This is only the third post I have shared here but, strangely, I have missed doing so. As with so many others around the globe, my own plans and world were altered over the last few years.
In short, since the last post, I have:
- Moved countries
- Applied/been accepted for leave to remain in France
- Renovated a house
- Moved house
- Had a baby (she's nearly a year old now)
- Married Aurélie
- Published several novels and novellas
- Broke a toe (by carrying a glass of sparkling wine and stubbing said toe on a stool, during that rather enjoyable French tradition of apéro)
- Continued sharing my monthly newsletter (next issue is #50)
- Started building my travel blog business
There are other things, of course, but I'll cut this list off here before it gets too tentative.
We will be living in France for the next few years, as little Ailsa grows and the world reaches a balance once again (I hope). Travelling constantly now would not be easy, and we prefer slow travel anyway.
France is a good place for a home base, with excellent options for travel to other places, often not involving planes (one of the big reasons we moved to Portugal from Thailand, it was difficult to travel anywhere beyond SE Asia without longhaul flights).
Hopefully, we'll be able to visit and learn more about Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East, without having to take too many flights.
I shall be sharing more here, using this account as a place to backup my own website: notatravelwriter.com
which is currently being polished in preparation for a rather long list of coming posts.
I also want to use this home as a location to share other things, photos, notes, brief thoughts: the smaller posts I used to put on Facebook a decade or more ago. At least that's the plan.
Time is the currency in which writers work, and I have to be increasingly clever with how I spend it these days. Now that the renovations are becoming weekend-only, and Ailsa is at her nounou (nanny) for three days, I have to use that time wisely.
I'll post this now, and get back to the joys of keyword research. Just wanted to pop in and say hello!
Finally, here's a pretty picture to brighten this post. Taken in the cave system of Choranche in the Vercors of France.
Alex