I desperately want to get back to the U.K. to see the family. It is getting close, so there is no need to risk anything by blowing it when we are very close to getting things open for good. Things are constantly shifting, but I am rolling with the punches, and, well, one of the punches whacked me square on the jaw because my U.K. travel is on pause. This booked-not-booked situation is not suitable for the ups and downs of your mood swings. Thank goodness I have an online mental health course to fall back on – seriously!!

This blogging and the video projects that I am working on are keeping me going, and it is helping to soften the blows. I do need a break from work, though, and I have got so many holiday hours saved up (in preparation for a long trip home) that I have to spend some of them, so I am working on my design for that now.

I am planning something extraordinary, and I am perking up because of what I intend to do.

I will share it with you. It is getting close to that moment where I can do some decent travelling because I will have the time. As I said already, I can not yet get back home to the U.K. and guarantee a safe trip back aaaaannnddd, the diamond geezers at British Airways (feckers) have cancelled my flights back to the U.K., so I am organising a short trip to some places in China.

The upside on the travelling block in and out of China is that I am left arranging a trip inside of China, and that is cool in a way because it means that I can see some more of this fascinating country. I am a lucky man in some ways.

Now the thing I have never had to do is pack a bag for light travel that will have to include some video shooting and editing equipment to better capture my experiences. On a regular trip, I am the Jack reacher of travel; I travel light and wash and dry things as I go. I like it that way, I hate carrying stuff, and it also means you can travel fast, which is the way I like to travel. 

Typically, I am also usually travelling to experience things and get out and about amongst the city or whatever. Now I want to document the experience and somehow make sense of the trip for an audience. I also want to do that, recording and editing fast. I have a fair bit of thinking through on this coming couple of weeks as I want to get it right.

I have no idea yet, what I should take and what I should leave behind. I may go with the theme of travelling with a limited capacity for video production and milk that to the audience or go full throttle and carry the MacBook and larger camera. Who knows, the great thing is that it adds more excitement to the travel plans, and I am getting some experience of balancing this kind of work on the go.

I know, in the end, that I will plan well and organise myself in such a way to get most of it correctly for what I want to achieve from the trip or trips. It is the laws of life, all the procrastination, worry, and anxiety usually work their own way out, and in the end – a lot was in mind.

But, you just know that as soon as I step onto that bullet train and sit back to enjoy the journey, it will instantly dawn on me that I have forgotten to pack something. It is cool though, I have set my mind to know that this will obviously be the case. I am chilled about this because part of the readiness for my future self will be how to adapt to the shifting situations.

This ‘situational adaptability’ will all be part of my learning process for the future.

At the moment, though, I feel like I will be less Indiana Jones and more Marcus Brody…

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Elsa : It’s perfectly obvious where the pages are. He’s given them to Marcus Brody.

Professor Henry Jones : Marcus? You didn’t drag poor Marcus along did you? He’s not up to the challenge.

Walter Donovan : He sticks out like a sore thumb. We’ll find him.

Indiana Jones : The hell you will. He’s got a two day head start on you, which is more than he needs. Brody’s got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan, he speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom, he’ll blend in, disappear, you’ll never see him again. With any luck, he’s got the grail already.

[Cut to middle of fair in the Middle East, Marcus Brody wearing bright suit and white hat, sticking out like sore thumb] 

Marcus Brody : Uhhh, does anyone here speak English? 

(READ MARCUS AS IAIN and you have got it)