Oh dear SOL I fear I am too late to say a temporary goodbye, hopefully you will still have some access.

As for retirement, that assumes in the first place you have something to retire from . I guess I have already retired from childminding and I only did that for 5 years. Being a full time housewife is very full time when you move around, someone has to deal with all the delightful nuances of settling into a different country, you wouldn't believe the paperwork and it is different each time. Dealing with taxes as well is a nightmare. I am studying now at the age of 45 for a possible career in Managing Sustainable Rural Development, whether I teach or consult will depend on what becomes available but one things for sure it is unlikely to be full-time. Hubby likes to think he has retired at the age of 46 as he gets to play with his tractor at the moment but he may have a job two days a month as a consultant here in Latvia, we shall see, and he has another possible week's work but at least a few days work in Cyprus - life's hard isn't it? and that will probably be an ongoing thing but it will have to fit in our growing schedule. What is brilliant is that since the winters are so long here then it means we have a short intense growing season and the rest of the time there is some prep work, some work to do in the forest and the rest of the time is free maybe to develop the various consultancy fields we are or maybe in. Now that would be just perfect. Oh yes I do work 6 hours a week for an online 'school' as a moderator for the student café but that is hardly taxing and I get paid for just being friends - nice!

Hi Kate - yep, the Dutch thing - remember it well....... like the guy (read con-man) who was selling us a new house, unfinished, and was hoping that we wouldn't notice. I visited the house daily while staying in the motel, only to see the house completion come to a standstill.

We persuaded the estate agent (makelaar) to come and have a look at the house - buying 'as seen' isn't very useful when it has only pipes coming out of the floor, and a drive that was 4-feet below the level of the road. No toilets/kitchen or anything like that.

We survived that, but only through diligence.

As to retirement, I know it's commonly said, but we wouldn't have time for work now !!

After all the working years, what's wrong with enjoying life?

Having activities planned is a good idea Danast, even if you are taking time out to raise children it is a good idea to be prepared. It took me two years to adjust to going from studying to dialing down to childs pace but didn't regret the move one bit and I guess for some people retiring is the same and takes a major adjustment to having to fill in your own time not be dictated to by the job.

I can beat you on the tax Kate, a 104 page booklet I got from the accountants for our American tax and they wanted to know about any property we owned so had to dig out records going back to 1988 and this was in 2006, I was not happy and it took me three days of work - I think hubby even bought me some flowers which he does not do very often. It was probably easier than doing it in Dutch but close, I still needed a dictionary.

Consultancy work in Cyprus Danny? How good are you in hospital labs? Yes we are enjoying our life in Latvia. People wonder sometimes how we don't get frustrated when things don't go to plan but to be honest having now moved around a bit we realise that each country has its own way of doing things and Latvia is really no worse than others -Brightsparks example is a case in point. If somethings don't work out then there is always next year.

Oh boy can I relate to that. Changing countries in February/March is NOT recommended , if you change countries try end of December. There was one year I had Danish, English and American taxes to file as we still rented out in England, had just moved from Denmark to America and the Danish one was a nightmare due to some ongoing hassles anyway . I was nearly a nervous wreck . This year I just have Latvian and English to do and next year I am hoping we will be down to one tax authority to deal with the Latvian one. Can you come and provide me with cups of tea and cake?

How are you feeling Kate after today's events?    I hope you are not in too much pain.  Anyhow you deserve a rest after all the work you have been doing for the show.