We need to talk.. (BIG LIFE UPDATE)

We need to talk.. (BIG LIFE UPDATE)

Hello and welcome to a different video from what we would usually do joining me just sit down for how do we start this off this is such a different Vlog happy New Year Hello friends we are back we went a little bit Mia over the last

Couple of weeks hope you all had a wonderful festive period a new year happy New Year wo we are wishing you all of the very best wishes for 2024 we really just kind of got really stuck into just enjoying the festive period didn’t we our friends and family we back

Home we were back home and it was just a really lovely time and we just really L into it and decided to kind of switch off from everything and I think it did us the world a good it definitely did yep and today we’re just going to be

Doing a kind of a catch up with you guys cuz we miss you I know that you miss us as well and yeah we just want you to say happy New Year what we’ve been up to and basically what you can expect over the next few weeks from us and to remind you

That we still do exist hello we’re JMA and Campbell in case you forgot who we are um as JMA said we’ve just been basically this last like month or so so I think it’s been a month since we released five was it our five road trip

Was the last video we released and it has been it’s been about 3 or 4 weeks now but we’ll get into all of the reasons why it’s been such a long time since we last did it and we’ll go into everything that’s been happening behind the scenes because there’s been quite a

Lot happening and then today we’re also going to discuss with you what our plans are for the future as well like it’s going to be a little bit of a different year for us 2024 we’ve got some really big things happening and we’ll get into all of that later on and so basically

What have we been up to for the past like 3 weeks eating a lot of good food that was the Ben Lorry going pass from all the packaging um of the food that we’ve been eating for the past 3 weeks we have been starting our running

Program because we are aiming to run a half marathon this year so we are really getting stuck into a kind of good training program starting to run more getting into the gym fat for night’s over yeah just kind of getting stuck into it aren’t we exactly and as you can

See we are in LA but unfortunately she still isn’t working and we’re going to get into that later on what’s wrong with her and what we’re planning to do about it and stuff but it’s a reason reason why another reason why we’ve not been on the face of the earth is just because

We’re still waiting around just trying to get her fixed basically yeah we did see last year that I am actually due to do some nursing errors this year for my registration and we had kind of hoped that that would have started by now unfortunately it hasn’t we’re still kind

Of in limbo as to where the work is going to be whether it’s going to be North whether it’s going to be South which has kind of put a bit of a pause on where we book Al in cuz obviously we don’t want to book it in and then we end

Up moving somewhere else so yeah kind of just been waiting to find out what’s happening with that hopefully things will start to pick up this is the week is week this is the week we’re putting out there into the universe please we need to start our road trip and that is

Our new book basically we’re already writing a new book we’re already doing the kind of initial stages of the research for it and and we’re really excited to tell you what it is and what it’s going to be about as I said we’ll save all that juicy stuff for the end

Yeah through the Christmas period we’ve just been kind of being at home spending time with friends and family it’s been the longest amount of time we’ve actually spent at home since I would say probably five years I think I was working out the other day I’d say longer

I’d say unique yeah yeah six or seven years wow easy and so we’ve just been kind of leaning into our our Mantra all through like the whole um fortnite over Christmas was just saying yes we’re saying yes to absolutely everything just to try and spend as much time with our

Family and friends as we can that involved me going to see Wonka at the cinema two days in a row because I couldn’t say no J I went to see it with her friends and then said it was so good and my family were going the next day

And I was just like you know what why not let’s just go again yeah I’ll come too and we had Christmas with our families I was with my with my mom dad and my sister and you went up to your granddad’s yeah and your aunt was there

And his neighbors were there and then the next day we had a combined Christmas again yeah which I think was our third Christmas dinner actually cuz we had did do a Christmas dinner like two weeks before that then during that period between the two we went to the pantomim

With um jma’s brother and his girlfriend we then did New Year in Glasgow we went up and did a k cuz it’s my M’s 30th birthday on the 1st of January and we did a K in Glasgow it was so much fun um we kind of said to ourselves we try make

It a yearly tradition and because it’s in we did it where was it again in cers cers which is like a big old abandoned church and it was like live music that was dinner and it was only about 75s or something yeah it was really good really

Good really good fun and and then after New Year what do we do we were just kind of again floating around that was more into waiting for your nursing to pick up um and just embracing I guess actually we spent so much time at home that we

Started to fall into like should we just buy a house like we know we were chatting to you guys last year about how we’re searching for land and that eventually evolved into like land is going to be a lot of work and we’ve got a lot going on this year so we didn’t

