What to do next

Once the decision had been made about "where" to go, the difficulties were then about "how long" and "when" to go. And there arose a million questions that no-one seemed to have the answers to.  I searched the internet and bought a book on gap years but most of it seemed aimed at the 'volunteering in the third world' market.  There was very little on wanting to live abroad for a while, but without working.  I found a slovenian website run by a english-slovenian couple that looked like it could help with accommodation, and contacted them in January about likely availability of rented homes in Bled and the cost.  Without this, I couldn't work out how long our savings would last. 
They came back to us that the amount we'd suggested for monthly rental should be a possibility so my first list of costs was made and I worked out we should be able to manage to stay 10 months, if we were careful.  This would allow us to do some travelling during the autumn and spring and spend the winter in Bled enjoying the snow!

When to go was then the next big question.  I suggested the middle of august to allow Richard to see the Olympics and for me to finish the training for this year's pre-regs and to see the new lot in and organized before I left.  This was agreed for a few weeks, then Richard suggested that we would miss most of the summer in Bled going so late, and would have to leave before the next summer.  We both agreed this would be a shame if we missed out on the nice weather and didn't have a relaxing break before starting all the autumn travelling.  So we agreed on end of June/beginning of July, and we could stay until the beginning of May 2013!

With the dates set the list of things to organize only got bigger!