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Gypsies
in our Fifties
Travel Blog
Hello
We are Fiona and Alan and on the 10th of January 2020 we became Gypsies in our Fifties.
We are a married couple from New Zealand in our mid-fifties. Our children are grown and mostly independent and so at the end of November 2019 we finished our 9 – 5 office jobs for a life on the road. (Actually Fiona had finished in 2016 when we relocated to Mumbai India with Alan’s job - but that is another story).
Being former diplomats (well Alan really, Fiona was the supporting spouse) we are familiar with moving around and have lived in a number of different countries – India, Thailand, Samoa and the UK.
Although we were ready to give up the 9 to 5 jobs we were not ready to give up the travel.
We both trained as English language teachers and our intention was to settle in Spain for a few years and teach English from September to June and then travel in Europe over the summers. We arrived in Spain and then Covid arrived three weeks later...
And so we, along with the rest of the world, spent the next few months in limbo. We left Spain because we were not confident about being able to communicate if one or both of us got Covid, and we went to Belfast in Northern Ireland to 'sit it out’.
In September 2020 when things first started to open up again the English teaching scene had changed markedly - jobs were harder to get, a lot of the teaching was online, and if it was in the classroom, teachers and students were required to wear masks and stay one metre apart. Because jobs were relatively scarce, remuneration was extremely low and simply not worth the time and work that went into the preparation for us rookie teachers.
And so we have changed tack
Alan is developing an online business as a business and life coach. And Fiona takes photographs and writes the occasional article.
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To read about where we go each month click here (2020) and here (2021) and here (2022)
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to read about some of the places we have been to check out our blog here
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for an overview of places we’ve been to click here
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