Ha ha – I remember so very well my first trip to Ikea – what a maze that place is!  We actually still have and use the dinner plates we got there so make sure to choose well….we also did the classic ‘hmm, so just how do we get all these large boxes into our car…..’. Good times.

It is fun setting up home for the first time. First night on your own sofa, wine and pizza and all that. Enjoy it.  To be honest, I no longer think of things as ‘mistakes’, just things I have done that are part of who I am today. It is always better to try, to ask, to speak up, to not let the fear of looking daft or getting hurt stop you from trying. And trying is way better than to wonder ‘what if’ for the rest of your life.  So yes, go in to it with your eyes open but go in regardless. No point trying to second-guess how it’ll turn out, that’s just trying to have control over something that you can’t whereas the only thing you can control is you. Good work on the reigning in the over-thinking, know it’s hard at the beginning. Gets much easier with practice until at some point it’s almost like second-nature and you look back on how anxious you always were in amazement.

So after Granada we are trying to spend some time in the UK and our own home, with lots of cycling nearby and round the Norfolk Broads here which is beautiful in summer.  Have a couple of weeks away to go hiking in North Wales, assuming the weather allows us this time….  And then off to South Africa in late Sept for 8 weeks, which is going to be amazing, again.  Thinking about some hiking in Maderia before that, will see how we feel. We also keep getting a lot of really tempting house-sits sent our way at the moment so may well cave into one of those, who knows!  Ofcourse I will send updates but just tell me when they are too irritatingly cheerful!