FREE WILL?

I've been thinking about what led up to this trip. What forces have been at work to give me this opportunity to travel? Well, it didn't really come out of the blue. I've loved travel since a child; from the joy of the miniature railway at Southport to awe-inspiring steam trains that took me with my mother across the country in wartime. Maybe it was my mother who gave me that sense of adventure. Just the two of us off on a journey to somewhere we'd never been before to see my Dad who was stationed at an RAF camp. I had a wonderful childhood.

So give me the opportunity and I'll be packed and ready to go. At 19 I travelled by train and boat to Guernsey for a most magical summer season as a Beach /nightclub Photographer, where I met the man who became my husband and father of my children. That put paid to any more travel... until I found myself once again footloose and fancy free at the ripe old age of 44. By then I was very staid, middle class and middle aged, until a meeting with a young man who told me very simply, when I said that I'd love to travel... 'If you want to do something, you can. Just do it!'
Derek was a traveller who would set off with his rucksack and return, very brown, weeks or months later. If he were to ever read this, I just want to say... Thank you Derek... that actually began to change my perception and open my mind.

Henry Ford said something about that... 'If you think you can or you think you can't... you'll be right.'

So that's the Secret! If I think I can do it then I can.


On my Birthday in January this year, my son Rich gave me money to put towards a trip to visit his twin brother in Australia. So the stage was set and I was open to any opportunity that presented itself to finalise the process.

So what about my Free Will? Only that I had the choice to decide whether to take the opportunity or not! That was the scary bit! And yet, how could I refuse?

Only 11 days to go!