In The Beginning...

I wasn't going to do this.  I was going to leave it all behind, go off for a year or so, email people occasionally, leave comments on Facebook and post loads of photos.  But then people started asking if was going to do a blog.  My first reaction was why?  What can I add to an already well covered subject?  Apparently they just wanted to know more.  They actually wanted me to make them more jealous!  So, by minor demand, here goes...

Let's begin before the beginning.  How did I get here?

Five years ago I was living a comfortable life.  A wife, a mortgage, a steady job.  But something didn't feel right.  Our paths were starting to diverge, our desires no longer mutual and the compromises starting to become too great.  So we divorced, sold the house.  Back down the ladder I went, renting with friends, working out what was left of me after a long relationship and getting back on track.. I still had that job, though something still didn't feel right.  But what to do?  I'd been stuck in the same office for 12 years by then.

Two years ago I went to see a friend in Hong Kong for a week.  Nice little holiday.  Last year they invited me back, this time to join them in South East Asia for a couple of weeks.  Had I not been tripping my nuts off on a tooth infection I may not have agreed so readily.  But that's where it began.  The cogs started to turn.  Was this just another holiday, or was I dipping my toes into something new?  What came back from Hong Kong this time was a very different person.  Alive for the first time in years.  I realised that the only way to work out what to do next was to strip it all back and start again.  And to get away from that comfortable life.

So in four days I head out east again, my worldly possessions on my back (although the various people looking after stuff in my absence may have very different opinions on that) to change as a person, to see what I'm capable of and what I want to do with the rest of my life.  I know, I'm living the cliche - I'm going to find myself.  But I've been missing for a while and Hong Kong is the only place I've been since, so it makes sense to start looking there.

And if anyone's interested, the ex-wife is happily leading her comfortable life with all the trimmings she desired.