If you don't dream it, you don't do it !
Since one of " my loyal readers ' has kindly commented ( thank you Janie ), I'll keep my word !
Mary and I had been discussing retirement plans for at least 5 years before my 60th b'day ( the date I had given my partners for my intended retirement from legal practice ). Having as we did, with M's citizenship, the oppurtunity of giving USA a shot, we house swappped with a couple from Boulder and pretty much decided then that we would plump for CO. There was no question of this being a straightforward retirement - neither of our pensions or savings were nearly large enough for that and paid employment for at least part of every year for the next 5 at least was always in the plan. Meghan and Jane ( who had both worked for a spell in Aspensnowmass ) said " Mum and Dad, why don't you try Aspen - you love skiing and the outdoors and you'll easily get jobs " . What sound advice.
So the important step of getting a green card suddenly assumed major importance. And what a process. A medical with a Harley St , London physician ( if I'd lived in Orkney it would still have been Harley St ! ). Reams of forms and paper and the completion of 5 years of back tax filing with IRS for Mary all preceded an interview at the US Embassy , London ( whole day affair ) and eventually - just in time even though I started the procedure two years ahead of time - green card came through.
Various things all materialised at the right time to make this possible though. My dear parents had both died ( in their 90's ) in the previous 2 years, each of the kids had their own houses ( flats ) and reasonably secure jobs ( and were off our hands financially to the extent that they ever are ! ); we had found brilliant homes for our adorable dogs and cats ( Tess and Spice, and Molly and Patch ), we had sold Parkley Craigs at a good price. if any of the above had not ' been in place ' , it couldn't have happened. Not at that stage at any rate.
It was a hugely exciting, not to say slightly scary, prospect. But I've always liked an adventure and still perhaps had the wander lust acquired on my gap year trip to Australia at age 18. And Bill Bryson puts it nicely in his sequel to Notes from a Small Island - ' That is the great thing about being a foreigner - that you get to live your life with a whole new set of cultural attachments in addition to the ones you inherited at birth'. I think I subconsciously knew this and in any event Mary had put up with me in my country for the previous 32 years. It was my turn to do my bit.
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| Patch |
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| Our beloved west facing conservatory at Parkley Craigs, Linlithgow |
Next installment - The Reality
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