time together to go cycling, climbing and walking. We are both lucky in that sense that we have each other and enjoy the same things.

I suppose finding an alternative to a crippling mortgage would change our lives ultimately. We could potentially work less or at least less stressful jobs, spend more time together and at least not have the feeling of doom should our financial situation alter just slightly.

I guess it's just a case of finding that alternative.

Incidentally, thanks all so far for the words of wisdom and suggestions.

Trust me, if you have no kids the world is your oyster, trouble is it takes having kids to realise it.

Sell up and live the life you want, whats the worst that can happen?

On that note, you could follow in Bob Kulls footsteps

Just been reading his CV on his website, awesome..

1980s
Moved to the Caribbean coast and became addicted to SCUBA diving, motorcycle riding
and casual sex.
Wiped out on motorcycle. Spent a year in the hospital; Montreal, Canada. Resulted in
amputation of lower right leg.
Rode bicycle 300 miles along the coast of California.
Shifted from backpacking to canoeing.

i like the bob kull link, reminds me of 'Into the Wild', fab film, fab book, interesting life, helps answer some of the questions you have inside yourself but never have the balls to try.

there are barges for sale on ebay!

I feel like this almost every day, this issue is never addressed, I think everyone goes through some sort of Early adult life crisis, where you have a job & a car and getting it together and you realise omg this is sh!t, I have to do this everyday for how many years?!!

IF you sell your house and all your stuff and travel the world, how long for? at some point you will have to come back to the UK and start it all again, afterall, you don't want to be renting when you retire! and what about that marvellous DVD collection you've managed to build up?

so what's to do?
Live in a teepee in wales? live in sun trap tourist spot working in a bar? you could live in india/indonesia/vietnam etc for quite a few years on 15k, living frugally. but it'd be dirty & hot and you probably wouldn't get a very good internet signal in your beach hut.

My advice? do nought, the feeling will pass, carry on going to work and buying crap. Drink more or take some drugs & go clubbing to get off your head at the weekend so you can forget about the absolute blinding banality of it all. Spend time with good friends, go out for dinner, go out for rides. Enjoy what you have and think how nice it'd be if you were a millionaire

Here's some advice which rings true (for me):

If you want to be happy for a few hours, get drunk.
If you want to be happy for a few years, get married.
If you want to be happy for life, take up gardening.

Some mates decided they were sick of their jobs and plotted to emigrate to NZ. They left 2 weeks ago and are currently looking for work.

There's at least one forum user who has no permanent residence and works for cash on a part-time basis - it works for them.

IF you sell your house and all your stuff and travel the world, how long for? at some point you will have to come back to the UK and start it all again, afterall, you don't want to be renting when you retire!

After i came home i picked up where i left off, got my old job back, but i was happy because i got the bug out my system. Bought a house, sold it, married a lady with her own house.

My point is you don't know whats in store for you, with no kids just live for now.

A man said to the Buddha, "I want Happiness."
Buddha said, first remove "I", that's ego,
then remove "want", that's desire.
See now you are left with only Happiness.

The problem with that approach is that there's no ambition in it.

If you do not want anything, then you don't want to learn, to travel, to love, to have kids, to create something beautiful, and so on.

Divorce your missus and join the Foreign Legion.

I have considered this issue, as you know.

I work in IT, an industry that has lots of contract job opportunities for 3-12 months or more, with good pay.

I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was. Maybe get a small house in some remote cheap location just to have a base.

Curently got house sale going through now,will leave us with enough equity to buy house in Eire, work part time and build a buisness around our interests without the pressure of mortgage etc n now to older boys grown up ,just 1 son 13 now to provide for.

Life has had it's ups n downs ,n cancer has made us realise life's true worth to us.

My advise would be to get started... You wont be able to plan a "new life" it will just happen one step at a time. Just take the next step, look around, go from there.

Good luck with it.

Live out of your car for 2 years for [url= http://www.imba.com/tcc ]IMBA.[/url]

[img] [/img]

I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was. Maybe get a small house in some remote cheap location just to have a base.

You see, those sorts of ideas have crossed my mind but I rarely mention them to anyone as I convince myself it's a nonsense idea. But what do you do if you don't want a big mortgage, you don't want a high powered, high paying life dominating career and you don't care about possessions and owning 'stuff'?

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a ****ing big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of ****ing fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing ****ing junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, ****ed-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?

do it

I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was.

They're called travelers and no one wants them anywhere near them, so they spend their lives being endlessly chased by the police from one site to the next and generally persecuted by society.

Doesn't sound like fun to me....

I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was.

lots of travellers do this but face a lot of prejudice.

I felt similar to the OP a few years ago and thought "sod it". Came back from holiday and resigned from a well paid sales job on the first day back. Nothing to go to, wife not working. That was it, just like quitting smoking, no fannying around. It's only when you are free of the reigns of the 9 - 5 work conveyor that you can see the light and do something about it.

Now working as a teaching assistant in a village primary school, earning bugger all and happy as Larry.

I look at it as retirement the right way round. No point in slogging away when you are youngish & fit in order to be able to do try to enjoy yourself when old and knackered. My approach is to enjoy life when youngish and when (&if) I'm old I won't give a bugger.

Just work out how many non-working days you've got left if you live to the average age (78). Don't forget to take a few off for the last few years of ill health etc. It makes for sobering thoughts!

I sound like a doom monger but infact it helped me to put life into perspective and make some great decisions!

They're called travelers and no one wants them anywhere near them, so they spend their lives being endlessly chased by the police from one site to the next and generally persecuted by society.

