universal...I mean, I don't think it's fair to typecast all women that way...but maybe it is generally a female thing. Still I find myself having homebody thoughts sometimes, even as I dream of being able to cruise to the Arctic one day...

Ever heard of Roz Savage, the ocean rower (rowed the Atlantic) who is now trying to be the first person (or woman?) to row across the Pacific. Just read an article about her in the paper the other day. Seems she was a very well-paid banker in London, and she and her husband had just bought a nice big house in London...you can well imagine the cost of a nice big house in London. She recounted in the article that her husband turned to her after the purchase, proclaiming, "Well, we'll never have to move again now, dear."

With a very short period of time, her life flashed before her eyes, she recounted, and realized she wanted no part of that kind of life any longer. She divorced her conservative husband (I'm not saying that's good or bad, just saying he was much more conservative than her re: having a nest) and eventually set off to row across the Atlantic.

In short, he was the one who needed the nest! ;-)

See link below, 'Goodbye husband and career, hello high seas'. Gave me pause to think...sometimes I am a bit of a homebody, sometimes I'm incredibly happy, when out, to wander rather 'homelessly', with few possessions or plan. It all depends... ;-) I suppose it's a matter of making sure we, or any two partners going cruising or whatever, are on the same page? Maybe that's what I'm struggling with a bit, on the one hand the fear of having mortage/land/property ties become a problem while cruising; and, on the other hand, recognizing that it could be a really important financial nest egg builder)...I'm just thinking out loud here. Leah, my ol' lady (er, you know what I mean), sometimes refers to having a nest while out, but sometimes has a very free-spirited let's-go-for-it and figure out the when/where/why as we go attitude. Seems like the trick is to find some kind of balanced...duh!

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Next spring, Ms. Savage will embark on the final leg of a three-stage bid to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean. She speaks to The Globe and Mail about pushing boundaries.

[b]Take me back to that day on the commuter train. What was the source of your unhappiness?[/b]

I was stuck in this job, feeling like I was just on a treadmill of having to earn enough money so that I could afford to buy the house that was near enough to my job. It was just like this crazy cycle. On Sunday nights, me and my husband would be just grumpy and unhappy about having to go back to work. And I'd think, you know, we don't have to do this. … I felt like I wasn't being true to myself.

[b]You eventually wrote two obituaries for yourself, the first reflecting where you felt your life was headed and then the obituary of your dreams. What did the first obituary describe?[/b]

I thought it would be a pleasant life. In 2001 we bought a big house in west London. But I think it was the purchase of the house that helped bring about crisis. Because I heard my husband say, we need never to move again. And I just thought, oh my God, is that what the rest of my life going to be like? There's a part of me that always wanted to be a writer. And I felt like, to be a writer, I needed to get a lot of rich life experiences. Maybe when I heard him say that, I realized it was incompatible with this dream.

[b]Why couldn't that life include your husband?[/b] Etc.