Dreaming, dreaming...

Painting: Vladimir Kush

All men dream: but not equally.
Those who dream by night
in the dusty recesses of their minds
wake in the day to find that it was vanity:
but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men,
for they may act their dream with open eyes,
to make it possible.
- T. E. Lawrence.

Sometimes things just seem to happen for no apparent reason.

A confluence of dreams, opportunities and reality.

Some of these recent things are: Margaret's brother being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma - happily treatable but a wake up call on the reality of time and age; I finish honours this year and I certainly had envisaged going on to Masters or Doctorate but there is still time for that; Margaret finishes her diploma this year and would probably head off to find a job; the boys have either moved out or are old enough to look after themselves.

It means that 2008 is a time when we can both put things on hold and be relatively free.
It may not happen again for quite some time.

It gives us a great opportunity to...travel.

So where to?

Obviously UK, Scotland and Northern Ireland are high up there so Margaret can visit her family. But if I am going to travel to the UK I want to value-add a bit. What say France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco? And if we did the Trans-Siberian railway we could visit Finland on the way through to the UK.

And I have this hankering for Uzbekistan....well, its second city, Samarkand to be exact. (Logistics are very hazy here).

A separate trip to Asia is possible with Vietnam, Malaysia and Burma looking interesting.

And thirdly, but possibly not finally, Western Australia. Perth and up to Broome and the Kimberleys and on to Darwin.

Yes, it is all a dream, and a very recent dream, at the moment.

Watch this space.
...