With the arrival of 2012, a new layer of excitement has settled over us. "Next year" has become "this year" and "next August" has become "this August" - The countdown to our twelve month trip around the world has begun.
Travel guides, brochures, maps and a variety of notepads are dotted around the flat, and a dozen or so internet explorer tabs are filling the computer screen before me. 90 pence per night hostels, 60 pence per pint beer, hidden jungle temples, tropical beaches, turquoise seas and thousands upon thousands of miles to cross by air, land and sea.
At this stage it's all rather overwhelming to be honest. We have started a to-do list, a to-buy list and a what-we-need-to-know list. The prospect of completely deconstructing one's life and starting a new one is something you don't do everyday. At a basic level, moving our lives from a spacious two bedroom flat in North London to nothing but a couple of rucksacks is enough to cause levels of digestive disruption I wouldn't have expected until we'd reached the food markets of Beijing.
So, we have an appointment with STA Travel on 7 January. We will arrive armed with notebooks and Visa cards and hope to leave having purchased a bundle of flight tickets and excursion coupons. The next step will be to save our cash like Billy-oh and find some lovely people to live in our flat and allow us to pay the mortgage company while sipping those 60 pence beers on that tropical beach with that turquoise sea lapping at our tanned toes.
As Christmas ends and the dark damp London winter envelops us, we are compelled further to make everything happen but I cannot escape the distance that needs covering before we even get to Heathrow.
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