So, I’ve decided to start a travel blog.  But Tash, I hear you all exclaim, isn’t it a bit late for that?  Well, yes, it probably is.  After all, I’ve been travelling on and off for the last seven years.  Korea.  America.  Canada.  Australia.  Back to New Zealand.  Europe.  The UK since November 2006.  And only now I decide to start a travel blog.  So be it.  There are stories to tell. 

It’s a rather grey morning here in London.  The summer weather of early May seems to have ended, and we’re unsure if it’ll return during the actual summer.  A perfect day then, for mucking around with WordPress themes, and for my lovely husband to Photoshop one our travel photos into a header image while listening to a web stream of the AFL.  I’m hoping that he’ll be posting here too as time goes on.

Last Friday through to Tuesday was Ireland, a blur of history and culture and landscape which I’ll write about separately.  After that, it’s been back at work, a conference, commuting, catching up on emails. 

Yesterday, I tried spring cleaning our bedroom and marvelled again at how much stuff can be accumulated in a year and a half.  We arrived here with two backpacks.  Now, I doubt even our books alone would fit in two backpacks.  I’m sad to announce that I’ve had to part with two items of well-travelled clothing – the Barkers trackpants that were bought for my America trip when I was 17 and the Pukka T-shirt that I bought in Korea at 21 – finally got to the point where the holes and the fraying deemed them unwearable. 

After a year and a half, I’ve finally got to the point where buying new clothes is okay and where there’s a bit of money in the bank account that allows me to do so.  After a year and a half, our flat is getting too small.  After a year and a half, I’m still not used to commuting.  There’s a Samuel Johnson saying that is often quoted over here:  ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life’.  London annoys me sometimes with its greyness, and its public transport, and the shear cost of everything.  But we’re going to the Globe tonight, and there’s still a lot of travelling to do and, despite missing home intensely at times, I’m not tired of this city just yet.

Tash