Me, Myself and Yoga

"Sound off!"
"1"
"Yay!"

Well, that didn't take long.

It is a truth universally acknowledged - rumour has it - that it is actually ok to take oneself away on a solo adventure every now and again.  Whilst I don't quite feel right without a team of 25 uniform-clad teenagers to supervise, I shall overcome that in time.  

Travel just isn't the same these days.  I have booked this entire trip - 8 flights, 3 different countries - online, via anything which generates a donation for easyfundraising, (in preparation for a major international Guiding adventure for 1st Chislehurst Guides next year): flights via Expedia (6.5% donation), Aviva travel insurance (£7.50 donation when you buy an annual policy), Hostelworld (12.5% donation), plus the gadget I am writing this on came from Amazon (1.5% donation) - she's called Lenovo Yoga - Yoga for short.  If you buy things online, do it through easyfundraising!

Anyway - back to the point - so far, this entire trip has been governed by apps on my phone - Expedia app, Hostelworld app, Revolut card app which bleeps everytime I make a purchase and works in a million different currencies - it wasn't like that back when I started travelling in 2002.  Backpacking around West Africa I once spent an entire day in a bank in Burkina Faso changing up a few travellers cheques.  I have a vivid recollection of changing up a $50 note in Ghana then having to stash six inches of cedis deep in my rucksack.  I've still got the same rucksack, first christened on my DofE expedition when I was 14 - I looked like a giant awkward orange tortoise back then, cursing the plethora of golf courses which populate the area around parts of the Ashdown Forest; I still look like a giant awkward orange tortoise now, but internationally so.

En route to the airport on the Piccadilly Line, I made an Antipodean #TubeFriend who was off to Dublin to see the grandchildren after having a few days in London.  I looked after her bag to stop it rolling off at the various tube stops - that would have been awkward.  Strewth.  I wrote a song about the Piccadilly Line once and can name many stops - Holloway Road, Acton Town, Aldywch, Green Park and Hounslow East; Boston Manor, Covent Garden, Manor House and Chancery Line - Piccadilly Line, Piccadilly Line... not to be confused with the song I once wrote to remember which elements of the periodic table which have a valency of minus 2.  (I still don't know what that actually means).

Right - off to find a present for my niece.  Talk about last-minute.com - imagine if I was organised, I'd be dangerous.

I'm signing out now - hopefully the next post will be when I am safely in the US of A, assuming they let me in, which isn't yet confirmed - ESTA took a while to come back and tells me that even she cannot guarantee entry.

"Sound off!"
"1""Yay!"

All good.