What?

A random thought popped into my head this afternoon in the middle of a work meeting. Well, not a thought per se, but a memory. It was from a time where E and I were doing some travelling. We'd gone on this course to do some black water rafting and this attractive Australian girl had joined us throughout the day.

I think she was interested in me. IIRC, E thought she was interested in me (I think she made a comment about body language). But the Australian woman was unconvinced when E (repeatedly) explained that we were mates, not romantically involved. I think I made a few tentative attempts to see if we could get physical, but she steadfastly refused to move away from the idea E and I were a couple. Oh, and the Australian girl was leaving town first thing the next morning. So a night out on the town followed by a night in bed isn't really what she wanted when she was getting up at like 5 AM.

I've no idea why that popped into my head at 1:30 PM this afternoon, in a boring meeting with my boss. 

Dreamy

Two different dreams to report from last night. The first involved travel to Canada, but the details are now vague. I don't think it featured anyone I know or any celebrities nor can I remember any specific scene... just that it involved travel to rural Canada.

I woke up in the middle of the night, so that was it for that particular dream.

The second dream is again quite vague, but it featured some kind of underground community - think Zion in the Matrix films.  Like the first dream, I don't think it featured anyone specific, though some people might have been mashups of people I know. I'm pretty sure one unidentified person was a mashup of KfW2 and CB - I came out of it with a sense of familiarity rather than being able to identify specific people.

But two different dreams and more than a little weird. 

Sigh.

While I know that it makes sense because you're booking a room, it still annoys me that I have to pay a premium to stay in a hotel.

Check in as a couple into a nice boutique hotel, it's £150 per night for you both.

Check in as a single person? It's £150 per night.

Booooo!

Yes, I'm bored, unmotivated and creating holidays that I'll never go on. 

 

Room with a view.

Facebook has been throwing up some random things recently. Most are pages I've zero interest in - the algorithm is a mess. It's also, for some reason, started showing me local hotels. The travel bug is hitting hard, but I've not been looking at hotels local or otherwise. The main picture was a local hotel. A nice one, too. And now the travel bug is really kicking off. And I'd quite like a lottery win so I can stay in rooms like this. But preferably one that's somewhere warm and sunny.

These boots...

I'm feeling a bit run down and de-motivated in work (though for no actual reason that I can tell). I've cancelled meeting Nerdy Girl tonight because I'm really low energy, and I spent an hour this afternoon looking at nice hotels in various cities in the UK and beyond because I'd like a change of scenery. Ho hum.

Itchy feet again.

Off the back of the memory that I blogged about a few days ago about a past tryst, I found myself looking at the photos I took of my second trip to New Zealand, back in 2008. E lived there at the time, and she was the primary reason for going back out. I deliberately didn't contact FA2 when I went out. E still lives there, actually, and I'm always tempted to go back out. But part of me wants to try somewhere new.  I'm still tempted by New York, but there are obvious reasons I don't really want to go there at this moment in time.

Out of the blue.

This morning, I thought of a woman that I'd not thought of in years. We had this brief thing when I was travelling about 20 years ago. She was a barmaid at a local bar I frequented, a few years younger than me. I went in one weeknight because I wanted some company and knew no-one else.

I'd spoken to her before, of course. But never a one-to-one conversation. There were always people about.

I got chatting to some of the people in the bar and that was that. They all drifted off until it was just me and her. She closed the bar and we sat on for another few drinks. The conversation flowed, so she suggested we went back to hers for more drinks, and I accepted. At that stage, I had no inkling anything was on the cards. She was cute, but I was enjoying the conversation.

There was something intimate about sitting in an empty bar, the doors locked, only a few lights on and chatting. We weren't sharing anything massively private or anything. If memory serves, it was just your basic "what are you going to do with your life" kinda stuff. But we kept our voices low nonetheless, as if people were listening.

And I'm a sucker for that kind of conversation. That's why I like the nights in the bar with KfW2. It's why I miss my email "conversations" with USHW.

Anyway, we went back to hers and I eventually spent the night. There was a repeat performance a few months later just before I left to come home, and that was it. I tried to find her on Facebook years ago, but could never find her. Partly because I couldn't remember her surname for ages.

And she popped into my head this morning as I was brushing my teeth. 

Itchy feet.

While I can't say that it's surprising because I've not spoken to her in years so have no idea what her thought processes are, the attractive athletic blonde woman that I knew from primary school (I can't remember if I gave her a blog name) has announced that she's moving to Australia.

Not visiting, not travelling... moving. It's an interesting move at our age (she's only a few days younger than me), though I do believe that she's divorced (or separated at least) and her kids are now adults. I wonder why she made the decision?

I'm kinda jealous. I'd love to have the money and the freedom to do that. 

Remember this?

Despite knowing CC for roughly 13 years, it only dawned on me this afternoon that CC's birthday matches an anniversary of my own - the day I went to America for nearly three months just over 20 years ago. That was the visit where I met V and generally had a blast. Good times.

Let's go?

I was chatting to USHW yesterday. Well, not chatting per se. Messaging. We revisited the idea of meeting up as that original plan (which would have been last week or this week) kinda fell by the wayside when life distracted me over the summer.

