Monday 4th December 2023
Phew. Just like that the winter wonderland disappeared. Rain fell throughout the night and washed all the snow away. Cleaning the roads for Monday morning traffic and flooding the farmer's fields even more. In a way, it was easier for me to leave a gloomy sky and boggy fields behind than the pretty scenes of yesterday.
I woke early full of reflection and mentally making packing lists of what needs to stay behind and out of my luggage. It must be the lightest I've ever flown on such a long flight as I'm fortunate enough to be able to leave stuff behind at my amazing siblings' houses.
My travels wouldn't be happening if I didn't have my family's support and I can't begin to express the gratitude for their welcome and acceptance into their home. My courage comes from knowing that I have this safety net of support. In fact, I've been lucky enough to have that support all my life. The benefit of being second youngest of seven, is that they were there to help me find my 'freedom'.
These past six months have been fabulous. With music concerts, islands and Ireland, cruise and ferry rides, train trips and free tours, Tinder dates and long walks, sunny days and London bike rides, meeting virtual friends, to long time ago friends, housesitting to hotels, coffee and cakes, street art and museums and of course the buildings..... it's hard to totally describe the awesomeness of it all.
Yes, you read it right, dates! An alleyway I never thought I'd find any magic in. A friend suggested I join the dating app, a few years back before I started my road trip in South Africa. I did so very gingerly and was quite specific in that I was only looking for friends. It's been fascinating though, because it's an aspect of social psychology that piqued my interest when my two sisters were on dating sites years ago. One sister ended up marrying a 'match' so that gave me the confidence that I wasn’t looking for a hook up. After a few dates in different towns, I was told by a guy that perhaps I should decide on what it was I wanted. I was mortified, how dare he say that to moi? In my usual runaway style I was about to shut down the app when I got a new match and suddenly my heart fluttered.
Fluttering is one of the least likely emotions, that I expected to feel. I mean, buildings can move me, but I had thought that heart fluttering was a thing of the distant past. However, we ended up meeting and the flutter continued in person. Egads! Hahaha. I'm a flight risk though, so I kept warning him (and myself) that I can be very impulsive. Yet, I am really enjoying this unexpected detour in my life journey. I keep reminding myself that I'm a 'strong independent woman' but the heart is fickle territory and it can't be programmed as much as I think it can.
We've laughed, debated about science and woowoo (no prize for guessing who's for what), listened to music, watched Breaking Bad, admired motorbikes, and squirmed through world cup rugby. It's certainly made my last few months have a completely different feel. We're still taking it one day at a time too, but it's fun. Fun that I could never have guessed was on my horison and didn't see coming, so much for my psychic skills, wahaha.
So the next chapter in my life journey has a new, different aspect in it and I thought it was time to write about it here. Like my travels, sometimes it just takes that initial step (which can be full of fear) to reach a life totally unimagined and full of magic.
Life is so very short, eat the cake and go on the date, you never know what could happen!
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