First off, Will thankfully, has quit his job. He was getting up at eight to arrive at work in Southampton for eleven then departing to wherever required. He would then work until 8PM at which time he would return to the office in Southampton to sign out and return home. Yesterday he was, ironically, working in Gosport. He trudged round Elson, Bridgemary and Gosport until 8PM at which time he returned to Southampton, finally getting home just before 11PM. Emma and I agreed that doing this six days a week for an amount which, after travel, would amount to less than £4/hour, pointless!
Secondly, Sam has all of the legal requirements to get himself on the road finally. Not in a car as the insurance is prohibitively extortionate, but rather on my Honda Cub 90. No, that's not correct anymore, Sam's Honda C90. As I write the boys are cruising around Gosport on their machines, nice one.
After yesterday I realised that I needed a plan, a way forward, a means to figure out how to bring together all of threads of my existing interests into something more coherent and manageable. I drew two lines on a piece of paper with the headings Writing, Travel and finally Other at the top of the resulting three columns to represent the areas of current interest. I realise that this was not very imaginative but it did reflect the three areas. Under 'Writing' I listed:
Sausage trail
Fighting spirit
Black Hound Publishing
Short stories
Timbuktu
All of these are in various stages of completeness with some not having been paid much attention for some time. Then, under the 'Travel' heading I listed:
Murmansk - July 2012
Mongolia? - September 2013
Round the world - 2014
Shetland islands (s)
Pig festival, Trie Sur Baise, France - August 2012
Romania (s)
Bulgaria (s)
Florence
Hungary (s)
Those with a (s) are designated of particular interest for The Sausage Trail.
Under the 'Other' heading I listed:
Ancestry
Stand-up
One of the insightful statements made by Emma last night regarded the scope of my plans. Trips to Timbuktu, Mongolia, Murmansk, Casblanca et al. are all very well but they take money, planning and above all time. Perhaps once a year or even once every two years these journeys are acceptable but planning one after the other is too much. Also the means of travel, as I mentioned yesterday is worth considering. A lengthy journey such as those mentioned should be planned sufficiently so that the participants can enjoy the time spent on the road and not just strive to achieve the goal, arrive at the final destination and as such these trips are special, they require forethought and adequate preparation, I have decided to isolate these and treat them as bonuses. If they happen that's great but if for any reason they don't I won't, from now anyway, be upset. This derives from the realisation, to which I eluded yesterday, that I can only plan for myself as far as travelling is concerned. This fact leaves all other items on my list as separate isolated opportunities or are they? That was supposed to be a mysterious pause, in reality it just made me sound like a twat.
I wandered a bit from the point I was trying to make so I'll start again. Emma made a very good point during our discussion last night which was to stick to small, short term trips. She's so honest and realistic it sometimes makes my pancreas ache. Thanks for that suggestion Emma.
Where was I regarding the remaining items on my list? Oh yes, they do have something in common, well most do, and those that do not can be easily categorised and planned. Yes, we are back to sausages once more. The sausage trail is reborn and becomes the focus for the foreseeable future. Destinations and writing projects can all be encompassed within this single subject. Let me explain.
I will be putting together a 'Sausage calendar' of my potential visits along the sausage trail with events and festivals. The book will be written on the way with an intended finish next August at the Pig Festival, La Pourcailhade in Trie Sur Baise in France. I can stick to Europe and travel directly, unfortunately, by plane. The rally events will still allow me to enjoy the experience of the journey, which ones I do has yet to be decided but they will, as mentioned, remain isolated from the sausage trail.
Following the travelling done over the past two years I had accrued sufficient points through Flybe to qualify for a free UK economy flight. This will be my first sojourn for a weekend somewhere within the UK, undecided yet but we'll see tomorrow.
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