Sunderland, England, United Kingdom
September 30, 2013
It’s been a while since I wrote this very first entry into the blog. At the time it was enough to do what it needed to do, announced the start of my adventures to the small band of friends who wanted to follow me. Now 5 years later I feel it needs a little more depth and background for the new readers among you.
In 2013 I lost my job of 14 years and took what can best be described as semi voluntary redundancy. I had things I wanted to do at that point in my life and although it wasn’t pitched as being voluntary, of the four lads in our very small team I indicated that I would happily be one of the two of us who were going to be released. Sure enough, a few days later I was taken into a small office and handed a letter that outlined that I was to be released, how much my severance would be and that I would also be receiving 3 months of gardening leave pay before my termination date. This was it. Although it was something that I knew I wanted, being told you no longer have a job after doing it for 14 years can still suck the wind out of you. I felt an uneasy nervousness wash over me, interwoven with utter excitement and exhilaration.
I only had a couple of weeks work left to do some hand overs of the various projects I was working on then that was it, wake up every day and decide what I wanted to do with myself, freedom! My mind was all over the place. I had the luxury of time and money on my hands now, freedom to decide the next chapter in my life but all along I knew there was only ever going to be one thing I did with my redundancy and it certainly wasn’t going to be spent looking for another job. I set my sights on working as little as possible and seeing as much of the world as I possibly could.
By June of 2013 I had packed up and left my flat, bought a little banger of a VW Polo called Daphne and threw my tent and mountain bike in the back of her. I headed off to the lake district to spend the next three months of the beautiful British summer mountain biking,hiking and living in the great outdoors, it was absolute bliss. I had the rough start to a trip planned in my head, mostly consisting of ticking off all my boyhood dreams. Europe to Asia over land aboard the epic Trans-Siberian railway. Into Mongolia then East to China. South from Beijing to Hong Kong then after that I would continue into South East Asia with no set route in mind but a myriad of countries I wanted to get to. It slowly started to take shape until eventually with just a few weeks to go I pulled all the essentials together. Visas for the countries that needed them arranging in advance such as Russia, Mongolia and China, my Trans-Mongolian rail ticket sorted and a ferry from Stockholm to St Petersburg booked. The 3 beautiful months in the Lake District living out of the back of my car and tent drew to a close and it was time to get the adventure underway.
Below is the original brief first entry I made. I hope you keep reading and enjoy the rest of the adventure as much as we enjoyed it at the time.
“Can’t believe the day has finally arrived now!
All packed and ready to roll, if it’s not in the backpack now it’s not going with me! Hopefully its going to be a long time before I set foot on British soil again. I’m so excited about everything that lies ahead…..now just one more pint in Fitzies and ready to head to Amsterdam!”
