Well I biked back from Newbury, learnt a lot about what I can achieve, much more training required unfortunately but I get to do that as I travelled, I’m no writing this up on my parent’s dial-up connection. Something that I’ll have to get used to while I’m travelling I guess… Complete lack of Internet between stops. Hopefully it will be a little easier in Europe when I am couchsurfing and such like. Well either way it was a 4 day trip in the end, the last one being an 11 hour trip that went across Exmoor during a storm.. The way I look at it, if I can survive that I can survive pretty much anything Europe will throw at me, as long as I’m prepared to camp if things look bleak.

I met a lot of kindness on route as well, Lin and Mark who gave me shelter on the coldest night of the year in a caravan they had vacant get a special thank you for their unbelievable kindness, as this tells you if you’re reading I made it back alive, sorry it took me a day to get this up online.

A few things do spring too mind though, one big one is camping and a stove, with a stove you free yourself from relying on others for hot food and drink. I started to get more into the idea that it’s okay to knock on strangers doors for getting your water bottles filled or asking for a bit of tent space to camp on, but it’s difficult to not buy food (expensive) when you can’t cook your own, so I’ll get my MSR superfly as quick as possible. However, bakeries are also excellent suppliers of food when needed .

I also have to consider the ‘office padding’ that I’ll be losing fairly quickly, at least 10kg will soon be burned off and that’s extra stuff I can carry about. But after cycling up the Mendips and Exmoor I now realise just how vital weight is to a cycle tourist, Still I’ll be adjusting and readjusting all my kit, so it’s more organised etc.

Well that’s all I can think off to write for now, I’m going to upload my garmin track route for the journey at some point so I’ll write more then.

So my last day at work passed me by, I have finished. With no set date to start up again. It felt a little weird, I don’t think my mind realises that it’s actually happened yet, it will probably be mid January when I realise what I’m doing.

It’s a bit heart rending to leave the people here, I’ve made good friends and last night I went out for a murder mystery evening with a few of them which rocked! I’ve never done one before and aside my slow reading of all the material (do’h) we all had great fun.

I’ve sorted out all my bills, got my dell mini laptop and I’m now just clearing and cleaning my house room, by room, by room, hopefully I’ll get the paint today or early tomorrow so I get at least a room painted over the weekend!

My bike sits glaring at me from the corridor as I have left it unridden for a day or two now, I’m really looking forward to my return bike to Barnstaple from Newbury, but I have so much to do in the meantime I can’t worry about that yet.

One thing I have been considering before I leave is my journal, I have a nice leather bound diary that I want to fill in with something meaningful as I travel, as my blog (in theory) is going to be covering most of the what’s happening generally as I travel as a day to day diary I’ve decided on another tack for my journal.

Recently I’ve finished reading Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness) a Japanese book by a hermit Yoshida Kenko who about his works wrote:

What a strange, demented feeling it gives me when I realise I have spent whole days before this inkstone, with nothing better to do, jotting down at random whatever nonsensical thoughts that have entered my head. – Yoshida Kenkō (as translated by Donald Keene).

For those who don’t know (which included me until recently) the essays comprise a preface and 243 passages which varying in length and subject. There aren’t any dates, just numbered entries, and each one is written as an individual point separate from all the others.

Many of them cover death, life, faith, humanity and humility but also strange mannerisms of the lifestyle of his time and culture, because of it’s roaming nature it reveals a huge amount of Japans character at the period and not just amongst the high courts (like the Pillow diaries) but amongst the general public.

Obviously I’m not a buddhist hermit, zen master, or fantastically eloquent writer so I’m not hoping to write anything as poignant, but I think it’ll help me frame my thoughts and it’ll be slightly more novel than just logging my thoughts, the only slight alteration might be a map of where I am so that I can mark down when I had the thought.

Things seem much more real the closer I come to them, I’m too busy to get sidetracked and nervous, but not quite busy to stop questioning all that I’m doing, I’m getting the last few bits of equipment, I’m sorting out my flat, I’ve cancelled almost all my regular payments, now just looking at getting a Netbook (Probably the Dell Inspiron mini 9 as it’s a mere 1.035 kg). And more to follow the post title my final day of work is Wednesday! how that’s come about already I’m not sure, but it feels a little crazy.

It also occurs to me there’s a never ending list of things that are handy to have, and which I’ll never really need or use, I’m begining to think I might just buy what I need as I require it and trade / sell what I don’t as I go along. Right now I just want to be off and on my way, I just wish all these irritations of life could just be done with. I have all the necessities now (except spare parts) , everything else is just weight or padding.

Things are going from coasting to rocketing and I’m being pulled along with them, can’t quite believe that in just under two months I’ll be setting off on a bike into a crisp January morning (here’s hoping for no rain on my first day). While I’m pretty tame compared to the people out there who have crossed the world I’m seeing this foray into Europe as just the begining, a test of my willpower.

I have consistently applauded people who have pushed the limits of what others consider possible. We can all push our limits but few actually bother too. I have let my life slide into a rut of computers and office work, put on weight and cobwebs in my head until I was so sedated I didn’t even realise life was passing me by.

Now suddenly I feel alive again, I feel like there’s a purpose to everything I do. Work is just a passing curiouso which I’ll be leaving on the 19th. I keep bouncing between excitement and terror, because I’m finally approaching something that will test me unlike anything else in my life.

Kit and time is becoming a major headache, buying the last few bits and trying to work out what I ‘really’ need and what I can just buy when I happen to need it. Still it’s all baby steps, first off I’m cancelling all my direct-debits and sorting out moving home for this last month. Once that’s done I feel I can focus on what’s important, living life rather than working through it.

On a site related note, I have been experimenting with Flickr for my Gallery and Umapper for my routes, with varying levels of success, it ’seems’ that I’m getting there.