The beginning of a grand adventure...

---

Why is starting to write anything so difficult? From one distant memory - school - starting to write any essay would take me twice as long as constructing the main body of the text. Let's not even get started on university - where finding a suitable question to answer, let alone writing anything longer than four sentences in response to an examination question, was nothing short of a minor miracle.

At least the paragraph above has broken the ice - surely writing anything from now on will be a doddle? So where to begin...

March 2011 can comfortably be described as the start of my revolution. Aged 33, single, no dependants, own house, a solid and unbroken 12 year career in senior HR management. Roll forward one month to April 2011, and there's one critical difference - the distinct lack of employment. I can imagine that to most, this might seem a terrifying place to end up - mortgage still in need of payment, a social life in need of a willing participant, job required to fulfil both etc - however to me, it was a time for one enormous party and the beginning of a grand plan to do everything I wanted to but had not previously had the time, energy or, at times, willing to achieve.

I've not regretted one day since April. Not one minute nor one second. I've achieved things that I never thought were possible - from establishing a family bakery business (www.thecraftybakery.com - if there's one thing I've learned in corporate life, never let a good marketing opportunity pass you by!), to reconnecting with family I'd neglected while focusing on my career. I've also unearthed the joys of the school run, discovered a passion for jewellery making, and found out that a job as a receptionist in a holiday park can give you an equal sense of job satisfaction as a corporate career. I've also discovered that I've got the most amazingly loyal and wonderful bunch of friends, even picking up a few lovely additions to that group over the last few months. However, I also made one very important decision - to go on my grown up gap year - which brings us right back to the present day.

This time in two weeks I'll be in London. London's the last stop before the adventure begins. I hope that I'll be out in town somewhere, having a meal and a few beers with ex-colleagues, now firm friends for life. I hope I'll be babbling excitedly about my trip. I hope that I'll not be secretly bricking it inside.

I've still got a lot to do - from finishing the packing, to collecting the visas - but I'm excited, and can't wait for the next two weeks to pass. The intention is to write this blog as often as I can over the next two weeks, packing and preparing allowing, but once I'm away, to let you know where I am, what I've done, what I'm going to do and what havoc I've caused. I'll do my best to write humerously - to be fair, I'm no Dr Beaumont (and those of you familiar with the writing of said Dr B will have already gathered this/will understand why he has ghost-written sections of my life story in the past).

So that's it - the beginning of the blog and I'm pleased that I've got over the writer's block. My laptop's burned a big hole in my legs as it did take me longer than expected to get over that hurdle but still, no pain no gain. For now, I'm off to apply the ice packs/calamine lotion, and to work out how I'm going to get away with the dress I've bought for my leaving do on Saturday, when I've clearly suffered third degree burns on my lower thighs...

---