Itinerary

Today we reworked our itinerary (based on the rainy seasons) and are trying to focus on the first 6 months of our Asia, Australia and Americas trip. That's what I call AAA!

Asia

• Singapore
• Borneo 
• Kuching to Kota Kinabalu mostly overland
• Indonesia 
• Sulawesi 
• Maluku islands
• Java
• Philippines

Australia

• Brisbane to Sydney by car

(work in progress)

Lesson 1: Detachment

That’s it - 3 weeks to go. Most things got re-homed. A few things still need to go. We haven’t got any furniture in our room anymore, our clothes are all over the floor, our plants still need a caring home but our amazingly comfortable sofa is gone. 

It was a quite intense week with lots of random people coming over handing me money and taking our stuff away. Watching the big mattress being carried out of the door was the most emotional moment to me. It represented everything else that we initially bought for this house hoping to invest in a long-term wellbeing item that would bring us happiness. Thinking that the night before was the last night we would spend on it made me shed a tear – it was actually happening! That’s when I felt most scared about all this change. Then stopped thinking about it.

We took a break from all this madness and went to Edinburgh to see TatiAnders who are now living in Scotland until January, 2014. We went to the Fringe Festival, had a chance to also catch up with Martin and his fiancée and had a great time enjoying ourselves and not stressing about packing and selling things.

I came back more relaxed focusing on the next items of our to-do list: taking more vaccines; buying health insurance; opening a better bank account that doesn’t charge us too much for withdrawing money abroad; requesting visas for Asia, Australia and the US; and the most exciting one: buying our backpacks!

Are we brave or crazy?

This is the best Summer I've had the chance to witness in the UK. Sun is shining, life is good and I can't complain. (After just saying that, the next paragraph won't make much sense.)
I've handed in my resignation after almost five years working at the same place. I had four different roles and was really enjoying learning so much from my incredibly talented colleagues while trying to kick-ass as a Project Manager. I thought it was very sweet of my manager to say that there will always be a job for me if I decide to come back to Cambridge.
Pete's sabbatical hasn't been 100% finalised but he tells me it has been approved. We haven't bought the plane tickets yet but our plan is to travel to Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines), Australia and South America (or Central) for one year. 
For this, firstly we need to get rid of our stuff. This was our first unfurnished flat. We've been living here for four years and it's unbelievable the amount of stuff we managed to collect. Such a cliche, but it's true. We're selling everything that hasn't got a strong emotional link to us. We're selling or giving away everything that we once loved and thought necessary at some point. I've got a huge list and am a woman in a mission now. 
- Would you like to buy my stuff?