Really want to kind of step into too much of like building a house we like we found ourselves flat hunting I’m going to be really honest I had a bit of a meltdown over just how messy my life felt I started the year and I was like

This is going to be a great year and this was the second of January all of a sudden I was just like everything is everywhere we had emptied out ear to go in for the repair work and we were kind of going between Campbell’s house and my

House we’re really lucky that we only live like 5 minutes around the corner from each other but I’m we’re really grateful as well that our parents are happa for us I know I know for such a long period oh my goodness my stuff was everywhere and like I was like I can’t

Actually deal with this like I need to either have it all in the van or or have like we were just my brain was getting so consumed every day of like packing bags it still is but I feel like we’re maybe managing it a little bit better

But it was just like so consumed of like constantly thinking of what I had to pack and I was like I can’t do this I have too much going on too much to think about and Campbell turned around to me said I just found a really nice flat you

Want to go and view it and I was like what I know I was like well why not viewing two different ones and then speaking to mortgage advisors and stuff and I would say like there’s we got no intention of stopping traveling anytime soon it just means that when we are home

For these periods we would have a base and somewhere we can actually go and unpack go back to an office debrief create the content not constantly be worrying about like gas electricity all well in the van anyway these kind of things and I would also note that like

At this point in time we didn’t have a home because Ellie’s like so broken that we basically can’t use her um for any kind of purposes there’s no heating no lights running water doesn’t work no shower like she’s basically a giant car with a bed in the back of it so that was

Part of our meltdown however what it did do was give us a really good opportunity to like get all our a roll work out what is financially feasible for us and then for the next two years we’re just going to be like grafting hard working towards being able to get that mortgage um

Because we’ve got some big plans for next year as well involving more international travel I guess like or honeymoon type stuff yeah and it would it would just be amazing to be able to come back from that and be in a situation where we can just actually get

A place to call ours yeah yeah I think in the long run like we know that we do want to have a house or something like that one day so I think it was like a really good opportunity for us we went and viewed a couple of places I learned

About things that I didn’t even know like existed it gave us like a good kind of road map as to like okay well if we are actually seriously going to do this I think one it gives us a bit more like of a savings goal and two it kind of

Give us a bit more of like a plan as to like how are we actually going to achieve this one day of course Ellie will always be in thect because we love van life and we love exploding and we will possibly still spend majority of the time in Al but it

Is always nice when situations like this happen that we would have somewhere that we can go regarding ear uh like ourself it’s basically I think it’s something to do with a fuse box I’ve got a big fuse box under here and then behind that fuse box whoever installed it before we

Bought it I don’t know like I don’t know if they were Italian or something because it’s like Spaghetti Junction under there it was someone that is a pasta en Enthusiast and just like it is I think we dropped off on Christmas Eve at the repair shop and the guy was like

No no no no worries I’ll have a look at it we’ll get it fixed don’t worry about it I’ve done this loads of times and then I got a phone call four hours later it was just like yeah you’re going to need to book it back in again because

That’s a multi-day job and I think your dad said I think he just literally looked underneath it and he were like Bo straight back down I’ll do with that next year I was I’m not touching that um so I think she basically needs a whole new rewiring of the fuse box under there

H and that’s a big big job that is like way out of my depth so we’re we’re we’re in a position where we can’t really get our booked in until we know where we’re going to be because anything to do with like motor home or van repairs

Everything is booked up until like end of January at least and that was in December we’re probably talking until like February March now so we need to know where we’re going to be yeah before we get our booked in and a couple of days ago we did say we were like why

Don’t we just leave let’s just go pack the van up and go somewhere um we can just use hot water bottles to keep us warm we’re like going to the gym anyway we can just use the showers at the gym we can manage without run intact we can

Just use these big water canisters to wash our dishes we can make it work we lived in a small Toyota high in Australia I might add it was warm over there um and there’s showers and toilets everywhere but anyway we were like why don’t we just do this like let’s just go

And then we started packing up and the next day we saw the forecast for the next week and it is literally ice and snow I think Canada’s coming to the UK it’s likeus 10us 8 in Glasgow next week this week now yeah and we were just like

Okay um maybe we should just hold off a little bit so we’re just going to wait as I said Monday is going to be the time we’re going to get there yes we will get there we also are determined to not like burn out from just like making really R

Decisions and running around like headless chickens this year that kind of brings us on to like what we’re going to chat about next is like obviously jma’s looking for work and we are getting there with that but what we’re going to be doing probably over the next couple

