Clarke Chronicles

Sometime towards the end of 2007, we decided that while life at Le Gupole is great in the warm weather, the winters can be a bit rude. The combination of the short European winter days coupled with the cold weather left this tropically-minded pair asking ourselves if there wasn't a better way to organise our lives.

When we first bought the house in Italy in 1990, we were living and working in Hong Kong. Summer breaks back to Europe with often four kids in tow meant life could get expensive and also as a group of six we weren't over socially acceptable for long periods with the rellies. So a place in the Tuscan sun was a good answer. In addition, we had a long-term plan to retire to the house once it had been suitably renovated. It would be near the rellies and the kids but not back in the UK, where we definitely didn't want to live.

Fast forward to 2004 and retirement. House all renovated and ready to live in. The great move was undertaken and we set about taming our three acres of land, giving ourselves a year to do it. Three years on and it was just about tamed. Life during these three years was full - we were learning Italian, making new friends, Gail did a TEFL course, David did a course on art restoration and we explored some of the area. However, we are very much outdoor people - and while life at Gupole is an outdoor one from sometime in late April through to early November, those months in between can be chilly. Heating ain't cheap and we also found the winters were also getting increasingly expensive, with the dollar, to which we are pegged, falling through the floor. In addition to that, by early 2007, none of our kids and therefore none of the grandchildren lived in Europe! Inspired perhaps by the nomadic lifestyle that David's daughter Lea and her husband Jonathan have been

pursuing since January 2007 - see their blogs under Family Links - we thought the we could try the 'location independent' bit too.

We could become 'location independent pensioners' and follow the sun as well as following the kids and the grandchildren, of whom at the time there were now four and a half - two in Hong Kong and two in Kenya, with a fifth on the way. Since then of course Mali has arrived on the scene and so there are now five!

Obviously, following the sun has the constraint of finding somewhere that has good weather through the European winter months and is also acceptable from the budget point of view. Lea &Jonathan aim at a total monthly budget of £2000 all in and this seemed a reasonable ball-park figure to aim at. Of that sum, we reckoned that no more than half and preferably far less should be spent on rent. We also wanted the place to be in sensible reach of at least some of the family. (Lea and Jonathan have recently revised that sum downwards to about £1200, which for us is a bit limiting so we're sticking to £2k.)

So, where to go? Hong Kong would be good except that it is too expensive long term and the winter months aren't over-exciting there either. Thailand we knew from a number of visits over the years and so we decided to look at that. Within Thailand, we wanted somewhere that was easily accessible for visits to us and for us to head off to Hong Kong. Phuket seemed to fit all those criteria so we started looking for accommodation.

The links will tell you all about our time in Phuket starting in January 2008 and in the other destinations we have visited since then, as well as a rundown of life back on the old homestead over the summer.