When a door closes for me I am rarely upset. It just means that one out of many trajectories is no longer possible. I have over the last few months had various suggestions suggested to me in dreams. Things like dreaming courses, a Tibetan vibe, stuff to do with quantum and venture capital, a bit of old school alchemy and the odd hint of Toltec. There is no obvious way forward in any of these for me so I have concluded fairly strongly that these avenues are no-go, dead-ends. There is no point in trying to push on a closed door. Dreaming can hint at possibilities in the web of life, there is a big gap between a vague dreamy possibility and a viable probability.

I have a working hypothesis that the level of interest in what I may know is very low and that only a very few people have any. This does not come as a big surprise to me.

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So we have been kicking around a “what to do next”. The basic starting point is that we need to move to a house / apartment which is smaller with less maintenance and lower heating costs, coupled to a garden significantly smaller than 2 acres. We want some outside space.

The biggest fly in the appointment is the financial uncertainty caused by Benjamin Nosferatu et al. bombing the fuck out of other countries. It may have a negative impact on our ability to sell this house.

Where have we gotten to?

It seems that rental accommodation around here and in South or West Wales is scarce. If you are prepared to live in isolated rural Carmarthenshire or Pembrokeshire you can get good value for money. The poor transport lowers the asking price. There is a trade-off.

We could just about afford to buy something near Carmarthen or Haverfordwest. Carmarthen has a Caffè Nero.

We have looked at Strasbourg, Besançon and Grenoble. Not sure we could handle a big metropolis. Grenoble should be fairly multi-cultural like Strasbourg. They are a bit pricey. Mountains might be nice as would a UNESCO downtown.

The theme of a different living experience remains to the fore. A town centre flat, a town house or even a houseboat would be new to us both.

We are still going with the idea of a shortish journey time to a decent sized hospital, say around 45 minutes by road.

We could go and speak with estate agents and Notaires. I have no idea if we could easily sell this house nor for how much. That would scale the size of what is possible.

It is looking like sell and rent before buy. The rental could be France or UK. It rains too much in Ireland.

We do not have to move. We could afford another year here.

There is a problem that when I say to people that I do not negotiate they think that this is a negotiation strategy. It is hard to forewarn people in a way which they understand and take on board.

« Je n’ai aucun besoin de discuter (vers la fin du monde). »

Seems unbelievable to many.

We have a very open geographical search area. There is a problem with non-attachment and that is lack of fixation or ambition. When one does not covet how does one decide?

In the past the universe has helped us out with decisions. Often at the last moment. Whilst we can note this observable trend it would be unwise to rely on it.

If we chose the UK I could probably guarantee some “A” level science tutoring January to June each year.  This means we could pay a little more for a UK house than a French one.

At the moment we are embedded in the French system, which makes everything straightforward. Like many things here, it is difficult to get started, but once up and running it goes along just fine. Effort at the beginning pays off. France has both momentum and inertia, which makes sense. Get it started and then it is difficult to stop. France is very rhythmic in the way the year pans out.

The “what to do” question seems to be pointing at more of the same, scaled down.  I have been playing with my chain saw today, strimmer frenzy tomorrow.

It will be nice to have a new location to explore and scout when we move.

There are some properties for sale in Barnard Castle…

It is all a bit open, we shall see what the dreaming suggests and act thereupon.

Hmnn.