My first blog......OK, for those of you who know me well....dangerous!!! Forewarned - I blab....alot. Now I can blog....alot. Only if I can find internet cafes. I am packing and packing - believe it or not I am attempting to just go with a carry-on - yup, a few months (maybe) with a carry-on. It is proving to be very difficult and I have made many trips to MEC - buy/return/buy the same thing again!!!! Thank God I don't know anyone in Asia - they won't know why I am wearing my clothes inside out.
If you have received this link it is because you are on my 'nice' list. Feel free to come along or not. I have been lucky enough to have come on year long journeys with some of you and loved every minute of living vicariously in the Bedouin Women's College in the desert, or fighting spiders and tears in the southern Thai islands or moving lock/stock and barrel across the pond to England. You have inspired me to be braver and grab life as it comes.
So many of you were so supportive to me through chemo year and were so kind in commenting on the impact my words had on you. Those emails were heartfelt and their power came from 'being in the moment'. Often difficult moments. Travel is like that for me. It is often very difficult but I can't say I have ever regretted the effort or the inconvenience or the time I have spent.....OK, there was that one taxi driver in Cairo demanding a blow job before I could get out of the cab but......I did get out and I am sure he remembers me too!!!! I love the possibilities travel brings: the meeting of travelers from all over the globe, seeing something foreign and each one of us seeing it through our own lenses. It constantly reinforces how small the world is and although we may seem different from one another we still find the same things funny or scary or sad.

Tuesday morning (Jan 13) 0630 hrs, I head to Vancouver. One hour flight then a five hour wait before heading to Beijing. Twelve hour flight. Then get off the plane and it will be a whole new world......ahh the possibilities! Everything new to me!!!!!