I spent much of the last two weekends among close friends, gathered in London to celebrate two of our cohort's 10th anniversary as a couple (SS and CLP if you've read earlier posts closely). On reflection I realised that this is actually around the 10 year mark for the friendship group that we call Wednesday Club, which formed with and around their meeting in summer 2016.
Alongside the start of what have become some of my most important friendships, 2016 was also the major inflection point of our lives. Not a good year for English-speaking decision-making generally, but for us it was as far from a wrong turn as it could possibly be. It was the year when we decided working hard for the future had gone on long enough, and it was time to let that future play out. Sam moved to Paris to study the language, and I began showing up to work at the Paris office on Fridays and Mondays.1 I roomed with friends in Green Lanes between Eurostar journeys, and started climbing nearby when in London mid week - the lucky accident that led me to Wednesday Club.
2016 was also the original target date we set for getting married. Engaged since 2014, we thought at the time that a two-year notice period should be enough to allow people to plan for a joint holiday to Fiji, with a wedding thrown in. Well, 10 years later we never quite managed it - but I'm typing this whilst they refuel an easyJet plane for Gibraltar where, John and Yoko style, we will tie the knot on Wednesday.2 Don't feel left out, it is literally just the two of us, banking on some volunteers from the cafés around the Town Hall as witnesses!
10 seems like a lot of years since "normal" life. But our time on the road also seems like a lot more than 1/3rd of our lives together. Even more so when I try to account for the years themselves: two of them were pre-van, that Paris transition year and then 2017 hiking the Appalachian Trail and backpacking south east Asia. Then there was Covid and the travel blackout that came with it, as well as extended backpacking trips in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea.
So as long as 10 years seems, actual van life has really only accounted for 5 or 6 of them. Among all this counting, it turns out we returned to post-Covid van life almost exactly 5 years ago. I was reminded of the timing when I attempted to start the van after a long stint in SS and CLP's parking space. Just as it had been post-Covid the dead battery was expected, but this time I had the pleasant surprise of a free replacement, three days before the end of the 5 year warranty!3
These handful of years feel like a lifetime. Multiple lifetimes! There simply aren't enough years to account for the memories accumulated since 2016. People often ask me what is my favourite place. I have no answer for them. But I think perhaps the time dilation that we experience living this way is my favourite thing about the choices we have made.
Looking back, I realise we did that largely unannounced and wholly without seeking approval. I never thought of myself as a Marxist, but treating labour as my own to offer, or withdraw, on my own terms has become a central pillar of the freedom we now enjoy. ↩︎
We did explore the actual knotted option, but despite its reputation a Scottish marriage is not actually something you can do quickly. Demand exceeds available venues and dates, so in practice it takes even longer up north than England's twee band-reading nonsense dictates. ↩︎
Thank you Halfords driveway service! ↩︎