4 Days To Go!!!

4 more days to go and I am officially a free man! It is starting to seem very real and I am very excited about it – a few people have asked me if I am nervous but I can honestly say that I am not nervous in the slightest. I am really looking forward to getting into the routine of walking 4 hours in the sunshine each morning with Roman (providing our trademark English weather doesn’t play up for a change!) and trying to raise interest with newspaper interviews and meetings with companies in the hope of getting some corporate sponsorship.

It will be nice to be able to draw up a list of things I want to do with the day and actually have the chance to do it all without work getting in the way! Don’t get me wrong, I have enjoyed my time with the company but I feel completely ready for a change and cannot wait to start this new chapter of my life.

I managed to speak to the estate agents today and, unfortunately, there is still no interest in my house. I can’t believe how difficult it is just to get people through the door to have a look. I am totally convinced that as soon as we can get someone round to have a look there will be interest. I have done a lot of work on the house since I have been here – new windows and doors, new porch, new patio, new wrought iron gates at the back, new bathroom suite and new central heating system to name the main jobs.

The house cost me £89,000 when I bought it and I have spent about £15,000 on home improvements since moving in. Including the estate agents fees and arrangements fees when I bought the place and the house owes me about £107,000 but, even on the market at £99,950, I can’t get anybody through the door to look at it! The way things are going I will end up getting less than that but even at the current value I will have lost £7,000.

It’s heartbreaking really but I guess it is a good thing really as the whole experience has opened my eyes to what is really important in life. It doesn’t matter if I own a house or if I have a top job earning loads of money. The only things in life that really matters are your health and your happiness. Hopefully, by embarking on this little adventure, I will find the second.

One of the things I am looking forward to the most about walking to Rome is the chance to meet new people and experience new cultures. I think we don’t really know ourselves properly until we do things that take us way out of our comfort zones and see how we deal with situations. I reckon I will learn things about myself that I have never known before and I am really looking forward to this.

I tried again today to get a Just Giving page set up for the Abruzzo appeal using The Red Cross but Just Giving is still playing up. I can now log into my account and view and edit my pages but try as I may I just couldn’t manage to set up a new page. I will try again shortly and hopefully have more joy but we shall see…

***UPDATE***

Typical isn't it? Just as I finish typing up my day's thoughts and go off to Just Giving to try again (with an expectancy that I would fail) it works immediately! You will notice that there is now another widget in the top left corner for the Abruzzo Appeal - all donations are gratefully received so get donating people!