Why are we doing this?
“Why”? asked Mulligan. “Why what?, replied Kelly. “Why, err, well….. err…………..Why not!” blurted Mulligan ……….( Excerpt from Kelly’s Heroes 1970…..My favouritest film of all time)
It was a Monday morning back in 2006 when a lady knocked on our front door. She said ‘Hello are you Myles?’ I replied affirmatively to which she continued ‘I’m Tracy, Neil’s wife. ‘Oh right’ I blurted out confused. ‘Yes’, she continued, ‘he died on Saturday and he owes you some money so I’m here with a cheque, I think it’s £143.54, is that correct?’ I had spoken to Neil about continuing his project the previous Thursday and said I would contact him on the Friday but he hadn’t answered his phone. ‘ Yes, I muttered, but I’m sorry I didn’t catch what you said’.. ‘Neil died on Saturday, he had a double stroke and I’m tidying up his affairs’, she reiterated calmly. Stunned I offered my condolences, took the cheque and she left…… Neil was 41 – His nickname was ‘Smiler’
Now, as ‘wake up calls’ go, Neil and Tracy’s tragic story is up there with the best and serves to remind us that there really are no guarantees in life and that ‘Carpe Diem’ ought to be stamped on everyone’s foreheads so we get a daily reminder to ‘seize the day’. Let’s face it, we are all going the ‘Way of the Dodo’ at some point so let’s get it on before we have to clock off is what I’m sayin. D’you get me?
Notwithstanding all the other tragedies that really should have cemented the message, it was from that point forward that my life and philosophy on it changed for good so when the opportunity arose to throw caution to the wind, put everything in storage and go on an adventure it was a no brainer. Just convince the missus and offski… as they say in the movies.
So we put a plan together, a 10 year plan!
What sort of Plan?
Oh not much really. Complete a nine year house renovation, liquidate limited companies, release ourselves slowly from the corporate clutches, relocate from the Isle of Man back to the UK, allocate investments and re-align our thought processes and therefore ultimately our decision making as to what makes us happy… Along with a whole host of other stuff that needed sorting out….
And because all of that stuff was laborious hard work and pretty boring we thought we’d go on a few biking trips just to keep us going….. and we had a blast. California, The ‘French’ Pyrenees then back to the States to do the Rocky mountain highway up to the Sturgis rally, then back to France…back to flippin France…. BOOM… that’s when our luck ran out, lol.. It rained man, it rained and rained and we thought nah, there’s gotta be a better way of doing this so we sold the bike and in 2015 we spent 6 weeks cruising around New Zealand in a… Motorhome… and we loved it so much we bought our own.
And the transition was made….from stressed miserable corporates to happy adrenaline junkies…
If you ever get chance to go to New Zealand…..GO… and take at least 8 weeks. It really is a stunning place. Check out our NZ guide in our free resources page ( coming soon) or have a look at the gallery https://www.motoroaming.com/galleries/New Zealand for an appetite whetter or have a look at the vids below or go to http://www.youtube.com/motoroaming for a few more NZ videos……
Why?…. because life’s too short….
I hope you enjoy our adventures and please contact us with any questions, thoughts etc… We’d love to hear from you. Please check out our Free Resources page for all downloadable content which we hope will inspire you to ‘be happy’ whatever that may look like
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