New Photogallery Update

I've added a new picture to the photogallery. I hope you like it.

This is the last image before the Grande Tour starts

Also the last image to be added via my own broadband connection.

The Grande Tour is really close now

I have one and a half days in my own house, then it's tying up loose ends - and picking a departure date. Everything else is done.

After all this waiting it's odd that it is almost here.

I can't even say how I feel - I'm just doing it!

A funny thing happened ...

I've added by popular demand forums onto the Grande Tour website. To be completely honest a few people have suggested this in the past but I had some pleas that added more weight to the argument and so now we have forums.

I've chosen not to directly host the forum - simply because when traveling I may not be able to fix it. I've also chosen a slightly different colour. scheme. By all rights I should keep the colour scheme as CSS on the site and forum the same. However I've rebelled from that design standard for a simple reason. The forum and the Grande Tour website have different tones and purposes. I want both to fulfill their goals and I want both to have their own personality. Whether or not this makes a difference in the long run - only time will tell. But I like the fact that each is different and so for now it stays.

I'm now only two and half days from moving out and very close to announcing the first flight of the Grande Tour. I fell excited, calm, and just a little strange. I'm currently reading a book by Josie Dew about riding a bicycle around Japan.

Last night I attended a dinner to celebrate the awarding of an MBE to an old colleague of mine. Her name is Zakia Ahmed and she is the first muslim winner in Wales to receive an MBE. Why did she get an award? For outstanding commitment to solving problems in ethnic minorities - especially women in ethnic minorities. Well done Zakia!!

Officially Open

The Grande Tour Website is officially open.
You can visit it by clicking on the image below

Here's the plan at the moment
The Grande Tour website combines this blog with images taken on the Grande Tour, Information about good causes, information about myself and links to some relevant website.
The website then is a source for information about myself and the tour.

The tour schedule is looking like this
I move out of my house on the 29th of April
A couple of weeks later I fly off to my first destination - I'll post the date of that critical first flight just as soon as it is confirmed.

So - enjoy the site

Shortly this warm up phase will be over and I can stop talking about waiting and start talking about really exciting things

Filler Moment

It's the 17th of April. I move out from my house in 12 days time. I start the Grande Tour, soon afterwards. I'll post the date of my first flight in this blog - as soon as I have it.

This is something of a dead day for my. I've been exhausted. Something due to rounds of socialising, sorting, removing, selling and agonising. The hardest thing so far - what to keep, what to give away, what to sell and to trash.

Throwing things away is not very natural for me. So that is the hardest part of the experience. In fact it's almost impossible. I tend to store, hoard, use, reuse and recycle till destruction. So one of the biggest fillers of my time over the past few weeks has just been considering what to do. So much time - vanished on thinking about how to handle the loss of things. I feel like a pilgrim. Or at least very Zen. There is an odd calmness about me as I finally decide what to do with my chattels.

Trying to talk about it makes me feel like everything is drifting away. Serenity (a new life beckons) or denied panic (I'm losing everything)?

At this stage probably both.

The next two weeks are going to extremely busy. I suspect without much to say. There is only so much that can be said about boxes.

Yet I'm sure I'll have plenty of purpose and chat in me once I'm heading for my first of many flights.

Perhaps this is some kind of calm before the storm.

Amy Smith

As part of my going away rituals I went to see an acoustic soft-pedal night with one of my oldest friends.

The result

Some fantastic singers

Particularly Amy Smith

I can't praise here performance highly enough

Go to her website, have a listen - catch a performance

Title Update

With my move life on the road looming I found a need to update the heading on this blog. To be honest the old one really was so much filler. I'm more comfortable about the new one that describes this blog as being both the account of my trip and the interface between the Grande Tour and FindingViews. I suppose that is why the blogs distinctive black background still holds. As a reminder that the tour had it's routes in FindingViews. I'm glad that I've given the Grande Tour site a different look though. The Tour may have been a step out of Findingviews, but it really deserves an identity all of it's own.

House contracts have exchanged today.

I am three weeks from leaving my house and a big step closer to stepping onto the first airliner

The Date Part 1

I have the first of my critical Grande Tour dates
This is - when I move out of my house; which will occur on the 29th of this month,
The journey is now very close and very real.
I have 3 1/2 weks (approx) to finish of my essential preparations.

More news very soon