I'm now in Thailand but I wrote the following before I left;

Leaving the country for six months is undoubtedly a big change. Our lives probably have more structure than we often realise, attending university or a job, going to to see your parents every weekend or just watching certain TV programmes every week all gives it structure. I think living out of a bag and making your day up as you go is probably more of a change than I've previously thought it would be.

But this aspect of change probably serves as a big attraction to me, I recently thought of a quote by the author Raymond Chandler which was something along the lines of 'If I reach the point in one of my stories where I just run up against a brick wall then I just have someone stick a gun round a door shoot one of the characters dead'. I like that quote and in some ways it seems fairly apt. Not in that I feel I've run up against a brick wall (or for that matter that I'm going to have anyone shot dead) but more that I feel that if I do this travelling then something has to happen.

Leaving the country for six months is fairly radical thing to be doing. By undertaking this my life will change and this period will be very different from anything I've done before. By my last year at university things seemed fairly static. I wouldn't say it was a rut but there was little fresh. Hopefully that will change.

A final thought: When you go down to the shop to buy some milk what might you take with you? Your wallet, mobile phone, coat and keys probably. Tomorrow I depart for six months: I am not taking a coat.