What's this all about then?

So here we are, mid-July 2007, the summer has failed to get its act together and life plods along at its usual lack lustre pace but changes that began longer ago than I realised are now in full swing, my life is about to turn a corner and for better or worse this is it, the only way is onwards and upwards. But let me start my blog with a (not so) brief historical insight into how I got here and where I am headed.

I am 27 and up until last year was settled, I had a job I loved, which I still do at the moment, I had the house of my dreams, which I still live in and I was married. It is this last point that has been the catalyst as this is the area of my life that has changed and had a definite domino effect on everything else. The details of the breakdown of my marriage are and always will be between me and my soon to be ex-wife but needless to say we got to the point where it was just not going to work so we called it a day, there were no kids involved, we are both still young and can move on with our lives, only paperwork and time now stand between me and a finalised divorce.

When I split from my wife it caused me to take a step back, to look at my life so far and think about what I had done with it. I was relatively happy when I looked back, my relationship with my family has been gradually improving over the years, I have a close group of friends and a large network of acquaintances and rarely find myself at a loose end at the weekends. I enjoy my work as a PR consultant and like where I live. The only problem was that I was restless, I felt that if the settled family life I had been planning was not to be mine just yet then I should do something amazing, something that if I don't do now I never will, something that will help me find myself and make sure I do not make the same mistakes in life that I have up until now.

Now I met my wife while I was at University, I was in my final year with plans to finish off my degree and hit the travelling trail with a couple of my course mates, but I fell in love, she had a year of University left and I didn’t want to leave her so I stayed in London. We had talked about going travelling together after she finished but a year is a long time to wait and you pick up commitments, convince yourself there are better things to do, focus on your “career” and before you know it years have flown by and you are no closer to slinging all your worldly goods onto your back and heading off into the sunset because you just have to much stuff going on and there is always and excuse: “Let’s just go on lots of holidays instead”, “We can always go when we are older”, “What about the house?” and so on. So when I found myself single for the fist time in 6 years I realised the decision became easier as there was only one person to convince, I did not need anyone’s approval or permission apart from my own, independence rules!

So I find myself making the decision to do it, to travel the world and see as much as I can because if I don’t do it now I will lose the chance, the independence, and the urge. In March I decided within myself that I was going to do this, now I just had to decide how.

What I wanted was a sign, I am big believer in fate and that all things happen for a reason so was pleasantly surprised, but not shocked when the answer was waiting for in the Metro one morning, I opened it up and saw an article about a rather crazy bus journey from London to Sydney that was leaving in September, Australia has always been on my list of places to go and this trip sounded amazing! I called up that night and as luck (or fate) would have it there was one place left on the first trip leaving on September 16th 2007. After chatting with the organiser via email and sleeping on it for one night I took the plunge, handed over the deposit and committed to what I hope will be the experience of a lifetime, the OzBus.

This blog will serve as my diary, somewhere to share my thoughts and experiences as I travel to Australia, the updates may be sporadic as I have no idea how easy it will be to get on the Internet but they will come. I now have 33 working days left then two weeks off before I go. Keep coming back to see how I do and where I end up and never forget that the past may have made you who you are today but it should never limit who you could be tomorrow.