Once Upon a Time...

Friday 5 September 2008

In answer to Kel at Taurus Rising ...who left this comment on Sinking Ship...SOS

"5 weeks. Wow! Have I missed a post which describes where you're staying when you first arrive, what your plans are when you get there...? Point me in the right direction, or ..write one, lots of detail.."

***
Ok where do I start?
At the beginning...

For me this stage of my life started when, after traveling the world and becoming disillusioned with life I quit my job in 2003 and left England to buy a house in Goa, India. You may have seen me on TV, Get a new life, the one who bought the dodgy looking house with a dream of opening a cafe... Most people I have spoken to since, have said they thought I was 'bloody bonkers!' Well maybe I am. I had got this far with the help of my family and was down to zero capital ... But even having no money and no plan didn't deter me, I trusted in 'Hope' and soon I was introduced to someone who proposed a business plan and away we went...

So my dream turned from this...

...to this!
(Click to see the website)

I spent a couple of years of hard(ish) work to design and build this house, (not with my own hands!) sticking as much as possible to the traditional Portuguese house that was already a part of the land. Every detail was passed by me, every piece of work was checked by me, every colour and material was chosen by me, everything from roof to foundations, plants to tiles, cups to cushions... I'm quite proud of what I achieved in my naive determination to succeed.

But because the dream had faded and become somebody elses, because I hadn't paid for the work to be done, because I had to compromise 'big time' on the econess (read expensiveness) of the whole project, because I didn't have much of a say anymore, because I felt that I was very lucky to have got so far, because I fell in love and because I got married, because Goa just went downhill far to quickly... My dream was washed away in the monsoon rains and I sold my share of Casa Maya, the pretty boutique guesthouse in the sun...

'My' dream then became 'Our' dream

...then 2 became 3

***

Why did we come back to England?

* Because we are lucky to have free medical treatment in the UK and I wanted to have the support of my family when I had our baby.
* Because we had dreams of making some money in this country and possibly buying a house we could rent out in the future.
* Because of the bureaucracy of immigration laws... 

***

Why do we want to go back?

* Because we both love India and don't love Britain.
* Because we don't fit in to this way of life.
* Because we can't afford to stay.
* Because my husbands family need us.
* Because we want the best life for our daughter.

Where will we go?

* We will start in Bombay, where we will spend time with family, C's brother and sister and Evangels cousins, they were born 6 weeks apart, Angelina, Emmanuel and Evangel (and Chris, who is much older)
* We will move down to Goa where we have bought an apartment that has just been built and needs finishing touches before we can rent it out.
* Then down to Kerala, where C's family are from.
* We then plan on making the most of our freedom together as a family. We want to spend a few years traveling around India, hopefully finding a place where we feel at home.


What will we do?

* We are not looking to be rich, just happy.
* We will rent our apartment during the tourist season in Goa (October-April)
* We will invest what we have in either a fixed deposit, property or land.
* We will live a frugal, simple and natural life.

What is our long term plan?

* To settle down when Angel reaches school age, in a beautiful place, where we can teach her the joys of simple living.
* To give Angel the best possible education we can provide her. We are both in agreement that we would like her to be a part of a Montessori type environment. In India there is a school with a similar ideology called Krishnamurti, where "learning to enquire, to observe oneself, to relate with other people and the earth, is their core intention."
* To make sure C's parents are well looked after and happy.
* To find a piece of land we can build our little eco house on and live self sufficiently.

How will we get there?

We both live on fresh air and dreams...
We follow our hearts instead of our heads...
We believe everything will be alright in the end...
We both have good hearts and good intentions...
We don't follow what society believes is right, only what we know is best for each other...
We both feel very lucky to have what we have...

...our little angel x

***

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! What an amazing journey to come!

Sharon J said...

I wish you all the luck in the world on this journey, but you're already luckier than most will ever be - you've found your soul mate.

Kelly said...

im glad i asked. That fills in some missing pieces for moi! and can make sense of your writings a bit more. What an adventure. i look forward to following it!

Nik said...

Wow, thanks for sharing! Sounds like a wonderful journey to be embarking on.

Hope you'll still be able to blog once you move??

emmani said...

Thank you everyone... I hope I will still get to blog when I'm gone, I may have to become a monthly poster, so you will have to subscribe in case you miss out :)