Four months. One hundred and twenty days. Then I retire from.....what do I call it? My job? Career? First career? It is still a full-time job though, between you and me, I am not very invested in it since I handed in my notice. We have never been so busy as we have been this last few weeks and months. Elsewhere on one of our other websites you'll find an account of the LondonDo. We are immensely proud of this, our first attempt at ......at what? I am not sure what to call it. A phenomenon of the social media age. Flyertalk have had Megados before. The Star MegaDo is an annual event attracting addicted travellers and attention from far and wide. Our event was though, possibly unique. American Express, Virgin Atlantic and especially Hyatt Hotels made it possible and fun. I am particularly proud that we raised over £1,000 for The Connection at St Martin in the Fields. We also made new friends from the USA, Singapore, Germany, Norway, Indonesia. People from all manner of different occupations. We now have friends to meet up with on our travels. Life just expanded.
Our beach - soon to be left behind
So, where am I now? Where have I come from? Well, having been born in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, South-East England, I was raised in nearby Marlow (or Great Marlow). Grammar School elevated my ambitions and Medical School in Leeds launched me into a peripatetic lifestyle that somehow brought me back to the land of my fathers, Wales. My father was Welsh and I grew up surrounded by Taffs though I never learned the language. In Wales I am regarded as an Englishman which is ironic because I never felt at ease with an English identity (too passionate for all that stiff-upper-lip stuff). In Yorkshire I was labelled as a Southerner and assumed to be posh though I came from decidedly working-class origins. In my profession I stand out as being from the wrong social class, in the working class I seem too clever and well-off to be trusted. So, I've always been an outsider. Plus, my first name is an anagram of WANDER, my maternal grandfather was from a travelling background and so I guess I was just born to move around. I'm not looking for sympathy here, I feel content to be free of ties to any place. Home is about who I am with.
Home!
I have been married twice. As the first ended in divorce, it won't surprise anyone if I don't recall many happy times. My ex was not a very adventurous traveller. There are parts of Spain which are scenically beautiful and culturally extremely rich, likewise Northern France. Repetition though tends to fatigue the appetite and children are the last thing you should pack when going on vacation. These areas are, for now therefore closed to me. I always wanted to see Iceland (an ambition fulfilled on honeymoon in 2007) and well..... as many diverse cultures as possible (a work in progress). I did like Amsterdam though and reserve the right to return. In the past few years we have been to Sophia, Budapest, Vienna, Koln, Paris, Rejkyavik, Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Abu Dhabi, Geneva, Heidelberg, Dubai, Singapore, Munich, Bangkok, Berlin, Hadahaa, Hua Hin, Evian les Bains, St Galen, Baden Baden,Muscat, Levi, Lindau and a few I've forgotten. In a little over two weeks we head off on a far-eastern tour through Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and China. In March we move to Berlin. In May we visit Japan. In August we'll be back in the UAE and the Maldives possibly taking in Sri Lanka on the way. Next October it will be Vietnam and Cambodia and hopefully Malaysian Borneo. I want to see Mt Kilimanjaro, Hawaii, Buenos Aires, Rio and we haven't even mentioned North America yet. Where do you begin on such a vast continent? The world is a giant Smorgasbord of experience and I'm hungry.