Is oddness a word? Since it didn’t come up underlined I can only assume yes. I could confirm that it is but where is the fun in that? I like the start so will just go with it. November has been full of odd moments. It all started off when I booked a massage… sounds scary I know! It appears that the booking of the massage has resulted in me losing my job, being diagnosed with Celiac Disease, my family together for the first time in 17 years, a new hot water tank and swimming lessons. What? For real? Why yes, yes indeed I reply. Let’s start at the beginning…

Winter is coming… no really it is supposed to snow. Thankfully we have restored the garage to its intended use and our vehicles are parked indoors so we won’t need to get out the ice scraper in the morning. After a recent work trip to Chicago by me, we were able to update our countries with carry on only to include the US. I have to admit I was somewhat nervous about doing carry on with just me. Paul measured our roller suitcase we bought in Bangkok and it fit the requirements so it was just a matter of me lifting it up and since I was only gone for 3 nights, it wasn’t heavy.

What?! This was supposed to be easy.. sell everything and travel. Sure.. but the actual doing of it.. well, let’s just say I’ll need a week to recover from the last few weeks.. and a massage.. probably a pedicure and another massage! Since we made the actual decision to do this we have had meetings with accountants, financial planners and realtors and then back to financial planners, holding garage sales, working, life in general and then this and then that.

Something changed this year and it’s a good thing. While on vacation over the years, Paul and I have talked about travelling, getting out of the rat race and like most people, usually done it in “pipe-dream” mode. We’d met people who were travelling for several years, people who downsized so they could travel for half the year, who just made life changes to make it happen and we’d think “we should do this”. Then you come back, life takes over and you go back to the regularly scheduled society programming. This year it moved to “potential reality” mode which is exciting and scary at the same time!

Our Arc’teryx Bora 65 Backpacks are 2 of the best things we’ve purchased. Despite the miles on them they’ve come through everything with flying colours. Arc’teryx has provided us with some great products. They are located in Vancouver, Canada and produce very high quality gear that they completely stand behind. Over the years we’ve had 3 backpacks (Bora 80 and 2 Bora 65’s), 4 Gore-Tex jackets (1 15-year-old and 3 newish Theta ARs) and 2 hooded Atom LT insulated jackets from them. Their stuff isn’t cheap but it performs incredibly well, making them a perfect example of the phrase “you get what you pay for”.