Let it begin

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"What's the point in going out? We're just gonna wind up back here anyway"

I hope you don't mind me opening with that. I was originally going to try and wow you with a quote from MLK or TS Elliot, but then thought that Homer Simpson trumps them all! It's also nice to be able to quote someone else's words without having to follow it up with a footnote, or hope to God that the moderator knows the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarism. I'm going to be honest with you from the start; I had no idea how to introduce this, and I have no idea how this blog will go. I thought someone else's inspiring words would be more likely to grab your attention (even if that someone is fictional and thought the movie Speed was called "The bus that couldn't slow down")After all, the last piece of writing I did was the 10,000 word, bane of every students existence: my dissertation. Don't worry I'm not going bore you with that (unless you find the Livonian crusade a particularly nourishing subject, in which case Wikipedia is your destination!)

I'll briefly introduce myself: my name's Ed. Done!

Anyway moving on, if you have continued to read this far then you can pat yourself on the back; you've got past what I hope will be the most boring part of this blog. Onto the interesting part. Having spent a year and a half in various jobs and generally in a state of treading water I've decided now is a good time to blow my savings on a trip that will take me to southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand; I'm going to put off the world of the 9-5, help to buy ISA's and pension contributions just for a little bit. Now don't worry, this isn't going to be a diary of me going to "find myself" or having an amazing spiritual experience. Its mainly so I can remember what I do without having to piece together events just from pictures. Of course if you enjoy it then that's great 😊

It's now just under 24 hours before I jet off to my first destination: Chiang Mai. It's safe to say I'm a veritable smörgåsbord of emotions right now ranging from intense excitement to absolute terror that I'll lose my passport or be refused entry or something. Add to that I've just noticed that the time for my connecting flight to Chiang Mai from Bangkok has changed for no reason! Oh well, it's all swings and roundabouts isn't it?

So hopefully when I do 'wind up' back in the UK, I will have a bunch of good memories and awesome experiences to look back on and console me from the fact that my bank account is lower than Theresa Mays approval ratings.

I'm going to aim for a post at least once a week; but let's face it when does anything ever go to plan? Hopefully you'll hear from me around this time next week, so until that time later potater!

Ed

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