Last week I gazed mystified down a powerful microscope at pond life contained in a droplet of water. The bugs within were as varied as my life has become.   Four years ago a good friend suffered from a devastating life-changing stroke.   I understood very rapidly that life passes and changes in an instant.   The day I find myself immobilized I hope I can say I am glad I have,  not I wish I had.

Thus I find myself with an eclectic lifestyle, three children all of who live overseas and a determination to continue travelling until I drop.  I love meeting new people and experiencing new environments.   I am still committed to working and earning so I have set out on a path to combine flexibility, diversity and employability.     Anything I do has to fulfill  at least one of the criteria of being a unique experience, being financially rewarding, contributing to my English language teaching skills  or offering the opportunity of meeting an amazing set of people.

In my mind I was always travelling.  As early as I can remember I played travelling trips with my dolls.   We packed up, went away to the land behind the sofa, unpacked, had an adventure and returned home to the living room.   Later I became more adventurous, absconding from school  for the day for secret days out on the train.  My mother never did find out.

Eventually the travelling became more serious.   I am still waiting to grow out of the travel bug.   I have lived overseas in the USA, in New Zealand and Switzerland.  I have travelled widely and frequently visit the USA especially California where my picture was taken.

Last week I escorted a group of Thai children on a university taster session.  Today I leave home for Whitby in the North of England for a training session at my friend’s Bed & Biscuits hostel which I will run for two weeks in September.  Next week I will be with some Chinese student’s visiting the Queen’s house at Sandringham.   Merlin the Dog will arrive at my old house on a DogBuddy.com home visit shortly thereafter and in early May I will, as always, act as a Presiding Officer at the elections.   In a few weeks hopefully I will be off to Italy to teach as every summer and later on I hope I will fit in another amazing week with the extraordinary people at Pueblo Inglés in October.  Life is for living.