Why not?

In the end, it was the easiest decision we've ever made.

When you've stopped enjoying your job and when you don't really like where you're living, then the only thing to do is find something else to do and somewhere else to do it.

That's the tricky bit...

We'd spent our last few holidays trying to visit as many places as we could, with a view to settling there and running a businesses, but that meant that we didn't really get a chance to have a holiday! It's a kind of vicious circle - no holiday makes work harder to enjoy, which makes the need for a holiday greater etc, etc...

So, one day while we were driving to the supermarket (it was 18 miles away), we came up with the plan. We'll sell our home (in London), spend some of the money on a nice, big motor home or caravan, quit our jobs and head off on a trip around the country looking for somewhere to settle down and go into business. And when we asked ourselves "why not?" we couldn't come up with an answer.

Easy.

Then we had to decide what sort of "mobile home" we would get. Caravan or motor home? Both have their pro's and cons. It's a big decision and worthy of some research. A big motor home can be very luxurious, but unless you tow a small car around with you, it's a lot of hassle every time you need to drive to the nearest town to get a pint of milk and a loaf of bread. Caravans can also be quite luxurious, but the white boxes all look uninspiringly the same inside and out and we've never towed anything before.

We discussed the project with our friend Wayne. He's always been very sensible (at least in this regard) and keen that we never sell our flat in London, but keep it as an investment. He was our first "sounding board" and I've always (well, mostly...ok, sometimes) trusted his wisdom.

Luckily, by a strange quirk of Fate, Airstream Europe set up shop last year a mere 45 minute drive away in Tebay, south Cumbria. Wayne came with us to have a look at the new Airstream International 684's, and his immediate (and repeated) response was "Go on - buy an Airstream!" We spent a busy few days looking into our finances, visiting caravan and motor home show rooms, and we re-visited Tebay three times before making the decision to go for it.

We made some phone calls and took a quick trip to London and within a matter of days we'd put our flat on the market, accepted an offer on it, paid a deposit on an Airstream and were back home, anxiously waiting for the sale of the flat to go through.

That was back at the beginning of September. As for the sale of the flat, that's a completely different story...