Who wants to win the lottery???

Continuing on with the theme of life being about so much more than money, there was a story in 'The Gisborne Herald' recently about a kiwi living in Australia who is 'battling' for his share of a $17 million lottery win.  Along with two friends, he'd purchased a lottery ticket in July 2008 by pooling their money at an impromptu party which won this huge sum of money.  What a life changing experience that could be - divide it equally and live in comfort without having to worry about money again.  But oh no, greed took over and rather than improving their lives beyond measure it has changed them irrevocably.  They've been in dispute ever since about who's entitled to what, and have spent $2 million so far in legal fees alone.  They had been friends for over 20 years and now no longer speak to each other.  Most of the money has been frozen awaiting a trial date on April 19.

The article records other lottery 'disasters':

• An American who won $2 million and was subsequently sued by his former girlfriend for a share of his winnings, his brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him so he could inherit a share of his winnings and another sibling talked him into investing into a disastrous business that failed.  Within twelve months he was $1 million in debt and forced to declare himself bankrupt;
• Another American won US$314.9 million in 2002 and was robbed numerous times, became a very heavy drinker, divorced his wife, and some time later his beloved granddaughter was found dead from a drugs overdose that had been funded by the $2100 weekly allowance he'd given her;
• Another lottery winner (it doesn't say how much he collected) invested his winnings into a profitable business and bought generous gifts for his family and took them on holidays.  Seven years after the win he was found in the back of his van shot dead  - having been murdered by his sister-in-law and her boyfriend who'd kidnapped and murdered him for the money.

Money definitely makes the world go round, but it's also 'the root of all evil' as they say.

Six weeks to go - time for spreadsheets

Six weeks from today we'll be on our way back to the northern hemisphere to rejoin Northern Pride and travel the canals of the south of England.  We leave Gisborne at 0630hrs on Tuesday 18th May (oh so early, but the cheapest flight!) and have about four hours in Air New Zealand's 'Koru Club' lounge in Auckland airport (free food, drinks, TV and papers, etc) prior to our flight to Sydney to stay a few days with Barry's brother.  We have the two passes to the Koru Club because Barry travelled from here to England and return twice last year, so got upgraded to silver card status!  It'll be my first time in Australia, so I'm excited about seeing what's on offer 'across the ditch' as they say here.

We leave Sydney on Sunday 23rd May and arrive in Birmingham at lunchtime on Monday 24th May.  We'll go to my parents house in Ombersley for a couple of days initially before returning to Ammington and our boat around 26th May.  My dad celebrated his 90th birthday last week - how amazing is that?

In the meantime we're doing the necessary planning for another extended period of time not earning a salary.  We've produced a financial spreadsheet of approximate costs, being better informed this time of how expensive or cheap (depending on how you perceive it!) living on a narrowboat can be, with experience from our travels last year.  Unfortunately, despite working full time and saving hard, we'll still need to borrow some money in order to make the trip possible.  This scares my 'sensible' side at times, but I mostly manage to rationalise it as we've no mortgage on our house here and own Northern Pride outright, so we know we won't get deeply into debt and of course have our house rented while we're away.  As I get older, I'm also very much of the 'seize the day' attitude, when the reality of my mortality kicks in with a vengeance - you just never know what's round the next corner ...

We realise we're unlikely to ever be 'rich' in monetary terms, and don't aspire to such heights (though wouldn't turn it down if attainable!), but believe we're blessed in other more important ways and want to make the most of 'living' without the main focus being on earning more and more money to buy 'stuff' that we don't need.  I recently read a book called 'The elegance of the hedgehog' (stop now if you're reading this or plan to in the future!) where at the end of the book the main character, a poor but extremely intelligent 54 year old concierge in a Parisian apartment block,  unexpectedly dies in an accident just when she meets her (very rich) soulmate who enables her to let go of the past and finally accept that she's as good as any 'wealthy' person - how ironic is that?  I also tried to read 'The girl with the dragon tattoo' by Stieg Larsson (sorry Captain Ahab, I know you loved it, but it's just not my 'type' of book - I may revisit it!) and was saddened to discover that he'd written a trilogy of three books that are now bestsellers, but he died shortly after submitting his manuscripts!  Shame!  He must've spent his final years doing nothing but writing and never lived to discover how much people would love his work.  Why not just write one book, then live a little before the next one?  Such a waste, yet another note to self.

So we're not waiting until we've saved up enough money to retire before we do the things we want to do, we're coming back to England to live on our narrowboat once again for at least five months, maybe longer, depending on whether we find a way to earn a few more pounds to make it possible, and we plan to truly live and appreciate every single moment of it  ... 

Changing seasons and preparing to change lives once again...

While spring is blooming in England, autumn is spreading it's magical colours across New Zealand.  All the native trees here are deciduous, it's only those that have been brought in from other countries that shed their leaves, so it's never as bleak in winter as it seems to be in UK.  There's a chill in the air now at night, and it's beginning to feel as though the time is drawing closer for these two old birds to fly north for the summer ...

Although I love living in New Zealand, at the moment it's associated with working full time (and more, some weeks!!); subsequently I'm now counting down until we leave and return to England to travel around the canals and rivers of the Midlands and south England.  Barry is enjoying working again, but he's lucky to get just one day off each week, and I'm sure at the end of his 8 weeks will be more than ready to be at home again!

It really is a life of contrasts, we have a fabulous home here in NZ that I adore, but am not getting a lot of time to enjoy.  But we do have a large 'section' of land, a three bed-roomed house and of course an automatic washing machine!  Back aboard Northern Pride, space is limited and we'll be living in the proverbial 'corridor' once more with just the one 'fixed' double bed and no washing machine!  I think that's what I'm mostly not looking forward to; but luckily the benefits of living on a narrowboat and travelling around outweigh the disadvantages.

The weekend before last we had a trip 'down the coast' and spent some time walking on the beach in the sunshine and a temperature of around 25 degrees, and then dropped into some hot springs for a relax with some student midwives who have come from Edinburgh to have their elective placement with the maternity unit.

 

Barry is excitedly planning where he wants to travel first on Northern Pride, and we're hoping to spend a couple of weeks at least, travelling around the Birmingham Canal Navigations.  We did a trip in April 2007 from Tardebigge; 4 days and nights in a loop passing through the centre of Birmingham.  It was all such a rush having to travel at least 8 hours a day in order to get back to the hire place on the Friday morning so we're looking forward to a much slower pace this time!

We moored up in our hired boat in Gas Street Basin and Barry couldn't believe that we were in the centre of Britain's second city!

 A walk to The Mailbox for a spot of Tapas one evening

Barry at the helm of the hire boat in 2007; the beginning of his passion for the canals