Doesn't sound like fun to me....

The police chase them when they camp illegally and burn cars and stuff* I would not be doing either of those things, of course. Somewhat bizarre of you to assume I would.

* trying not to be prejudiced, the comment is based on the two or three burned out cars that weekly end up by the traveller site in Cardiff

The police chase them when they camp illegally and burn cars and stuff* I would not be doing either of those things, of course. Somewhat bizarre of you to assume I would.

By all means try it, I suspect you'd find that most people would assume you were a Traveler and therefore likely to burn cars and stuff and want you out of there asap. Plus the local police will scape goat you for any nearby crime, so even if you don't burn out any cars, you'll get accused of it.

Or become a middle class Traveller and get a narrow boat.

Well I wouldn't be in a layby would I? I'd be on a campsite. That is, if I could find someone willing to let me stay for 6 months. And I'd assume the police would be able to differentiate between members of the traveller community and a middle class family in a caravan, if they wanted somewhere to apply their prejudice.

All this is lovely and nice and all that, but you can only do it* because most of the rest of the folk don't.

I had a conversation with a raggedy traveller man who thought he had found the one true path to happiness by giving it all up, turning his back on the rat race, being a free spirit.

I had the conversation in a hospital, after he had his appendix out.

He couldn't grasp the essential irony of him telling me to follow in his footsteps after his life had been saved by a healthcare system....

* It being running off and chasing your dreams, not moving your family around in a caravan Mr molgrips sir 😉

...and molgrips, look at what people say about Army Brats... Kids who get moved about a lot develop certain personalities. Just saying.

Well, as both of you feel the same way then just go for it! You don't get a medal for taking a conventional path through life.

After all, who wants to look back on their life and think they've wasted it? And, yes, as a middle-aged person I have regrets.

Good luck. 🙂

I'd have to consult the family of course before I did anything. Which I guess means waiting a few years til they are old enough to think and talk about it.

Having wussed out of chances to go to Canada for a year on work Canada (wasn't really going to work that much though) and the chance of working in a lovely Chalet in Italy for the winter. I'd say if your missus is on that page - go for it.

I work in IT...I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was. Maybe get a small house in some remote cheap location just to have a base

my uncle (unmarried at the time) did this in order to fund his true love, learning to fly a helicopter. He's now one of the few air ambulance pilots not to come from a military background, pulled Hammond out of a rocket car and Chris akrigg off a cliff, and loves his work. Has a family and other interests too, but went through years of financial hardship to retrain and fullfil a dream.

Some mates decided they were sick of their jobs and plotted to emigrate to NZ. They left 2 weeks ago and are currently looking for work.

I deal with people who do this all the time, moving halfway round the world really doesn't tend to solve very much !

@NZCol

Depends on your mindset, I've know quite a few that have gone somewhere or come to the UK with the mindset of. Not bothered what I do, just looking for a bit of adventure in life. They seem to love it.

One lad in particular has spent 15 odd years just working in Hostels and is damn happy about it.

Those that go with the expectation of a 'better life' job/house/social in the classical getting on/being succesful in a Capitalist society. I've known a few of those too and they don't seem so happy. That's not a bash at Capitalism/consumerism by the way. Just an observation, and a pretty small scale one at that. #sitsonfence

Up until the time that I met Mrs Yunki I was pretty much a member of the feral underclass..
I viewed the middle classes as a type of cattle..

Any creature that prostrated itself into a life of dull and painful servitude, destined to live out it's days in slavery, fearfully following the herd and obeying the instructions barked at it through the idiot box, and through the glossy advertising leaflets and propaganda laden news rags that it worshipped seemed like a lower life form to me.. Less intelligent and with fewer morals than the food on my plate..
As such, they meant as little to me as farm animals and I had no qualms whatsoever about using them to support my lifestyle, preying on them like a benevolent hunter, in tune with my surroundings, never taking more than I needed in order to preserve a sustainable eco-system..

Like a modern day native american indian carefully tending my bison herd..

A friend suggested that as an experiment in personal growth and development that I might try a little harder to understand my flock, that I should attempt to communicate with them, maybe to befriend one, and this is how I met mrs yunki
Since then we have spent many happy but challenging days teaching each other about the ways of our respective tribes, compromising and adapting to forge a new way that encompasses elements of each culture..
Hopefully our little half breed children's panoptic upbringing will see them more fully equipped to deal with the problems that the world will undoubtedly face in the future..

I just thought that I would share that with you..

If you want a challenge get your other half to spit out some kids..

Failing that, simplify, strip back your lifestyle to the bare bones, take a few years to visit some places where this is the norm, try to eliminate some of the inherent problems of modern society from your lifestyle.. investigate some forgotten systems and use the new found time to explore your taboos.. 😉

Back in 2000 we sold our house and business and set off with a touring caravan with no real idea where we'd end up.
Worked in France and Spain on campsites,before actually settling in Spain for the past 9 years.We're back in the UK and are slipping into mediocrity so looking at getting another 'van.We still have the house in Spain,mountain village,and if the wife said sell the house here and go back i would.
Friends with a motorhome work on campsites in the UK in summer then head off to Spain or Portugal for the winter.A couple down the road with a motorhome worked for Canvas this year at Interlaken in Switzerland.Really enjoyed it and are doing it again next year.£1200 a month part time,with just food as overheads.
Its hard to explain but when you've done a fair bit of travelling about, seeing new places and meeting new people, it gets under your skin and itchy feet set in.

@ the OP... she is right mate.

best of luck with it.