Adventure begins

Life is a strange thing that seems to center around attachments to people, places, objects, and memory. When those attachments are severed for whatever reason, you are left with a choice of whether to attempt to reattach or to let go.

Although I knew my marriage had issues, I thought these were resolvable. My personal work ethic of being a 'Yes' person had resulted in a steady degradation of all my social relationships as I took on more responsibility than I ever wanted. There are some positions you get offered you just can't turn down - and I'm a 'Yes' person. I had no idea it would result in such pain and chaos for myself, my family, my colleagues and friends.

With a finalised divorce, property settlement concluded, and original career goals fulfilled, I spent time soul searching. I wrote two half novels. One was a dark and violent cyberpunk novel set in Brisbane in the 2030s, telling the story of a corporate orphan who brings about the downfall of a corrupt regime. The other, a military science fiction, tells the story of an admiral afraid of dying who survives the greatest space battle of the age, killing the enemy hero, but losing the battle. I started to draft a third science fiction/space opera novel consisting of the first trilogy about the fall of Earth to an insidious alien race infiltrating human governments, technocrats and industrialists and the story of an American President and Australian Prime Minister who make harsh decisions to save the planet. See my other blogs for more information on these.

They were green and so was (am) I, but I was (am) prepared to put in the time and effort to perfect them. Writing workshops and writer's conferences later, joining critique groups, testing my new skills on short stories, and finding people who believed in what I wanted to do, I know I can write. Now it is a matter of finding the inspiration. The short stories and novels in progress come from continued smoldering creativity that will never wane.

I also invested time writing a 30 page letter documenting all my boundaries, beliefs, and quirks that ended up looking like a User Manual in three sections (physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual). This identified a raft of questions and aspects of my internal state that were not clear, as well as some obvious clashes between past and present.

I looked unsuccessfully for these answers.

My friends and family tell me that what I seek is not here in Australia.

With no further attachment to my old career and my previous, childless marriage, I have been given the opportunity to explore.

My current plan is to make landfall at Singapore in late January 2013 and acclimatise in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam with motorcycle and getting my legs before turning left and heading West through Myanmar, India, and Pakistan. I am hoping to get to the Middle East and if I make it there, then I see no reason why I couldn't continue to Europe and see my ancestral home of Scotland.

My ultimate goal would be Glasgow, not for any specific reason, other than it is a long way from Singapore and happens to be in my line of travel north-west.


This is my 40th year.

I will be using this blog to document the adventure. Some of it will be mundane, hopefully most of it will be interesting. There will be pictures and perhaps some video, and there will definately be How-To information if I happen across anything useful.