In Search of Nirvana 2008 in Review. January to June.

As the last twelve months have involved a lot of important life changing decisions for the both of us I thought I would do a month by month review of 2008.

1. January. I gave three months notice to the London Fire Brigade after more than 30 years service. We secured a sale on our Gozo farmhouse which would enable us to take on another farmhouse restoration project later in the year.
2. February. We started planning our 2600 mile road trip across Europe for the big move to Gozo. An art exhibition in London's Soho of original photographs taken of Jimi Hendrix, this type of exhibition comes around quite frequently in London and is one of the things I will miss about dear old London town.
3. March. The first of two leaving party's for me took place in Soho at a blues bar called 'ain't nothin but' the only club in the UK to play live blues music every night of the week. Much good music was played and much alcohol consumed, a great night was had by all. The 19th March was my last day of service with the London Fire Brigade, and I am seriously looking ahead now, I have fond, as well as sad and painful memories of my time with the brigade but lets look to the future now.
4. April. With our goodbyes to family and friends complete on April 4th we left the UK for the start of our road trip to Gozo, we will follow our chosen wine & gourmet route which will take three weeks. We go through the channel tunnel into France, our 1st night takes us close to Reims the champagne region, we then head on to Cote de Bourgogne, Burgundy where I had to try the local snail curry, Vermenton, close to the Mont Blanc tunnel, and on into Italy, many stops followed all the way down the Adriatic coast, to my favorite area of Italy, Puglia and Calabria, with some very special food and wine consumed on route, and witnessing some of the most stunning scenery to be found anywhere in Europe. We moved on to Sicily for the remainder of our trip before arriving in Malta at around 1.00am in the morning, followed by the drive to the ferry and on to Malta.
5. May. This month was one of adjustment, turning our holiday home, into a home that was right for every day living. Taking delivery of a 20ft container of furniture from the UK, registering with a local doctor. We were busy on our first couple of weeks but towards the end of the month we started to chill, the rain had gone until September (so a local had told me). Now it was time to begin the big adjustment from London life to life in Gozo, a bigger contrast would be challenging to find.
6. June. The first of a string of visitors that have arranged to stay from the UK, arrive this month, in an attempt to see what all the fuss has been about, this place called Gozo? The start of many books to read, we decided that we would spend the summer on holiday, not dive straight into any new projects immediately, this is probebly the only time in the near future that I will have this opportunity so take advantage we did. Favorite book of the summer, the Autobiography of Eric Clapton highly recommended.

July to December will follow.

"The really frightening thing about middle age is that you know you'll grow out of it". Doris Day.