Llama or Lodger?

Since coming back from our big trip we are not really sure what to do with our lives. Before going our goals for the next 5 years were to have a baby and move to a different country probably in that order. One of the places we were both quite excited about going to on our big trip was Lebanon. We wondered whether this might be the place for us because I really like arab culture, they speak French and Arabic and Dan speaks French and I speak a tiny bit of arabic. They have mountains and beaches and although it's majority muslim it's ok to be a christian, and as with most countries the weather is better than here. But we weren't that bothered about it after going. It was cool I'm glad we went but I won't be disappointed if I never go again.

Since getting back from our trip I've stared to feel a lot more settled in Liverpool, I'm appreciating all the great things about being here like all our friends that are here and we have electricity. (in Lebanon there were constant power cuts, there were 3 hours a day of timetabled power cuts and extra ones on top of that, and we were living in one of the best places in the country for electricity.)

So if we're going to stay here for the foreseeable future...(which I'm not saying we definitely are) What shall we do with our lives? Here are some options we have discussed in the month since getting back.

1) Buy a big house to and get 2 or 3 lodgers. There's this really great one that we've seen with 5 massive bedrooms, 2 big reception rooms 2 bathrooms a utility room and a study... really nicely done up and ready to move into for £135000. I doubt we'd be able to get a mortgage on that amount but we kind of nearly might be able to when Dan gets a job. This is the smaller of the 2 reception rooms:

One downside is we'd probably get shot living in that area. Check it out here

2) Have a baby, that old classic... it's a very popular choice for people at our kind of age and stage in life, a little mainstream but I'm sure we'll give it a go sooner or later.

3) Foster a child, I would like to do this one day probably not in the next 5 years but it's not the most crazy idea on this list.

4) Get into bee keeping. This is Dan's idea, our friend Jenn Haith has just been on a bee keeping course and now owns several thousand bees. Apparently you can do this course for free if you're on Jobseekers and Dan loves a freebie.

5) Get a kitten. It's hard to decide on this one. The pros are cuteness and the cons are cat hair, cat litter, the smell of cat food, vets bills, cat hairs, and our cat suffocating our future baby. We just need to decide how important cuteness is in our lives.

6) Join the circus. I'm not joking, we've been invited by Josh Simpson of Wild Goose arts to join him for however long we want next summer to teach circus stuff in eastern Europe. If you're interested check it out

This is me and Josh in our student days hanging out on stilts.

7) Become a comedienne...I'm going to try and do a few more gigs and see what happens. The main thing attracting me to this career is the fact that as I'm already self employed it would be no extra paperwork to become a comedian. I've written a few new jokes since getting back from my trip my favourite one is about eskimo-muslims.

8) Get a llama, probably the least serious of these suggestions but there are some second hand llamas for sale locally, if you want them don't let me stop you. They're here.

So there are some of the options, most of them require Dan to find some employment first. (he quit his job to do the trip) Maybe we should put it to a vote.