I am, of course, currently sat at my desk in my comfortable little flat in Eltham. As much as I like it, it is where I have gone to bed, woken up and spent most of my time for the last three and a half years or so. Largely due to the pandemic, my recent world has been confined to London and it’s South-Eastern quarter; and as great as I find the metropolis, a growing part of me is now yearning to go out into the world beyond it.

However, at last today that yearning ends. In a couple of hours, John and I will be heading to the airport en route to Spain. Our bags are around me, packed and ready to go: this is now the calm and quiet before the adventure begins, and I feel a wonderful buzz of energetic anticipation. What will we see? Who will we meet? I can’t help remembering all the incredible places I have already been to – India, Crete, Paris, Australia – and wondering what we’ll experience this time which will add to such fabulous journeys.

To travel, in my opinion, is to live. The very act of going out into the world, exploring it, seeing new places, brings with it a joy like no other. Staying in one place, waking up in the same bed every day, gets so monotonous that the only way to wake yourself up is to set off to somewhere new, somewhere exotic. I intend to record my adventures here if I can, although it might not always be possible to get online. Nonetheless, I’m sure I’ll soon have plenty of exciting new things to write about.