Plans become reality

We’ve had an exciting couple of days. Plans that have taken several years to concoct are now being turned into reality.

I have gradually formed images in my mind about how our life might develop here - especially after three fact-finding trips to Caen and visiting our apartment and new neighbourhood a couple of months ago.

My partner, Becky, has been receiving email bulletins about the town since we visited in April and I have been following the local football team for the past year. All this is good preparation and helps give a context to the world we dropped into less than 48 hours ago.

Because we have prepared our trip, we are very aware that we are here to live, not just on a long holiday. So opening a bank account yesterday and organising a telephone, internet and TV package today are really exciting and meaningful – they are not holiday activities.

There are also small but important details we have thought about - like how we keep in contact with our 32-month-old niece so she remembers who we are! We decided on sending her a postcard each week (supplemented by phone calls and visits) and today we bought her a lovely postcard of a Normandy cow.

A certain degree of planning is important for us because we both have long-term health conditions. We need the basics of life to run as smoothly as possible so we can be spontaneous and grasp opportunities as they present themselves. Planning also means that if our conditions play up we are able to rest, recover and get treatment if we need to.

So, given that we do both have serious health problems, it is frustrating that issues around benefits and health care entitlement are taking longer to resolve than they could. I am promised a call from the UK Department of Work and Pensions overseas office in Newcastle, but I have to say that our dealings with the DWP so far have been less than satisfactory. But more on that another time – we have our first market day to prepare for tomorrow.