Return of the natives

Last night Alison and I went to a meeting in central London on setting up a co-housing project. This is where a group of like minded people get together and buy a large place together (possibly ex-industrial) and either convert it or rebuild with a view to producing a range of homes with a set of community shared facilities. So, we would share gardens and growing facilities, eco-friendly systems such as wind generators and solar panels, etc and some communal gathering, eating and work/creative spaces, etc. There would also be space for a library and some guest suits – Student Cross reunions with parties in the common room would be awesome!!! There would also be good economies of scale with regard to buying in bulk, car shares, etc.. It all sounded very interesting and we will explore it further but couldn’t do more than express our interest as we are not going to be around for a few months!
It set us thinking about our return. We know that the effect of being on the road for several months will be very interesting, to say the least. In conversation with friends who have done similar things we have heard about how you return and open your wardrobe, look at the clothes inside and wonder why you have so much – what are you going to do with all this stuff??? It also leaves you feeling like you should be on the go, moving to the next place, etc.
Part of the advice we have received suggests that we should take a couple of days to return home. “Don’t fly,” they say, “take a train, take some time and gradually work your way back into your old life.” I think we may take that advice, too. According to our timetable, we should be entering Santiago around the 20th of July so that would give us time to get home and settled before my birthday which just happens to be on St James’ Day. Of course, as this is a Jubilee year it means that St James’ Day is on a Sunday.
In reality, I expect that the effects of the walk will actually be quite profound and long lasting (hopefully not in a negative way) and that what will happen is that our already apparently simple lives will seem far too complicated and encumbered and we will seek to live more simply and possibly with far less things. Although I cannot believe that I will want to shed any of our books! Rather, I expect to fall upon them with glee having been restricted in that area due to circumstances!
So, thinking about what we will do on our return and considering co-housing projects as a way forward seem like compatible things. Of course, it is something that Alison and I have looked at in a variety of different guises over the years and I have put together a variety of different models for this. It is very gratifying (and scary) to discover that the ideas I have been playing with have been tried and tested and appear to work. The restrictions stemming from the ridiculous price of property in this country and the complete lack of government support for such ideas have put paid to a lot of efforts in the UK but in other countries the idea flourishes and grows. Perhaps if we cannot do it in London we will have to go into Europe and join a project in Paris or Amsterdam.... And perhaps we will still have regular visitors even if we do slip away for a simpler urban life in foreign climes! What Ho ... we haven’t even started the walk yet!