The Plan
Ever since I returned from a bicycle ride across the USA in 2004 it’s been hard to settle down and accept the usual grind of everyday life. I tried making the most of it as we do, but sooner or later I ended up going around that familiar old mill one too many times. In fact, it seem’s to me that the time between the up’s and down’s of accepting this way of life, knuckling down, getting on with it gets shorter and shorter until at some point I broke and decided I just has to do something about it.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I had to do something otherwise I just knew that I would either go mad or regret it later on in life not getting out there and living. We’ve all heard the saying “do you work to live or live to work?” I think my life had started to border on the later. I mean, I tried to picture myself lying on my death bed one day and saying “hmmn, really glad I stayed at work for another 20 years and didn’t go on that life changing experience!”
Back towards the beginning of 2006 I had been toying with the idea of upping and leaving for Australia, my plan was to cycle around from Sydney to Perth by way of the south coast. This would enable me to combine two of my passions, cycling and kite surfing. When I got to Perth I would investigate settling down and getting back into IT with a fresh outlook.
With this rough idea on my mind to keep me focused I continued in the normal fashion of making the most of life, still unsure of what I should do. It wasn’t long before my sister called from Australia to say that she’d landed a temporary job in recruitment and that I would more than likely be able to get sponsored to go and work over there. This was welcome news and I started thinking that something was finally starting to come to fruition.
Like most things in life, nothing is that straight forward and shortly after I formulated this plan it was to be further complicated when I met Jen. I decided that I would stay in the UK to see what happened between us, knowing that there was no real rush to get out but so long as it happened someday soon. By the end of 2006 Jen and I were together and she told me that she would be happy to join me on a cycling trip wherever it may be.
We’re now living together and have decided to take some time out to cycle around South America. Currently we’re in the midst of planning and buying equipment for the trip, trying to sort out all the complications that we call life, in the vein hope that sometime during this summer in July we will finally be on our way, living another dream and experiencing all those big skies which we like to call life!
