The recap...

Trying to sum up over a years worth of events was proving difficult and becoming a bit too long and uninteresting so instead I've decided to do a timeline, catching you up with the journey so far, without further ado here is a quick(ish) timeline:

• March 2021 - Decide we are going to move to Asturias, northern Spain at the beginning of 2022. Ignoring the fact neither of us had ever been to the area before. Hand in our notice at work for the end of the year.

• November 2021 - Visit Asturias for the first ever time on a 4 day trip, luckily for us we're big fans and it lived up to our expectations!

• December 2021 - Get married! After 10 years together and a 4 year engagement we manage to plan our wedding in 3 weeks... a very tiny ceremony with family and a gorgeous pub lunch later and we are officially mr & mrs!

• January 2022 - Macron bans UK travel through France, putting a stop to our scheduled ski trip/honeymoon and throwing our plans of leaving up in the air. We manage to get the green light to leave on the 16th and start our long and emotional drive at 4 am with a full van and very sleepy dog. I found January hard, I had a big dip with my mental health when we first arrived,I think it was the first time it had really sunk in what we were doing and what we had left behind, but over the course of the next couple of months I realised what I was made of! We climbed a mountain that month - physically and mentally and coming out of it, I’ve never felt stronger.

• February - April 2022 - We start the house hunt and almost immediately fall in love with one…(not like us to make an impulse decision) it’s a huge property with the potential to turn into 3 apartments, we put in the hours trying to see how we can make it work - it doesn’t, but that’s a story for another post… Spend all our spare time exploring & getting lost, falling in love with Asturias. Start April with an accepted offer on our house depending on building license and the news that my residency application had been rejected....! Started our trip back to the UK to work again and wait out my 90 days until im allowed back in again!

• April 2022 - Brett flies back to Spain and signs on the dotted line - we are now homeowners, and on our 10 year anniversary, would you believe it! Back to living with mum and dad - sorry guys, you’ll miss me when I’m gone I’m sure!! Spent the next couple of months working and starting on my visa paperwork.

• July 2022 - Finally I’m allowed back in, so on the 8th we pack up all of our stuff, including a kitchen that had been gifted to us by a family friend (amazing!) Load It into a van, praying its not over the 1000kg limit - it is, but again that’s for another post…and start our journey back over to our new home!

• August 2022 - Takes us to the present, we have our caravan set up, I’m practicing my Spanish, helped along by weekly bbqs at the neighbours… and we are all the way stuck in! Brett did say we would have power when we got back, we still don’t. He also said we’d have a toilet…we still don’t. We cycle to the campsite down the road for these luxuries, or sometimes spoil ourselves with an evening swim followed by cold showers at the beach. Our project at the moment is channeling the walls, we still don’t have power so although we have the power tools to help this along were stuck with a good ole’ hammer and chisel for now .
  

So far it’s been a pretty wild ride, but one we’re both so glad to be on! Bring on the adventures and life lessons, im ready for em!

*Just as I was publishing this post, Bretts informed me the downstairs pipes are all leading to the wrong place, so im off to don my dungarees and get digging holes! The fun seriously never stops.

Ellie x