This is a really quick thing, just to say that I’m not dead. I’ve been back in the real world for the passed year or so, since my travelling adventures.
My travelling ambitions are by no means dead though, and I will be getting back to the wanderlust things soon – I have an adventure in mind for later thi year. Until then, though, this blog will be a little quiet.
How exactly do you fit your life (or what roughly constitutes the stuff you need to live your life) in to one bag? Bearing in mind that you will have to carry this bag, with you, in all kinds of places, for who-knows how long whilst trying to be prepared for most eventualities. Not to mention the fact that I could quite easily set up a mobile pharmacy with all the drug-precautions I’m taking with me or give Annie Liebowicz a run for her money, lens-wise.
And it’s all changed since I last had to pack for a trip like this. Way back then – 1998 ish, when I was leaving for Tanzania – I made the biggest schoolboy-rookie-n00b mistake on the planet – I took waaaay too much stuff. Well, I’ve learnt my lesson. Nowadays it’s all about the minimalism. Heck, all the cool kids now roll their clothes, just to shave a couple of extra nanometres off their internal volume. Well, if that’s what the cool kids do, that’s what I will do.
In fact, rolling with it is a pretty good strategy. And I’m not just talking about my grundags here – rolling with it in life, or at least in a trip such as this – is the way forward. I’m convinced that 97% of high blood pressure is caused by worrying about _every_ _little_ _thing_ and that if you cut yourself a little slack every now and then – and accept that pretty much, shit *is* going to happen – then you can be a lot more stress-free.
Maybe I won’t take my Guinness slippers after all.
Well, hello. And, of course, welcome. Thanks for stopping by. I don’t know who you are, or why you happen to be looking at my wee spot ‘o’ t’Interweb, but nevertheless, thanks for being here. And for being you. Because without you, none of this would be possible. Fortunately, you *are* you, and this *is* possible, which is where we find ourselves, around about now.
What this is though, perhaps requires some definition. Alternatively it’s painfully obvious: it’s my travel blog. The weblog I am keeping, or, at least, endeavouring, to keep, whilst I am away travelling.
Whoops – did I jump the gun? You’re (I’m) away travelling? Yes, I am. Despite Guernsey being a fabulous place to live and work, my feet got just a little too itchy. After numerous visits to the doctor, I was pleased to hear it was nothing medical and in fact, something else entirely. It was mental. (Not in a “you crazy twat I’m going to rip your fucking head off” kind of mental way, I hasten to add.) Almost, philosophical.
It seems, though, that it’s not an altogether unusual thing – to want to go off and explore for a while – as I’m repeatedly told “you’ll meet so many people on your trip!” – which maybe takes a bit of the gloss off the whole thing. But undoubtedly there are only a handful of people who are lucky enough to be able to do it.
And I’m one of them.
Now, I do have certain things I want to get “straight”, if you will, as a part of this trip, and I’m fully anticipating immersion in a totally different way of life being one excellent way of doing that. Alternatively, a few months of glorious pacific coast surf ought to be another. Failing that, I don’t think you can really put a value on the experience. So it’s win-win, really.
So there it is. I’m Matt and I’m away travelling for awhile. Thanks for stopping by, and please, do stop by again. I’ll be updating this as often as I can. I’d love for you to keep in touch, either via the comments, or via Facebook, or maybe you know my email address.