Ever since I was stupid enough to develop a course on “Decision Making” I have unsurprisingly been making decisions. I wrote this course under the umbrella of my dreaming colour Indigo Blue.

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Here is a slide from said course. Without blowing my own trumpet overly it is a good thought provoking course which has application up to the highest levels.

We have already decided that we need to downsize. The house is way too big and hence expensive to run for our needs and the garden at 2 acres is massive. Our rough parameters are at around 100 square metres for house and less than 2000 square metres {tops} garden. That is about it and of course we are limited in available price.

Next week we have a “when” data input. I will discuss with an orthopaedic surgeon the possibility of a second hip replacement. The basic logic being that if he thinks I should wait we have a time window in which to move house. I am more able than I was last year. If he thinks go ahead, then this year will be operation and recuperation.

Maybe if no operation we will put the house on the market and the level of interest or otherwise will advise on whether we can move and how big the kitty of funds is.

If we are lucky enough be granted rights to remain and live in France we have three possible countries, France, UK and Ireland. There are no important relational ties which restrict choice.

Were we to apply and gain French citizenship in due course we could choose anywhere in the EU.

The where is geo-located to Northwestern Europe. Parts of the UK and France are prohibitively expensive.

It seems likely that we will have to sell, put the money in the bank, and rent for a while. The sale process in France is not as facile as in the UK. We could try to get the stars to align but that could be stressful.

This means we could pretty much live anywhere in the above countries provided that we are happy to shrink capital by six months or a year’s rent.

The notion of a different kind of living / location has come to fore.

So far we have had, quaint village centre, isolated in a middle of a wood on a private estate, on a working farm and in our own compound with pond and a river. We have learned scale and “estate-management”.

Two first pass options have appeared, in the middle of a cathedral quaint town or next to a tidal river…The tide provides a rhythm we sampled once before on holiday in Cornwall.

Because we live in a “pocket” we have lacked direct sight of sunrise and sunset, this is something I might like to rectify.

It is a kind of open ended slightly weird feeling not knowing where nor with any strong inclination. A part of the motivation for coming here was access to a photonic cluster with laser industries. That is not important now.

We do need access to reasonably high level medical care for things like haematology – myeloma but that can be at a 40 minute to hour journey time. We are in the French system which has been very generous and kind.

Might be nice to be a bit warmer, with less rain.

We don’t know where, we do have some incoming on when.

The “doing what” question seems to be converging on more of the same. In other words we will garden, do DIY, meditate and dream. That seems to be the entire scope. Nothing big, no interaction with cheeses big or otherwise. With a smaller garden we could go bonsai like in detail and take a more minute care. Which would be a new approach for us.

There are a few more years before we are eligible for UK state pension which will give a small increase in income.

This is a sketch of the parameter space for the upcoming decision…