Dear Friends and Neighbours - a new blog for a new venture!
Two days to go before I fly to Nantes and I am oscillating between feeling absolutely ready to go - I could throw a couple more things in my bag and set off in ten minutes - and being nowhere near ready: I am surrounded by incriminating lists which I jotted down on scraps of paper when I remembered to remind myself.
Equally there is a fluctuation between "Raring to go, I can't wait!" and "What have I let myself in for?" I know there is sometimes a fine line between positivity and suppression of what could realistically go wrong, but hey! my passport isn't out of date; I've got my medical insurance card and my Servas letter of introduction; my ££ are changed into ee and my flight is booked and paid for; I've been to the doctor, the dentist and the optician recently: what more do I need to worry about?
Probably the insurance I really need hasn't been invented yet - an insurance against feeling unbearably vulnerable and lonely, although perhaps it comes down to that positivity thing again: let's say I'm walking along and think of Angela, feel her presence. Either I can say 'If only she were here' and feel abandoned and bereft or I can say 'She is here, I just felt her hand in mine!' and rejoice. Does that mean I'm suppressing real emotion? Or sentimentality? I went down to the cemetery today to say goodbye and came away saying "Let's go together".
These are the kind of questions and elephants in the room we'll be dealing with, folks, over the next weeks and months as I attempt like Hannibal and Ian Botham to scale my own personal Alps and drag you along in my baggage-train (but you did ask to come!)
As Annabel (not Hannibal) reminded me yesterday, I shall be following the Path of St Martin. What that means for me or for us in this day and age remains to be seen, but legend has it that when his body was floated down the river to its burial site the plants along the banks burst into flower despite it being November. I hope the opposite doesn't happen as I go upriver alive.
I am still hoping that droves of people will join me but I do understand that it is difficult to plan ahead when you don't know where I'll be on any given date. I certainly don't know, and can only suggest that you keep an eye on this blog, being prepared to come at short. notice and/or book a train now to Paris.
So, let me know if you can get this blog and keep in touch - my phone is on Kramer so it's a UK tariff to ring me (07870450079)
