I’ve ambitiously, and most likely prematurely, titled this document “Blog”. Only one sentence in and I’m already misleading the two potential readers, my Dad and some girl I used to go to school with who is trying to pass her lunch hour.
As a habitual over-sharer, I’ve previously been tempted to immortalise my musings online, but held back in fear that I would regret it. Publicising my comedy of errors lifestyle could be discovered by future employers and my brother would be proven right about Internet-etiquette. Hence the pen name.
A view of Loch Lomond from Conic Hill
Like the majority of people I talk to in London or fortunate friends who have emigrated, chatter of the need for a balanced and happy life seems to be the topic du jour. Call us brats, call us Millennials, call it privilege but we’re not going to work in the same office for forty years only to be rewarded with a shitty gold-plated watch. Some take a gap year, punctuate the seasons with European city-breaks or choose to live on a Caribbean island renting out jetskis. Millennials have grown up with the technology to see that there’s a big world out there and we’ll be damned if we’re missing out.
I’ve worked in UK politics for most of my 20s, a job that I really appreciated having the opportunity to “do good”. It evolved dramatically over the years, starting with fielding emails about dog-shit and wheelie bins and more recently as an adviser on international development. There was a change in the political landscape, much the way a tornado changes the landscape, and suddenly I was unemployed. There was only one way it was ever going to go… Time to dust off the backpack.
Heather growing near The Whangie, a beautiful walk that will take about two hours and give you views of Loch Lomond.
The Route
The five month plan that is now formulating in my head is a series of visits to friends and family with some adventures shoehorned in between. Starting point will be India before moving on Australia to spend time with family. My third continent in as many months will be South America, probably starting in Buenos Aires before free-styling through Brazil, Peru and maybe Colombia. The last stretch will be spent on the west coast of the US with a road trip joining up visits to friends in San Diego and Seattle. My last port of call will be a stopover in Iceland to hopefully tick off the number one item on my bucketlist: the Northern Lights.
Whilst the route is peppered with a few essential pitstops, I’ve purposefully kept it flexible, a lesson I learned the hard way during three months in Central America. Out of all my travels this is by far the biggest journey I’ve embarked on. People throw the word epic around too much but this is definitely going to be an epic trip.
A distant view of Glasgow from The Campsies
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