Ealing to Canterbury - 8th October, 2005

3 months to the day since we arrived back home, we are on the move again. Today we are moving to Canterbury. We have made the decision to put the boys into a Waldorf Steiner school and after much research and visits all around the country, we chose Canterbury. It has the possibility of also being a good place for us to earn a living with a small hotel or bed and breakfast type business.

We are staying in a caravan park. It has a couple of lodges (chalet) available for self catering and we have taken one for the length of time it takes to find a permanent home. You can see the place here: www.yewtreepark.com.

Yes it is a new venture and a new start. The boys are not at all keen as they are being taken away from all their friends again and will have to start a new school. Not a very exciting prospect. Julie and I are sad to be leaving the place that has been our spriritual and physical home for nearly 10 years. All of our friends are here. Everything we know and love is here but it is time to move on.

Samuel Johnson said: "Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

I guess we are just not intellectual enough and perhaps just a little tired of the pace of life London gives us. Having returned from our travels, the frenetic pace slaps you in face and it's back to running just to stand still. Without a mega job (and salary) we can no longer afford to stay here. In our experience (and we have been to Japan), London is now the most expensive place in the world to live.

It just beats me how all the Polish and Lithuanians, who have descended en masse to Ealing and the environs since we have been away, can afford to live here. But have you noticed some of the cars they are driving? I saw a Lithuanian plate on a £60,000 BMW last week. I guess you can earn quite a bit as a plasterer these days. I just paid 2 guys £800 per 8 hours work. That's £50 per hour. When I still had a job I never got beyond £25 per hour!

Anyway we will be looking for a more realistic level of activity and earning in our new home and we are delighted to see 6 and 7 bedroom properties starting at £300K (which is nearly what our 2 bed flat would get in Ealing!).

We will be going to St. Mary's Chruch in Canterbury which is Chris Pemberton's church. Chris is now a New Wine leader and this year co-hosted with Mark Mellhuish. You can see more about the church here: http://www.smb.org.uk/. They have some great downloads on their site. You can download and listen to the Sunday sermon usually pretty soon after it has been delivered.

I will try to keep the blog posted as to our progress. I also have to finish off our travel entries (how many times have you heard that!). Hopefully a move relaxed pace of life will help.

Our contact details are very sketchy. The only real way of getting in touch is by mobile phone. I don't want to post it here as it will be picked up by some search engine or other. If you need to contact us, e-mail to the usual address (send a comment to this blog with your e-mail address if you need ours). I will also be sending out an e-mail with details in it in the next few days. Greetings to all.