So potentially we have a vague idea of where we could meet. I have a vague idea of when that might be (any time from mid-October to mid-November), so all we'd need to do is finalise the details and I can book hotels and flights.

Can we actually do it this time, is the real question. 

Just stuff.

FA2 featured in a dream last night. I don't recall exact details, but I was travelling. I was in New Zealand, I think, and generally pottering about. FA2 was with me but I don't really recall why.

And maybe K featured too. I don't remember any details of the dreamt hat featured K, but for some reason she was on my mind when the alarm went off this morning.

Fly me to...

After last night's intense burst of... I don't know what it was, I woke this morning feeling very lonely. And the wanderlust was back, too. Couple those with the fact that a few days ago I'd seen an all-inclusive holiday in a travel agent's window for Lanzarote in the first week of September for what seemed a reasonable amount of money.

"I should see if CC fancies this," I thought to myself.

That was swiftly followed by:

"Are you fucking mad?" 

For starters, it really wouldn't be my kind of holiday. Second of all, do I really want to spend a week in CC's company? I've had experience of that, and it wasn't my thing, even if I did get to rub suntan lotion into her skin and see her in a selection of bikinis.

And I think Sports Girl lives in Lanzarote these days. Do  I really want to bump into her (even though it's really unlikely)? 

So, yeah, I put that idea to bed sharpish. 

Wanderlust.

More desire, of a sort. Wanderlust has returned, presumably as a result of watch the video below: 24hrs Flying First Class from Australia to England. Partly driven by a desire to see E again, and possibly London Girl (see, I'm already semi-planning the trip in my head). And I'd love to do it first class, but do you know how much that would cost? £15,000. Fifteen grand! 

I wish I had the money where I could spend £15k on flights alone and not have to worry about anything.

Something to look forward to.

I'm going to blame my lack of willpower about helping CC on USHW. That might be harsh, but we were swapping messages yesterday and I mentioned that I wanted to get out of the house more, not just for exercise and fresh air but to socialise as well. And CC just happened to be the first person to afford me that opportunity.

Saying that, she got wind of my upcoming gig that I'm taking KfW2 to and decided that she might like to go to it, too. Classic CC... just inviting herself along. I fucking hate that. I should reach out to KfW2, just to remind her about the gig. It's less than 3 weeks away.

But the more noteworthy point about my conversation with USHW was that we've agreed to meet and we have a tentative set of dates in mind towards the end of the summer. We still need to finalise the details, but we can do that over the next few weeks. It'd be great to see her again and at least maintain our "every ten years" timescale for meeting in person.

Flying high.

The travel bug has hit hard over the past few days. I've been semi-looking at Canada as a possible destination: Toronto or Vancouver for a week or so.

I've not really thought about either of these places before but they've been in my mind. I can't even think of anything specific to these cities that I'd want to do or see. Compare that to New York where I could list off ten things to do/see without even thinking about it.

So, yeah, Canada. Hmmm.

Not so bright.

I didn't suggest the coastal route to Nerdy Girl. While it was bright and sunny, it wasn't actually that warm, so going to the coast would have been even cooler. We did our usual short lap (still 3 miles though), ending up at CB Pub and we had a few drinks while chatting.

She's taking her girlfriend to New York for her birthday in the summer, so I shared some places that I thought were interesting and had found during my own New York research.

The convo didn't flow as well as it does normally. I think we were both low energy, but wanted to get out of the house. So mission accomplished for that.

The list (cont'd)

Actually, having done a little bit more research into the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve as mentioned in my last post, I've realised that I've actually been there before. It was part of a road trip that E and I had done when I went out to visit her. I got some really nice photos from it, too. But we passed through during the middle of the day, so I didn't see the night sky.

The list.

Years ago, USHW and I talked about our bucket lists. A lot of mine were travel related. And I guess I've added a few things to that list in the interim. I've spoken about New York, for example. And another that I've just added to my list is the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, in New Zealand.

I've been to New Zealand before and I love it there, and I'd go back in a heartbeat if I could cobble together the time and money. Plus, E lives there.

But the reason for the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve being added to the list?

Who wouldn't want to see something like this with their own eyes? 

Wanderlust

According to Facebook, MMBF is on holiday in Mexico. Mexico's not somewhere I've ever considered as a destination for travel, but the way things are going at the moment, I'd love a week or two somewhere sunny and warm.

It's also GWTNA's birthday today too.

Let's go?

The wanderlust continues. It wasn't a dream this time, but a vague sense of deja vu. After I graduated from university, I travelled to New Zealand. For the first month or so, I just chilled and didn't do an awful lot. As part of this, I'd sometimes walk into town. It would be sunny and warm and I'd sit at a cafe and have breakfast and a coffee.

And it was this vibe that I got this morning. It was sunny, though not warm. And I was at the dentist, not at a nice cafe. But it still took me back. And as a knock-on effect of that, the desire to travel against wormed its way into my brain.

Nerdy Girl and I actually chatted about travel last week. She wants to go to Japan. I'll not lie, Japan is somewhere I'd like to see, but it's not top of my list. I think New York's still top of my list.