Of months at least whilst jma’s working full-time in nursing is unfortunately we’re not going to be able to post as regularly on YouTube we found like at the end of last year especially we did actually burnout like I had a proper burnout complete meltdown until um until

We stopped and kind of reevaluated our situation that’s why there was some breaks between like our five Vlog and the one before that we just weren’t in a really good space with YouTube stopped enjoying editing it we found ourselves we’re almost like forcing Adventures yeah we like we need to finish this

Video but so to do that we still need to like go out and do something and then we were like okay where are we going to go where are we going to find and we’re like okay why are we doing this like we need to be really wanting

To going for a good reason and wanting to go in that moment and not just going because we feel like we should do and like we owe it to you guys that we’re doing like genuine adventures and stuff that we’re really hyped to actually go and do rather than just doing like stuff

For the sake of it so we decided that this year especially during When J was working we’re not going to be able to post it regularly unfortunately we’ll try and keep these up to date with what we’re up to we do post on Instagram every single day like we’re doing really

Well on Instagram just now loads of people are enjoying our content and we always have posted on the Instagram stories and Facebook Stories every single day so if you want to keep up with what we’re up to I would suggest going and checking that out as well and

But we’re thinking this year we’re going to be doing more like Big Adventures we do have a lot of adventur plans which I’ll chat about next and and we’re going to be doing more kind of targeted series like we did with our Ireland series like

We did with our what else do last year um Europe you know did a big Europe road trip we’re going to be doing more series like that I guess um around the UK and we do have a big big trip planned in March um first time we have ever gone to

This country and it is massive so it’s very exciting but I guess we’re just trying to try and focus in a little bit more and just do targeted things that we think you guys are really going to enjoy Jo rather than just like fluff for the

Sake of a video at the weekend what we are going to do instead however like don’t worry if you do want to see us regularly we do and we have always talked about doing like a kind of podcast type thing so what we’re we’re thinking two different podcasts now that

I’m seeing it we’re trying to not do as much content but we’re talking about doing two podcasts um we we can’t get out there and travel but we do have a lot of kind of like experience and knowledge and exciting Adventures that we still want to share with you so what

We can do instead is we’re going to do a Scotland travel podcast where we just chat about past Adventures that we recommend that you guys go and check out places that you would love to see and then just reflecting on the kind of old stories that we’ve like cuz we’ve we’ve

Been traveling Scotland now for like 12 15 years exactly we’ve got so many good stories still to share that we don’t necessarily have footage for but we love talking about them so that’s it’s going to be a place for that and then also we’ve been shooting a lot of behind the

Scenes content on our wedding um such as like the we they went and did an alotment shoot kind of an engagement shoot I guess up in GL cool we shot some stuff there when we were in Greece you know we were shooting like a complete raw Vlog of like the whole planning

Process over there what our thoughts were um that we’ve not shown anyone yet cost and Roads um so if you are venue hunting and before then like when we got home we’re going around wedding venues in the UK you know we’re still like

We’re doing a lot of v w well it was a wedding fair we went up at englon so we were like our entire process we want to try and document everything like a wedding is going to be so expensive so thought we may as well create memories

For life from it and document every single part of it and document how we actually felt I mean I know that it’s going to come to the day and you’re going to forget about how you feel and you possibly want to forget about how you feel through some of the planning

Process because it’s not always been smooth sailing I know so maybe I shouldn’t be wan to that’s what I want to remember though it’s like it’s about the Journey of It Journey it’s been a roller coaster and we want to share our learnings and give you a little bit of

Value and if you’re thinking of doing a destination wedding it could be very valuable yeah and also if you just want to see more of kind of behind the scenes stuff then that’s for you so we’re going to be doing more of a kind of Lifestyle um

Type podcast and raw Vlog thing with that um again won’t be posting regularly but we’ll be updating it um through our newsletter and or across our Instagram on social media and stuff like that so if you want to like watch that go and follow us on Instagram basically and I

Guess that just brings us on to like what’s next what is next big big road trip in March like I said we’re not doing much up until then but in March where are we going are actually before March we are okay we are going somewhere inch for them we are well before March

Oh we’re going to be at the NEC we are speaking every day at the NC at the motom Caravan show so if you are coming please come say hi and we’re going to be speaking about Scotland um Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday so we’d love to see you there um

We really loved going last year and um speaking at these shows is a big part of what we’re doing this year we are going to be back in the UK a lot more even just things with um wedding planning wedding dress alterations things like that so we’re going to be backing

