A year ago today Daisy rolled-out of Istanbul and I started my adventures through Central Asia. 120 days of utter wonder, travelling through and experiencing some truly amazing places, meeting some awesome people and giving me more to consider than I've ever had to digest before.
120 days of living in very close quarters with a bunch of people I'd never met before - 3 of which I spent the whole 120 days with; 2 of which I spent 100 days with (Olly and Jan, the crew from Istanbul to Beijing) and some I didn't get to spend anywhere near enough time with. To a greater or lesser extent, I'm still in some form with many of the people I shared time with. Alas there are a few who I've fallen out of contact with - if you're reading this: Hi, drop me an e-mail. I'll to be a little (lot) better at replying.
( Don't ask about South America yet - I'm still working on understanding Central Asia. :-) )
My change of plans has resulted in the last few months being very very different from the prior 7, but that is no bad thing - a change is as good as, and all that. So where am I now...?
I'm back living and working in London, having just moved in to my own place a few minutes walk from my office. I'm back doing IT security work, where I happen to be working for another large insurance company.
It took my a while to get my head around the fact that I hadn't taken a step backwards in doing this - another job which, on paper, is similar to the one I walked away from to go travelling. A few months in to the role and I'm happy that I've not done that; although I've undone all too much of the good work I did in prep for travelling - something I'm fixing, again.
I still haven't started to make sense of what it is I've seen and done - if nothing else the 3 hour round-trip commute I had prior to my move was mentally and physically killing me, leaving me with no time or energy to do anything else - but I hope that will change now life is a little more "normal".
The next couple of months is going to be mostly rebuilding a new normality - but don't ask what that is, it'll just happen.
On the subject of asking... Many people have asked when I'll be back on the road, the answer to which is "I don't know". I want to travel more and I have a long list of places I want to go, I just don't know when I'll do another big one. I'm currently toying with travel options for this year - a few "small" breaks, possibly around the UK and Europe. But really, who knows. Plans are there to be changed.
