Monday 18Th March.
It was with a heavy heart, and a slight wince, that the Captain's "The weather at Heathrow" speech was received, not just by me, but by the nice lady sitting next to me, who almost wept. " The weather at Heathrow is as follows....7 degrees centigrade, and raining ". Groan. No socks, my coat still in a flat in London, where I had left it, expecting not to need it mid-March, in Spring, when I had several sweatshirts that I had thought would suffice. It was freezing, grey, and wet. Great. Climbing on the bus to Brighton shivering, I was met by a very cheerful, smiling, Barbadian bus driver, who, as it turned out, was to be my only company on the journey home. Sensing my depression settling in, he very kindly lent me his coat, encouraged me to sit at the front with him, and regaled me with stories of Barbados, happy times, and his anxiety at missing any of the stops in Brighton, as this was his first run on this route. I promised to help him with the stops, and he fended off my impending misery - it could have been a lot worse.
Once home, and reunited with my boys (my dog and my cat - who has doubled in size - immediate diet !) I turned the heating up to maximum, had a very hot bath, and thought about the future.
Doing the job I do, you see a very condensed version of life, and it's difficult not to imagine that every life-changing personal disaster that happens to your patients, will happen to you. Although we know the odds are better than that which we see every day, it still makes you think that life is shorter, often, than you expect, and every day is important . It is so easy to suddenly find yourself 20 years down the line, doing the same thing, without ever having really grabbed life with both hands. This has always been my inspiration for adventure,although with age comes the very real sense that time passes much faster, while the responsibilities seem to multiply.
I'm going to spend the next few months trying to work out a financial plan that will allow me to try and have the best of both worlds - maintaining my flat and mortgage, supporting my animals, and somehow managing to take 2-3 month trips doing what I now know I want to do - working in places with minimal resources, using my common sense and my experience, and exploring more of the world.
This is therefore my last post for a while, while I try and work out exactly how I am going to do that - but hey, nothing is impossible - right ?
Thanks for reading folks, and thanks for all the positive comments,emails, and FB messages.
Until the next adventure........
It was with a heavy heart, and a slight wince, that the Captain's "The weather at Heathrow" speech was received, not just by me, but by the nice lady sitting next to me, who almost wept. " The weather at Heathrow is as follows....7 degrees centigrade, and raining ". Groan. No socks, my coat still in a flat in London, where I had left it, expecting not to need it mid-March, in Spring, when I had several sweatshirts that I had thought would suffice. It was freezing, grey, and wet. Great. Climbing on the bus to Brighton shivering, I was met by a very cheerful, smiling, Barbadian bus driver, who, as it turned out, was to be my only company on the journey home. Sensing my depression settling in, he very kindly lent me his coat, encouraged me to sit at the front with him, and regaled me with stories of Barbados, happy times, and his anxiety at missing any of the stops in Brighton, as this was his first run on this route. I promised to help him with the stops, and he fended off my impending misery - it could have been a lot worse.
Once home, and reunited with my boys (my dog and my cat - who has doubled in size - immediate diet !) I turned the heating up to maximum, had a very hot bath, and thought about the future.
Doing the job I do, you see a very condensed version of life, and it's difficult not to imagine that every life-changing personal disaster that happens to your patients, will happen to you. Although we know the odds are better than that which we see every day, it still makes you think that life is shorter, often, than you expect, and every day is important . It is so easy to suddenly find yourself 20 years down the line, doing the same thing, without ever having really grabbed life with both hands. This has always been my inspiration for adventure,although with age comes the very real sense that time passes much faster, while the responsibilities seem to multiply.
I'm going to spend the next few months trying to work out a financial plan that will allow me to try and have the best of both worlds - maintaining my flat and mortgage, supporting my animals, and somehow managing to take 2-3 month trips doing what I now know I want to do - working in places with minimal resources, using my common sense and my experience, and exploring more of the world.
This is therefore my last post for a while, while I try and work out exactly how I am going to do that - but hey, nothing is impossible - right ?
Thanks for reading folks, and thanks for all the positive comments,emails, and FB messages.
Until the next adventure........
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