Nearly there......

Ok, sitting in Houston airport now waiting for my connecting flight.  Still not quite sure I've switched into the right mode for this yet but once I land I don't think I'll have a choice :o).

Had a thought while I was on the plane about switching things around a bit and maybe heading into Costa Rica instead but honestly I like the idea of somewhere a little more remote and a little more before the tourist trade.  Let's see if that's the right decision.

A little bit of symbolism. .....

Ok,  so I'm not superstitious,  or maybe I am,  anyway the last 13 years or so I've been carrying around this stone in my pocket.   It's been through some knocks and had a chip taken out of it when I dropped it at Shanghai airport.  
So the last 13 years have been and gone,  it's time for a change of luck and attitude.   As part of that my 'lucky stone' is now residing in the US as I fly away.   At this point it's got that desperate :-)
I know it doesn't change me or how I'm going to think but I realised the best part of this whole thing so far is clearing out the house of the clutter and the memories.   I'm going to have to do it again in the uk as I know some memories got shipped but it's a weight off my shoulders.
Here's to the next two months and the adventures ahead.   Cheers!

Bed for the night

So this is my bed for the night.
Time to go, managed to see everyone before I left just about I think.
Anyone I missed I'm sorry but I swear I looked for you! 

Last work day for a while..........

Well here it is, my last day at Lutron.  Lots of mixed emotions right now.  Excitement at what's ahead, at the same time scared of what might happen, and a whole lot of sadness of leaving a group of people who have become just as close as family over the last 11 years.

This is the right thing to do, I'm sure of it.  But it's still a huge leap into the unknown and something I've never done before.  Strangely enough the lack of a job at the end of the travel doesn't scare me as much as the travel itself, but I'm sure that will get better once I'm going and I can deal with things that actually happen as opposed to imagining all the things that could happen.

T minus one (or is it two?)

So this is my penultimate day at Lutron, in 48 hours time I'm going to be at Philly airport waiting for the plane that's going to start this whole thing off.  

I was asked the other day if I was more excited or scared of what I'm about to do.  Right now definitely scared.  This is something completely outside my usual way of doing things, different cultures, different places, different languages.  Honestly I just want to get started, the waiting is the worst part.

New living room layout

Depressing or what!?!?

Packing Up

So how much stuff do you collect over the years?

Too damned much!

I'm about to drop all this on my parents doorstep.  Got to admit I feel bad about that, everything has got kind of messy for me and I'm landing a chunk of it at their front door.  Hopefully this is only a temporary situation and I can get back to something a bit more organized and a happier place after a couple of months' break.