Nights of fun - pt 1

It is rare that I chose to catch the last train home from London, as it does not pull into Gillingham until almost 1am and is usually full of drunken louts and shady characters that I would otherwise chose to avoid, but this last weekend I ended up on it three times in a row.

On Thursday I was invited out with a group to go to a 60's Roller Disco near Vauxhall, a suburb of London that so far I had never has reason to visit. As I knew that I was coming back to Gillingham on a late train I decided against trying to take fancy dress clothes, and considering how poor my skating turned out to be this was a wise choice.

To see a piteous fool slipping and sliding all over the place, like a punch drunk octopus on land, is bad enough, but to see one dressed in bell bottom jeans, fake Afro and anti-war make up then one loses their pity and only sees the fool.

My friends were great fun, especially one who is as totally drop dead sexy and sweet of face that only a 21 year old model can be, and so I had the added problem of trying to not look a complete idiot in front on someone I was instantly keen on. { Needless to say she already has a boyfriend and needless to say I wasn't told until the end of the night. Sigh }

After being the first ones there { a personal first for my friend who I swear was born late and feels that this is the only way to live } I was eager to try and get my skating legs on, but it wasn't more than five minutes before I almost ended up with three broken ribs, thanks to some management jobsworth { who clearly never learned to skate themselves } and decided that cast iron traffic barrier railing with no padded skirting is the ideal way to section off areas!

Two hours later I began to feel that my ankles were suffering and it was a monumental relief when I finally gave in and removed the hellish masochistic devices of torture, after which even the briefest of glances could tell that I was now the proud owner of several puffy bruises which would get worse before they got better.

Dont ... Fly Delta

From this moment on, the working title of my travel book will simply be thus, "Don't ... fly Delta"

 

The reason being is that they have frustrated and infuriated me for the last time with regard to the loss of my luggage back in June 2007.

 

And so when I go around the world, taking flight after flight after flight across almost every continent in the world I want everyone to know that I did so cheaply, happily and most of all ... never on a Delta flight !

 

For customer services I have never seen quite their level of uncaring and only Nationwide Building Society even comes close to their being out-and-out jobsworths who are unwilling to help with even the simplest of queries.

My dream fullfilled

Hey, guess what ... great news ... my travel plans are now complete, as far as I am able.

That's right. Over 30 flights and over 85 hotel / hostel rooms in over 30 countries in a sensible route around the world have all been carefully researched, taken into consideration, arranged and if at all possible also booked and paid for in advance.

Best of all is that by booking in advance I have managed to secure a few fantastic bargains along the way and have managed to set and stick to a fairly modest budget, which most people can't believe when they hear how much I have arranged.

Of course, there will still be a few visa issues at border crossings, airport pickups and drop offs and the like that can only be done while on the road, and I'm not even going to delude myself for a split second into thinking that everything will go off without any hitches along the way, but all the hard work is behind me and now all I have to do is go out, enjoy myself and most important of all .... LIVE.

I have travel insurance in place, my redundancy money comes through in less than three weeks, my works leaving do is all arranged { and on good terms so no hard feelings either way }, my house is in good hands, I am catching up with most of my good friends before I leave the UK, my snooker performance is consistently acceptable and even my hair is behaving itself.

I even have a few months left before I leave to dust off my old Spanish text books and brush up a bit more of the local lingo before I go, not to mention the chance to do a bit of extra temping work just to throw a few extra pounds into my savings pot. I even have time to design and have printed my own "Touring T-Shirt" just like my favourite rock bands do whenever they go on the road.

There are not many moments in life when things are going this great both in the present and for looking into the future.

Yes, at this moment, I am in a very happy place and the only thing missing is a loving, respectful and caring woman by my side to share it all with, then my life would be truly perfect.

I would not swap my life or the year to come for anyones as I feel that I am on the cusp of achieving a memorable and worthy ambition and I am finally becoming the man I so eagerly wanted to be while growing up as a small child.