Of travelling...

Travelling is good for you; it expands your horizons ... literally! And it's a nice way to get out of the daily cycles and the daily habitat where it’s so easy to feel bogged down and claustrophobic. When you get out of your turf, there's a feeling of liberation, there's a feeling of getting out of your own skin and there's a feeling you're a free man, wind in your face and world being your playground. Travelling seems like a universal panacea for the office dweller, bored out of his wits, counting the slow decay of monday into tuesday, tuesday into wednesday, you know the drill...
In actual fact it's all in your head, psychological stuff to keep busy psychology students for a long time and be awarded life long contributions to the field of psychology when they manage to figure it all out.

My immediate travel plans include Granada in 2 weeks, a weekend trip ... I quite fancy weekend trips as it doesn't eat up into your holidays and it's still a nice way to have an initial feel about a place. And then you can go back and explore more passionately if you like it. Then it's Thailand in december, 3 weeks, including the Christmas. This is planned and almost written off already, cost-wise, I mean. I have some other plans for the next year, but they all float in the fluid abstract ideas-land, we'll see how many actually materialise.

But I have one plan which is more ambitious than all the others and dwarfs them all by far, one that needs careful thinking and planning, one that has the potential of changing the course of your life for the better, but at the same time, it has the potential of getting your knickers in a twist – if you’re wearing any. I'm thinking of taking a year off work at some point and travel around the world. It's easier said than done and we all know that, but for me it's even more difficult.
I've always been quite focused on my career and always absorbed in my little ambition of career progression, and always used to it going upwards and even more upward. It didn't go down so far, although there were some glitches along the way. Nothing too serious, just a company or two going bust, like they always do when the faintest smell of recession is in the air. Taking a year off might sound like a serious downfall in my glorious path to Rome, or the Rome of my ambitions.
It's also about money, I'm usually a saver, saving money and used to have a constant flow of money into my account. Absolutely hating having to dip my hand into my savings. A year off travelling would be a serious dip, up to your elbow perhaps?

But then you have to look at it all from a different perspective. Think about being old and looking back at your life and thinking ... there were so many things I could have done when I actually was able to, and still I didn't do them. And now I have an extra pile of cash, what's the use?! You have to find the right balance between saving money and spending it, between living your life to the fullest here and now and catering for future needs.

There's one zen story about a prince looking for the secret of life. So he goes to this very wise king, living somewhere very remotely, as in every story. And the king tells him ... take this tea spoon, pour some tea in it and wander around the castle to see the beauties that I have accumulated in my life. But be very careful not to spill a single drop, otherwise you'll miss the whole point. The prince goes round the castle, always looking at the teaspoon, so scared not to spill it. When he returns the kings asks him if he saw any of the beauties of the castle. But of course not, he was too focused on the teaspoon. Do it again, but this time look at the beauties, for Buddha's sake! The price goes around, gawking, fascinated by the castle. And when he returns, there was not a single drop in the teaspoon, he spilled it all.
The moral of the zen story is a simple one ... keep a balance between enjoying life and being focused on what you really want to achieve long term in life.

Travelling for a year has the potential of changing your take on life altogether, but it also depends on how you travel ... if you're too focused on the teaspoon you'll end up ticking countries and places on your TODO list and retain nothing long term, the only result being an unjustified injection of pride into your ego.

All in all, it's the sort of journey you can look back from the end of the tunnel and say ... yes, I'm proud I've done it, it's such a good memory and I would be someone and somewhere else if I hadn't done it. Of course, you'd say that from a tropical island, surrounded by babes in bikinis, sipping your Bacardi Breezer 2040 edition and enjoying your first years of senility.

Now, waky waky, back to work!