Our later in life, partial gap year began on October 20th as we packed up our beloved Crofton Park home. It started with a road trip to Coventry, laden with everything but the kitchen sink. After asking Tom’s mum if we could “store just a few things” whilst we were away, we realised this was gross understatement as we drove off in a relatively full large van.
With our non-plant belongings safely secured, we planned our next trip for foliage based belongings 🌱. Kelsey’s work colleague, Erik and his family, kindly agreed to provide tender loving care to our twenty-three plants of all different shapes and sizes which we drove to their home in Surrey. On arrival, we came to understand that briefings on individual plant preferences were not required and that each of the plants would be truly happy alongside many other healthy looking plant friends. Heartened that we had loaned our plants to a good, stable home, we headed back to Crofton Park for a final sweep of our belongings.
Learning one : whenever you think you are nearly packed, you are actually not. This became crystal clear as Tom ordered an Uber XL the following morning at 6am laden with eight additional bags. On arrival at King’s College Hospital at 6.30am, it appeared that Tom had potentially mistaken the hospital for a Big Yellow Self Storage facility.
After a few final vaccinations, a day at work and some train journeys in the rain, we arrived safely at our first temporary home for the week, in Carshalton, with our friends Rachel and Ian. This became a haven to us for the first part of week zero as we enjoyed teas, dinners and even a pub quiz in Sutton.
After Rachel and Ian’s, we had similar level of hospitality in Bristol from Grace and Su-Min, in Vauxhall from Luke and finally in Haddenham from Sarah and Jon for the final parts of week zero. We experienced vibrant city life and more quaint rural living, a fitting reflection of what was to come.
We left London on 1st November after many farewell parties and drinks, culminating in a mammoth desk clear out at the hospital, ending at 11pm on a Friday night. (Note : it should be said that we had a little break at a newly opened Crofton Park wine bar which we simply couldn’t miss before we went). This somewhat numbed the pain of identifying items for the shredding bin and which mugs to keep until Tom’s return.
With desk clearing out complete, we drove in the wee hours to Coventry for our final weekend in the UK. We packed, shopped for essentials, had fake Christmas / Birthday celebrations and Kelsey was locked in a garage (temporarily and accidentally it should be said) by Tom’s dad. Sporting new backpacks, we made our way to Warwick Parkway station for our trip to London Heathrow. We were joined by some very special guests to send us off, including our nephew Joshua and baby Tommy. A passenger at Warwick Parkway mistook Joshua and Tommy as our own children who we were leaving behind to go off on our travels. Confusion subsequently cleared up, we made our way to London Paddington where we had a quick goodbye to Natalia and headed for Heathrow. ✈️
✈️ 🌍 🗺
The wondering wanderers 