Forward and because it’s the year that I need to do my nursing hours as well so between that we’re going to be a little bit busier back in the UK a lot so we are making the most of getting to these shows cuz they’re so much fun like I

Love them love that in February um between that I’m hopefully going to be nursing Y and maybe some little mini Adventures here and there and then in March we speaking of exhibitions we got an email slid into our DMS last year completely out the blue and absolutely

Bow our minds away if you could have told Campbell 5 years ago like before we kind of started taking Highland hammock a lot more seriously and as a business that we would be doing this I would never have believed you but we got invited to go and sit on a panel and

Talk about van life in America in Las Vegas at the travel Goods Association mind blowing what I know um so we are ecstatic about this and we’re really really really really excited so that’s the 13th or the 15th of March in Las Vegas if you’re in America I can’t

Remember if they’re open to the public but if it is Google the TGA or the travel Goods Association see if you can get tick us to that cuz um again like if you follow us and you’re watching these videos we would love to meet you over in

America and on the back of that we’re planning a big California road trip from Las Vegas we want to go out and see the Grand Canyon we want to go and you wanted to go and see Orange County for the OC we want to go and see and Los

Angeles we want to go and drive all the way up to San Francisco um going to hit all the national parks and stuff it’s been such a bucket list destination for us like I can’t believe that this opportunity is landed in our laps I still feels s New York yeah we’re going

To go via New York as well I think going do some home alone sight scene and then and then what we’re going to do is our plans are anyway like we change our plans like the wind but we’re going to be flying from there up to Calgary

Because um our friend Rachel Works in bam if you’re watching this Rach show I haven’t told you this yet surprise guys I want to sleep on your couch I I was waiting till this was more confed but here we go we’re in the depths of it now

Yeah it’s all right our our friends don’t watch this um so yeah we’re planning to going up to Bam and maybe hiring a car driving around Calgary bam national park again just a place that I see photos off and I just never actually thought I would ever go there because

It’s just so amazing and so out the way um and so scary almost to like try and plan a trip to there where we’re kind of sitting down and be like uh this is like nothing we’ve ever kind of planned before size of it is just insane and

Then yeah that’s going to be like March and then kind of half of April after that like we said we’re just going to be doing some UK road trips so some parts of like Scotland and England and Wales that we really want to go and visit

Really want to go and do research for books that we’re going to be writing and I guess just go and do before we go abroad like we said next year like there’s so many bucket list places in the UK out of hdes being one we want to

Try and spend a good month or so like hopping Island hoing on the west coast of Scotland we have neglected the Scottish islands a lot we’ve been to a fair few but there are so many many and they’re stunning stunning the beaches are just insane so we’re really excited

To get out to like L and Harris and M like all of these kind of Western aisles the other thing we’re going to be doing definitely next year actually for our next book is we’re visiting Wales we touched in the southern coast at the end of last year down in like the go

Peninsula and absolutely fell in love with it so we thought like this has been somewhere where you guys have been asking about for a book as well and we wanted to go back and do a lot more research and produce like a destination whales book and final details are still

Being hashed out but we are planning to spend a good couple of months around the Wales region uh and just really turning that inside out and getting stuck into it and we’re always open to hear your suggestions for uh I guess content ideas H blog post ideas book ideas so if you

Have any ideas things like that like please drop that you will find very useful that’s what we want we want to be helpful to you guys basically yeah so please um yeah leave us a comment send us a message send us an email whichever way you prefer and we will see what we

Can do we’ll see whether that is going to be one of our next projects yeah apart from that then we’re there’s nothing else happening next year is there nothing big no nothing nothing that big just getting married going to end married in gree and Roads next year

This year this year this year I keep saying next year actually this year now and that’s very very exciting I always laugh actually because last year when I was planning out this year I was having a bit of a meltdown like during my kind of like meltdown pH at the end of last

Year and I was almost like I’d like to remind myself that the year doesn’t end just because I get married I felt like because we’re talking about doing these big trips next year after the after the wedding we want to go and have like a big honeymoon and like make a big deal

Of it um I felt like almost that my life was ending after I got married I know honestly you were like we need to do this this this this before we go and I was like why don’t we do it after I can’t do it after and he’s like but oh

Yeah you don’t after you get married since your life’s over okay like we’re still going to be able to go in Adventures getting married doesn’t stop that I know so it’ll be fine yeah unless we absolutely spend all of our money getting married but yeah that’s not

