AJB’s Adventure #1 – Packing, planning & pondering

Posted by Andy Bell

 “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”  – Jack Kerouac.

A big trip beckons.

Big in terms of length & destinations.

I am off overseas for five weeks to the UK (birthplace), US (place of much inspiration & passion) and NZ (a place of calm … & Perky Nanas).

I’ll be reporting back on what I find as I wander the British Isles for the first time in the better part of two decades.

There are family members to sit down with, old friends to break bread with and some new places & people to see.

The familiar and the new are hopefully lining up.

As for the US and NZ – it’s a bit of the same without the baggage of the first 29 years of my life !!

As is my wont, my travel arrangements are ordered to within an inch of their lives & there is a week before my departure.

Some may tut-tut, but I reckon that if you get the nuts & bolts sorted out you have more room for manoeuvre, not to mention meander.

The meandering will be there from the get-go.

You may noy be surprised that my flight to London is across the Pacific & Atlantic.

There is a method in that madness.

Honest.

It’s a long time to be in limbo and that’s a place where you can audit what’s going on in & around your life.

Travelling takes to new places, not least those where you can view your usual place from a different & revealing angle.

I fancy this is a bit of a “moment”.

I’ll talk a bit more about this on Saturday night when I host “The Full Catastrophe” on Joy 94.9 from 2100 AEST.

Mind you, I will be fresh from the NRL Qualifying Final and a lot of the show could flow from the 80 minute journey just completed by  my South Sydney Rabbitohs against the Melbourne Storm.

Five weeks versus less than an hour and a half.

Time to really hit the road.