Soon to be Unemployed!

Since my last posting things have moved on quite a bit on the planning side but there is still a long way to go.


I spoke to my friend, Felipe, in Nebraska to discuss the possibility of going out and doing some volunteer work with the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust of which he is the Executive Director. Felipe remembered that I have an IT background and we discussed ways in which I could use my experience to help the Trust improve their information storage and organization both at the Trust centre in Nebraska and at a new project site in Cuba. Needless to say I’m really excited about this as I’ve really enjoyed my time with the trust in the past. The Trust centre in Nebraska is in a really beautiful location although I’ll need to be prepared for the cold weather over winter! Some time in Cuba will also help me towards achieving my ambition to speak Spanish fluently (or as near as) by the end of my travels!


Right now my plans are to travel to Nebraska on the 4th or 11th of November and spend a couple of months working with the Trust on organizing their data. Probably around January I’ll head out to Cuba and work out there for a couple of months on the data storage for a new project starting out there. As I don’t understand the scope of the work yet I’ll play it by ear when I’m out there regarding how much time I need to spend on each of the projects. Outside of the volunteer work I plan to visit Central and South America. I’m thinking of a year in The Americas before moving on around the world.


I spoke to work a couple of weeks ago about my plans and they were very supportive of me taking a career break. I’ve decided to finish work at the end of July so I’m hoping for good weather in August before I do my TEFL training in September. Only 7 weeks until I’m officially unemployed!


I’ve decided to try and sell my house instead of renting. The current housing market is not great and there are predictions that the value of houses will fall between 10% and 20% over the next two years. Combine that with the fact that it is unlikely that I will return to the West Midlands it makes sense to sell up now. That means I’m free to relocate anywhere when I’ve finished my travels. Unfortunately it is not the best of times to be selling so I’m hoping for a buyer before September otherwise I’ll have to revert back to renting.


Outside of planning I spent a week on holiday in May up in the highlands of Scotland. I had a good time with lots of fresh air, walking and wildlife watching. My mum and I walked up the Cairn Gorm, the 6th highest mountain in the UK, we fed reindeer by hand and did quite a lot of bird watching.


I spent last weekend in London with my brother and had a good time being a typical tourist visiting all the sites. The highlight for the weekend was seeing the Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium, a birthday present for my brother. The icing on the cake for him was when Led Zeppelin came on for a couple of numbers.


I’ll post another update soon when things start coming together a bit more.