2025

I've always worked more than was strictly necessary. I can make work where none currently exists (great for business development, less great in domestic settings). I have five degrees, and throughout my twenties I worked part-time, and sometimes full-time, alongside my studies, despite winning scholarships to fund my appetite for *knowing stuff*. When I got fed up with the outrageous condition of British academia, I switched to the insights industry. A good working week looks like three or four simultaneous projects, conducting fieldwork for one, delivering a prezzo for another, flying cross-country for a client workshop, writing a research proposal or two, and banter-filled analysis sessions with a team of good eggs. All this to say; I'm no good bored. It's taken a lot of therapy to de-couple my sense of self from my professional life, to work to live, rather than live to work. I like to work and I am good at it, but I what I really like is to live. As a younger woman I suffered some serious mental health issues, and having come out the other side relatively unscathed, I regularly catch myself thinking: How good is being alive?

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And, so, in the spirit of enjoying being alive and moderately cashed up (all that work!), my partner and I have decided to spend a year (and most of our savings) travelling, overland and sea as much as possible, from Sydney to London. Call it a career break, a sabbatical, a gap year, a jolly, whatever - I'm off to catch trains and ferries and buses and taxis and tuk tuks in languages I don't speak to visit places no one I know has ever seen. Timor Leste, Vientiane, Sichuan, Uzbekistan, here we come. 

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The tentative route map: 

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I know. That's a lot of trains. ​As you can see, we're obviously also going to and through some places that are well-known and loved - if you're reading this and know good people with a spare room, or know of a great hostel/cafe/street food bar/actual bar/book shop that is roughly on our route, please get in touch!

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I have no plans to become a content creator or travel influencer - that's a full-time job and I want to actually be in the places I'm in. Plus I am morally opposed to drones. Sure, we'll take photos and videos, and we'll share a few of these intermittently on our socials, but this is not a career-change or an attempt at social media fame. We just want to take a break from work, see what other people are up to, swim and dive in some beautiful places, walk up some steep hills, eat weird and wonderful food, and see what happens. 

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A detailed spreadsheet is being kept of everything this trip entails: money spent (vaccines are spenny), distances, cities, activities, accommodation, transport, etc etc, and we'll share some of that data for the interested nosy-parkers when we're back in London in January 2026.​

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If you've read this far, salute! Take care of yourselves xx