fillingthegaps

I hear rumours that people are asking “Where are you going?” and all my dear father-in-law can answer is “Hong Kong”. That is true, but even though there is more to it than that, he has good reason for sounding so senile. He’s coming with us and our plans are fluid and constantly under revision. For example, we were loosely planning on heading through Scandinavia to get to London from Tallinn…..but we’ve been invited to spend some time with a family in Latvia and so we’re looking in to going that way. Why wouldn’t you?
But closer in the future…after Hong Kong, we take an overnight train to Shanghai, where we’ll take in the sights for a few days before boarding another overnighter for Xi-an, resting place of the famous Terracotta Warriors. We abide at a cheap youth hostel for a week (originally a traditional Chinese house built around an indoor courtyard apparently) before taking another overnight train, this time to Beijing. This is our launching pad for seeing The Wall and moving on to Mongolia….where we will stay in a number of gers (you know, those felted wool tents) with two or three different families. Then the train journey continues – four days and nights of it across Russia to Moscow. There we “couchsurf” (sleep on the couch of friendly folks who offer hospitality via the internet)….and then we’ll do the same in St Petersburg and Tallinn, Estonia……..after that? Scandinavia or Latvia? We’ll let you know when we do.

July and August will be spent on a history trip round Great Britain – for a couple of weeks one of Rob’s sisters will join us too. We’ll drag old stories out of Dad and record as many as we can!

After that Dad probably zips to Canada with said sister/daughter and then returns to continue on our odyssey to Europe.
Italy calls, Turkey offers good food, Romania is cheap, Poland has old memories….who knows where we’ll end up?
Can you see why this Blog Author is a bit vague about his plans? It’s not his fault.

Not that I am getting excited……………!

There are still a bunch of things to do but at least I have finished wrestling with a spreadsheet to keep track of the finances.

IT’s a mite distressing to find how much electrical gadgetry I have to cram into my padded backpack. What with notebook, external HD, camera, mobile cables and power supplies for all the gadgets , plus all the ‘valuables’– it adds up to a fair swag of junk. I cannot afford to do my favourite trick of walking off and leaving it somewhere,

Then of course there is Rob’s camera to bring along (still have not heard from the Insurance co. re payout?)

Then I need to go and get a last-minute fitting of a new pair of ‘ears’. 

Definitely no time to chase off and get both eyes re-tested for a  pair of specs after the cateract interlude

Then all that will remain (after clearing up the clutter in the house) will be to sit heavily on the suitcase and try and get the lid to stay closed. The weight is definitely over the limit – I’m rather glad I did not go with the idea of a backpack for that lot!

As Rob (rather hopefully) observed the other day: “once you have given us all the goodies it will be much lighter” LOL

Starting a Blog is no simple task for this old-ish chap.

Apart from the technical hurdles to overcome (eg how to add a ‘post’; how to import a picture or other image; what type-face to use; etc etc) there are the more disturbing philosophical issues to be faced: why do you want to write this? Who do you think would want to read it? Are you capable of writing anything interesting? What is interesting to you may bore the pants of other readers etc etc.

So for the sake of satisfying the casual enquirer, and also to keep myself on track, here is the background to this Endeavour

Profile:

I am the 77 year old father of 3 children: girl, girl, boy, 2 years between the first 2 and then a 6 year gap to the boy- an unexpected pleasure!

 My wife was a Chinese/Malaysian, which means that she was Chinese, but a citizen of Malaysia (until she came to live in NZ)  I say was, because 10 years ago she died in an accident involving an out-of-control car while we were out for a walk.

My two girls each had 3 children; my son had eight – blessing me with a total of 14 grandchildren

I have to say, because I am biased, that our children were blessed by inheriting the good features of the parents, while the weaknesses appear to have been suppressed!

Equally, the grandchildren have always given us cause for much delight. While she was alive, my wife, (the grandchildren’s ‘poh-poh’) poured a huge amount of energy and time into their upbringing.

We have been, and still are, a close-knit family with a lot of love, time and respect for one another.

Not long after I lost my wife, my son Robert suggested that I build on a small section in the same small sub-division, close to his own home (which he had just built)

So for the last 4 years or so I have been more or less sharing my life with Robert, Rachael and their 8 children. I should mention that Rachael Home-schools her tribe, so I see more of the children than had they been at school

Last October Robert decided to take a year off work, and the family embarked on a 12 month ‘pilgrimage’ starting in Singapore and traveling overland to eventually arrive in the UK. (You can keep track of their experiences by visiting their blog on http://blogs.bootsnall.com/kiwifamily/

I actually joined them for 5 weeks at the start of their journey – it was an opportunity to   re-visit my Malaysian/Chinese in-laws and further cement the bonds we have with them. 

 After a week in Bangkok with Rob and Rachael and tribe, I returned to Auckland and left them to continue their travels:  north to Chiang Mai and beyond.

The original plan was that I would re-join them when they arrived in the UK, but I found myself envying their experiences in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. I mentioned to friends that I wouldn’t mind being with them right now, and the answer I invariably got was, “why not”.

Why not indeed, so after making sure that my added presence was not going to be a burden, the die was cast. On the 5^th March I set off again to rejoin the group in Hong Kong .

There is more to it than that, but this is quite sufficient for the time being.

So this is the start of my Blogging career. I know nothing about this business but I am hoping to pick things up as I stagger along.

A few words of explanation: I called this site “filling in the gaps” because I am hoping to see a lot of the world that I have never seen before. I have travelled quite a lot in my 77 years, but there remains a lot of the world that I have not experienced first-hand. ( and yes, there will remain an awful lot I have not seen after this trip) Now I have the rather exciting priveledge of joining my son Robert, his wife Rachael and their 8 children in a semi-unplanned Odyssey across Asia, into Europe and the UK and possibly taking in some of Canada as well.

The object is to keep some sort of a record of the journey, both in word and picture, for the benefit of family and maybe a few friends if they are interested. The theory is that it will save me the task of sending bunches of  emails: anyone interested in what we are up to can take a look. And at the same time I will have record that I can actually read, with pictures added at strategic points in the story.

Of course Rachael is maintaining a superb record in her ‘Bootsnall” blog which you can access by clicking here: http://blogs.bootsnall.com/kiwifamily/

I thought that Travel had lost much of its appeal, but I have to confess to being quite excited at this coming adventure. I just hope the task of keeping this journal going does not prove to be beyond my capabilities!    

This is the Tribe