Ten Life Changing Questions

Here I am in my Villa in Spain (actually its what the Spanish call a bungalow even though it has two floors), embarking on this blog. Why? well around five and half years ago, my husband Ketan, my daughter Krisha and I decided to make a life changing move from the UK to Spain. It was one of the biggest decisions that Ketan and I had taken in our married life. Often today people ask us why we did it. People are intrigued that a relatively young couple (well we were in our late 30s when we moved) should sell their house, all their belongings and leave their jobs to move out to what is probably considered to be a top holiday destination for many Brits and a popular retirement hub, Spain. Well we hadn´t won the lottery so it wasn´t going to be an eternal holiday and we were definitely not ready to put our feet up and potter about in our Spanish terrace. I look back at our last few years in England and remember that life had become incredibly hectic with me working long hours and not spending any time with Krisha. When people talk about the rat race and being on a hamster wheel... well we felt we were in this eternal rodent race and riding a fast spinning and never ending wheel. Ketan not only worked hard but because of my long hours, he tended to do virtually everything for Krisha from picking and dropping her off at school to cooking all our meals... and I would eventually come home, eat and get into bed with my laptop. Then one day, we were driving down to my mum´s in Leicester and to kill time and boredom of the journey, Krisha asked me to answer ten questions about her from what her favourite band was to her least favourite food. As Krisha asked each question, I ummed and ahed and basically sank further into my seat as I struggled to answer. I didn´t get one single question right! Krisha was devastated that I knew so little if anything about her but little did she realise that I felt a million times worse than her. My eyes had been welling up as each question was fired at me and now at the end of this inquisition, my eyes were drowning in tears, somthing inside me was breaking into pieces, feeling like I was a failure... a total flop. For me that was a turning point, a recognition that something had to change drastically and that something was the way I was living my life. But how... how could I jump off that mad, giant feris wheel safely? Would I have an inbuilt parachute that would shoot out and steer me to a new land in one piece. It was time to rethink the future, revise my so called career plans and reroute the path of destiny.