What does one say about spending three days in Paris? My running path took me through the Tuileries gardens, popping out by the Lourve, before running across and along the Seine and back up to Monte Marte. The running faces were the same, the scenery slightly more cultured! When I first visited Beth in Edinburgh in 2009 on my way to the Canada the first time, I fell in love with the notion that all of these buildings had been touched, trodden and tended to over the centuries prior to me laying eyes on them. I would pause whilst standing on a set of stairs in an apartment building and…
Start as you Intend to Finish
It became facebook real, then it became “Hi stranger whom I'm sitting next to on the plane for the next 8 hours” real. I totally won. My travel buddy was this delightful Canadian man called Jay, who was off to India for work for 2 weeks. Originally from Edmonton, now lives with his Australian wife in Brisbane. We were both friendly, open for a chat, and managed to get the perfect balance of small talk: movie watching without that awkward 'well, I'm going to put my earphones in now' moment. Delightful. First hour and I've made a new friend! Yay! Roll into Changi and I wander through the terminals to…
The sleepless nights of the ‘Sleep Countdown’
2 sleeps. Bah! Two sleeps! I will be sitting at the international departures lounge in Brisbane in 48 hours time, probably watching Entourage and avoiding reading all the nice cards I've begun to collect “to read on the plane” from my friends as the hours count down. Ideally, I'll have the giant list of things I need to do, done. Hm. Yes. Things. What I'm really aiming for is that when I leave Brisbane for this dog leg style adventure (referencing the round about nature of this trip, it's not a stream line direction. Slightly chaotic by design) is that all my family and friends know how I feel about…