When Claire first exclaimed that a year of no work, no bounds and no plans was in our future I took it like most things in life; a comment, a movement through the air. Who would have known, or guessed, that all that postulating would result in a four month trip that finishes up in the same location that our first international adventure cumulated, Edinburgh. A city of the world, a seat of power, it's full of spectacular views and amazing people. what else can I say, we just keep going back.
After a few months of planning, years of postulating and probably way too many conversations with friends, we’re off. Done. Booked. Locked. Loaded. 4 months, a few new countries, some repeats and a volume of unexpected experiences. 2022 will prove to be a year unlike any other and unlike previous years, by choice.
Claire and I approach life from different perspectives, or simply put, left to our own devices we make pretty starkly different life decisions. One of us is planed measured and to a level, predictable. The other, it's safe to say, is pretty much focused on the greatest amount of fun that can be found at any given moment. An unlikely match, an unlikely find. This trip is a blend of both of us: planned and spontaneous, fun and history, known and unknown, familiar and not, and somehow we convinced friends to join us along the way. Maybe its a way to ensure spontaneity, or some may say we’re gate crashing. Either way our adventure will be for the ages, crisscrossing our way from Amsterdam to Istanbul and back to Edinburgh, a familiar place.
Wait, four months! Crap, we have cats.
Enter cousin Anthony, the cat whisperer and all round fantastic friend and who, amongst the Jones family, may be the only other member who threw the life rule book out the window…. born on the opposite side of the world and a few years apart, it was incredible to find a like minded, fun loving family member. It's safe to say that the cats are in great hands. (Unfortunately for all of Californian's, Anthony too gets to enjoy an ungodly heatwave.)
Enough of the chit chat, I’m on Dreamliner to Amsterdam, David (I’ll explain him later) joined Claire and I at SFO for some good old airport tomfoolery. Over the next few months Claire and I, but probably mostly Claire, will keep you updated on all manner of events, locations and interesting finds. It’s going to be a blast!
If there’s one lesson here, it’s that the only way to make life happen is to state your goals loudly, often and persist.
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