Going to happen because we are on a budget so that’s very exit for next year and then to round off the year as well actually it’s still to be confirmed but we may or may not be heading to Norway next November December and then some European Christmas Marcus and stuff so

That’s basically what 2024 has in store for us there’s a lot of Adventure in there as much as we feel like we’re not going to be doing as much there’s still definitely a lot of Adventure in there I think it’s just starting off slowly but

I feel like at the start of the year I guess everyone starts getting into like goal setting mode and gets really like everyone wants to start the year on like a really good start and I think we’ve just been trying to like take that slow

And just work out okay like what do we really want from this year and I just kind of like taking it easy doing my goals like not rushing into it just kind of easing into the year I mean we’ve been behind our laptops and stuff a lot

But so it’s like going to been a good structured start but a good structured start in the sense of getting ourselves organized for the year ahead like we know it’s going to be busy I know once we leave here it’s going to be like bum bum bum bum bum kind of getting things

Organized now and I think the slow start isn’t necessarily A Bad Thing y definitely and also completely forgot because again we’re living between so many different locations we’ve got a brand new product which we’re just releasing this month to get it quickly turn the heat on when Kell went to get

That cuz it’s very quickly cooled down in here but this Tada is our brand new campan log book this has been like 6 to8 months in the making we are ordering a really limited number because we’re not really sure on the demand of it um so if

You want one then I would get in quick it’s got all of the kind of layouts that you need to document your trips so we’ve got a kind of planning section trip planner and then it goes on to the log book page so you’ve got your cost per

Night your location who you went with some little notes about your stay things that you can kind of keep track of and that little Journal section highlights of your trip what the weather was like the cost of things what the mileage was we know that like every every single

Person that we speak to that does kind of van life travels they seem to have like some kind of folder somewhere of like written scraps where the where the best well camps were where the best campsites were what activities they did and stuff like that so we wanted to

Provide you guys with a way of documenting all of that how amazing your adventure was and what you got up to and for memories and then also just for like future trip planning and future recommendations in a really easy and AFF way and we got we’ve got some little recipes in there

Cuz I know we’ve been talking about this re B for a long time nearly two years now maybe and we still haven’t actually finished it but we’ve kind of been doing it but we haven’t finished it yet and but we have got a few favorite recipes in there and we’ve got maintenance

Planners so you can keep track of like when you get your mot or service done there’s a whole whole host of things what I’ll do is I’ll put a QR code here over Jemma’s face and that’s going to be a sign up to the mailing list where you

Can get all of the details when it is like ready for launch and stuff like that about what’s involved in it and how you can how you can buy it and we’re going to be sending that out to people first so if you do want to get yourself

A copy of that make sure you join that mailing list and we’ll be able to send it straight to you we’re very excited like this has been a long time in the making and we’re very pleased with how it’s turned out and we were kind of

Hovering over it the last sort a month or so and then we thought no do you know what like we’ve kind of I think we’re happy with everything that’s in it now and and we just need to see if you like it too yep so let’s just get it out

There but apart from that guys uh I hope you’ve enjoyed this little catch up we will try and do it if we aren’t online for a little bit we’ll try and do more of these as well because I just love love chatting to you guys love keeping

You up to date with what we’re up to and we appreciate and support you so so much in 2023 it was incredible best year of our lives and it’s all thanks to you all thanks for the support you give us all thanks to the words of wisdom that you

Leave us in the comments like we love hearing your stories and what your recommendations are and stuff like that so and your help like there’s been so many great pieces of advice thank you thank you thankk if you’ve got any electricians watching that know how to

Refuse a motor home slide into those DMS please because we desperately need your help but yeah thank much please come and say hello if you see us on the road because we love that too we love catching up with people in person yeah hope you enjoyed it and we’ll catch you

Again in the next one see you

Episode 122 – We have been MIA for the last month now and we have some big news as to why.. Join us for a good catchup and hear all about our behind the scenes action as to why we have been missing this last month. #vanlifescotland

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~~GET TO KNOW US~~

A free-spirited couple from Scotland with hearts full of adventure, and a passion for what is yet to be discovered. The best things in life really are free and you do not have to be rich to travel; Our goal is to show the world that anyone can and should make the most of this beautiful planet.

Since our first trip together to the golden sands of Fiji, we have spent every day working on our journey back to paradise. This is our story of how we get from the highlands of Scotland to the hammocks of Fiji.

The raw side of travel.
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Join us and realise that anyone can travel, you just have to take that first step.

Gemma and Campbell
highlands2hammocks

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