On Monday I fell under my to-do list. It’s taken me until today to climb back out and wrestle that thing to the ground. I have a backlog of pictures to post and, I’m excited to say, my sister has volunteered a guest post for tomorrow’s Official Hints Day. Her hint is an extremely important one, the value of which she has learned the hard way (it involves fumigation).
It occurred to me that, since I’ll be departing these shores on Tuesday, I should update the blog as to my whereabouts for the next six months.
The first stop is China, though only for four days. I’m sure that’s nowhere near long enough even to get a taste of the place, but I’m hoping it’ll be long enough at least to get a taste of Shanghai, which is where I’ll be. I’m interested in the East-meets-West history and also fascinated to see the Expo which I’ve been assured is cramazing.
From Shanghai I fly to Tokyo, thereby fulfilling a long-held ambition. Not to fly that particular route, you understand, but to go to Japan. I will be in Japan for a week and have been reading Isabella Bird’s Unbeaten Tracks in Japan in preparation, so expect excerpts to be flung at you.
From Japan I fly back to Shanghai (for three hours) and on to Singapore (for 28 hours). Mostly I plan to sleep in Singapore.
The next leg is Singapore to Sydney to visit some very dear friends and their three adorable children. This will be my third visit to Australia and the third time I’ve visited in the middle of the Australian winter. Yes, I’ve heard summer is delightful there – one day, I hope to experience that for myself!
And from Sydney I’m going to Melbourne where I will be living for four months; teaching and doing whatever other work I can find.
Sometime towards the end of the year, I will head back to Ireland via New Zealand and North America, but that part of the trip is still a bit fuzzy.
And then – well, after that I have no plan, so we’ll just have to see. By the end of it all I will have visited every continent except Antarctica (and if you let me cheat and claim ‘The Americas’ is one continent). ANY suggestions, ideas, itineraries, contacts for any of the places I will be would be most gratefully received.
'Volunteer': I do not think this word means what you think it means.
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