I find it very hard to plug back in. I wonder if this is nature telling me something. This first week back I have rarely logged in (minus the 8 hours a day I have to sit in front of a computer in the day job) and it has felt very freeing for me. I think it is part of the general purge that is going on in my life right now. Everywhere I look we are sorting things out, throwing things out. Minimizing what we have around us. What we want to keep with us and what it is time to say goodbye to.

Sometimes I wonder why we even have some stuff in the first place. In the three or so years since I arrived in New Zealand, I have changed dramatically. It’s not just that I have aged, but also that moving country you have to make conscious choices a little more. There’s not so much autopilot going on. You have to look, try, consider and decide. Going back to live briefly in the UK again, I know now I do not need all that I had when living there before. I do not need the fancy cosmetics and skin care products. I do not need to do this or do that. I simply need to live peacefully and well.

I spent practically all day yesterday lazing back on the couch reading. In an article on Paris in the latest Conde Nast Traveler magazine the author writes “…Creative [and] passionate…She succeeded at life”. In the book Trail of Crumbs (which I read cover to cover) she states that she is “Suddenly aware how alive [she is] and how hungry, hungrier than [she's] ever been”. These ideas resonate with me and are just what I needed to read this weekend to know I am on track. I have not failed, I am succeeding at living.

I keep notebooks for everything in my life and I remain ever faithful to them. I have a few volumes dedicated to recipes, a couple which I’ve filled with things I’m working on (which in turn become books I refer back to over time), my writing, my languages – anything I need to spend time on. This one I have dubbed my Passport. Each section has been designated a specific purpose. Working together, all the information I put in this book and the planning it enables to happen on it’s bright pages will see us right through to setting ourselves up in Europe.

** Postcards in the background are by Jen. **

Despite awaking with a headache (probably from too much red wine and pizza last night) I have had a good day thus far. A strong cup of black, slightly sweetened coffee as I spoke with a good friend in San Diego for a couple of hours first thing this morning seemed to do the trick.

Then we started nailing down dates for the different segments of our trip through the US in June/July and it could so easily have caused a resurgence of my headache, but I refused to give in to it. Finally, we are leaving. We can now talk of this knowing we will be walking through it, tasting and touching, breathing and feeling, in just a few months.

This time in August, we will be meandering over European soil, concrete, stone, sand and cobbles.