Manchester Airport

Well I'm here having the first gin and tonic of the holiday.  M6 was a nightmare with the rain but just took my time.  Case checked in, perfume (too much lol) purchased and just relaxing until flight called.  Flight leaves at 20:10 but boarding from 19:10 so plenty of time to chill.

It's crazy his life just takes you on this journey.  Who would have thought that I would have ended up going to Bangkok of all places.  My father served his national service in Malaya as it was then.  He ever really spoke about the horror of it all, but at times would tell my brother and I about the sea and the jungle.  Back I. My black and white childhood (but remember I'm only 29) the Far East seemed like another world.  But now our planet is so small.  I think he would be proud of me and my spirit.  The sense of adventure I have, at times, astonishes me but hey this is my life and I need to make the most of it.  So Thailand - the land of smiles!  Since I was a child I can always remember there being a Buddha in our house; I guess from my Dad's experiences.  In fact, the Buddha that he gave me many years ago come with me in the car it just didn't seem right not bringing him lol. But now I am going to see so many different Buddhas, temples and hopefully elephants!  

A lot of people this week have said 'oh I think you are brave'.  I'm not brave - bonkers maybe, but not brave.  There are so many people out there being brave, day in day out, I'm not in their class.  But what I have learnt about myself is that I have spirit, I'm not frightened to give things a go.  Can't just sit around waiting for something to happen, I need to go find it and that takes courage.

Last Sunday I watched a film with Julia Roberts in it called Eats, Prays, Loves and saw, to some extent my life being played out on screen .........OK I'm no Julia Roberts lol but that aside, it was me, my life.  At the end of the film she said these words, which for me, rang true:

I've come to believe in something I call, the physics of the quest.  If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting. It can be anything from your house to bitter old resentments and go on a truth seeking journey either externally or internally.  And if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue and you accept everyone you meet on the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared, most of all to  face and forgive some very difficult realities about yourself - then the truth will not be withheld from you.

I have, over the past few years left behind a great deal of familiar things, not through my own choice.  I have been on some amazing journeys and meet so many people who love me so very much.  Now it's time for me to face and forgive some difficult realities about myself on this trip, to find some inner peace, to make new friends and above all else my friends, to have fun.

So enjoy your Friday evening and tomorrow night I shall be in Bangkok lol!