Things We No Longer Care About

Our families thought we were crazy as we slowly packed our lives into 4 suitcases. I kept hearing them say we are living the “simple life”. I was not fully on board with that yet as our lives were far from being “simple” at that moment. We were up to our armpits with selling and giving away all of our worldly possessions and saying goodbye to some of that “stuff” was not all that easy nor simple. Then, making loose plans for moving our future lives to an eventual (and still) unknown final destination, while starting off our first leg of our journey in a place where the traditional meals were eaten with your fingers and everyone spoke a foreign language.

Okay.... our life was NOT simple. It was freaking stressful, but the excitement of the adventure somehow seemed to numb what we were doing. The tickets had been bought, the stuff sold, the house emptied, the suitcases were packed, the mattress out on the street for prearranged pickup, and we had that feeling of OMG we are really doing this as the plane left the ground. Maybe the simple life was on the other end.

However, little and big things that we previously viewed as life priorities, or must-haves, things that we fretted about daily, and material things we couldn't live without but left behind, are no longer on that list. Wave a magic wand, say some words and poof, those important things vanished. As we look back, it’s difficult now to comprehend why these things were previously so essential to our existence, and yet we just don't care anymore. It looks like we really did get into living the simple life.

Space.

We lived in several places while we were in Canada. West coast living was great in a large three bedroom condo, and living in Ottawa was a three story house with a pool. Back to Vancouver into a three bedroom townhouse with tons of space for our hobbies and entertaining. We thought we needed to continue to occupy large quantities of real estate when we headed south but compromised for a two bedroom place. We have no dog. Our children are grown and are not traveling / living with us. We have four suitcases of clothes – that's it. The spare bedroom sits unused except for harbouring our art supplies for our painting class, an old guitar that we bought for $100, and some old flip-flops.

Moving forward – we are moving into a one bedroom place when we get to Barbados as we just don't need the space anymore. The new apartment will be about the same size as our Ottawa kitchen and living room combined. We spend our time outside, or it's just the two of us enjoying a TV show in the evening. We certainly don't miss having a huge place nor do miss having to clean it!

Hair.

Both of us had jobs where we needed to dress nice and have our hair combed and styled. We went to parties or out for lunches and dinners and it was always important to look in the mirror to check our hair. I had to shave every day for work and also for family / events on the weekends. People looked at you weird if you didn't look salon fresh.

Moving forward - After our first week of a daily dose of sun, humidity, pools, sweating, and wind we gave up. We both got our hair cut short to something that was low maintenance and easy to manage., and we just don’t care anymore. Cyndi's Canadian-naturally-straight white-girl blond hair was never meant to look full and flowing in this 85 percent humidity. My blonde hair was styled in a longer look before we left but it got cut into a short Mexican haircut the first time I went to a barber here. Both of us have wash and wear hair. No muss, no fuss, nothing, except Cyndi found some sort of superglue hair spray that goes in like varnish after a quick blow dry. Done.

Footwear.

Living in Canada it was of paramount importance to both of us to have socks that don't make your feet sweat and yet are stylish in shoes or that make a statement on plush carpeted floors. We also had many rows of comfortable shoes and boots to wear every day. I remember going through three or four pairs of black dress shoes each year. We also needed to have the best running shoes for use during weekend shopping or visiting with family and friends. It seemed a constant decision for choosing and wearing the right footwear, and the money we spent was astonishing.

Moving forward - since arriving in Mexico I have had absolutely no need for socks and shoes of any kind. I am so happy with buying flip-flops at the same rate as black shoes and I enjoy having them on my feet much more. The difference in price tag is also a nice change. I have flip-flops for the pool, flip-flops for going out for nice dinners, flip-flops for long walks, flip-flops for wet days, and a nice pair of leather sandals that basically sit in the shoe bag all the time. I am always barefoot at home as it keeps my feet cool on the smooth tile floors. The exception to this rule is when I am pursuing a meatball marathon in the kitchen, making my world famous meatballs. The hard floors get tiring after a while. Cyndi still uses socks and running shoes when we go for our long walks to the grocery store as she feels she needs the support when we are cruising across cobble stone streets that are everywhere here. There have been several incidents where she lost her footing and I believe she would have fallen and hurt herself it if hadn't been for her walking shoes.... I also believe that will change for her in Barbados - they don't have cobblestone streets there.

Cooking.

I decided it would be absolutely crazy if I didn't bring my Danish Cook Book with me, so it was one of the first things that landed in my suitcase when we started packing. I wanted to keep making some of my favourite dishes from that book. As it turns out, it has remained closed, as my simple kitchen and the warm weather is not inspiring me to make complex Scandinavian delicacies. Hmm, I could sure taste some pickled herring, liver pate with red cabbage, cold cuts with italian salad and stinky cheese right about now...

I thought I would miss having lots of kitchen space and the three sets of stainless pots and pans that I used daily. We have changed our daily menu somewhat and I have been able to get by with three pots, one fry pan and one stir fry pan. Our rented apartment came with a couple of small bowls. We had to buy a few sturdy plastic ones to get us through our one year stay here. Life is different here. We make half of our meals at home and the other half are either skipped (due to being too hot) or we eat out...that's my favourite – someone else can stand in a hot kitchen and then deliver fresh garlic prawns, chicken burritos, or tuna steaks to me.

Cars.

We’ve never been ones to purchase incredibly expensive vehicles, however, as we had things to do after work where we both needed transportation at the same time, we owned a car and and SUV. We were diligent in getting insurance and registration paid ahead of time and always added additional insurance, just in case.... We looked after them maintenance-wise and they never looked dirty. We were proud to be drivers and we enjoyed not having to walk anywhere. We also got very out of shape, and fat and lazy.

Moving forward – we sold our vehicles and now we have none. We don't need one. We walk everywhere as things we need are close enough that we can walk to them, and we take the bus or taxi when we have things that need to carried a long distance. We are much more healthy from the walking, have saved all sorts of moola from not paying for all of those vehicle related expenses, and I figured out that we spend annually on taxis and buses the equivalent of insurance for one vehicle. If we need a car we will rent one. I am looking forward to renting one in Barbados as they might still have those great little open Moke cars – great to bomb around in for sight seeing - and we could rent one (maybe a yellow one!) for a weekend once in a while and see how much sand we can drag home.

I wonder how many of these things that have now become low priority would revert back to our old thinking if we moved back to Canada. It's great that we have been able to change the way we do things as part of our new retired living. Hopefully we never have to care about those things again.