Dear Mister Interwebs,

I realised today that I began this blog just under 4 years ago at the youthful age of 20 years (at 23 now, I know I'm still young but 20 just sounds ridiculous!). A lot happens in 4 years and, without wanting to get philosophical, a lot changes. One significant change that I have noticed since 1st posting things on this blog is that, all of a sudden, I'm feeling very self-conscious. Gone are the days where I could send this link to all my Gmail contacts, without caring who reads it or what they think. Now, all I can think about is my grammar, spelling and whether or not those reading this think my thoughts are interesting or boring. I don't even have the courage to read my old posts. It is exactly why I've never been able to keep a diary - the idea of writing down all my thoughts and having them there to re-read later on is simply cringeworthy (apologies to those who do have diaries and have the formidable self-discipline to keep them up to date). Despite this, I have found this blog to be a marvelous thing for 2 main reasons. Firstly, it's a wonderful record of the many places I've been lucky enough to visit, people I've met there and things that I've done. In addition, it does avoid group e-mails! As such, I would like to attempt to continue these posts, at least over the next 6 weeks. Why? Because in the wee small hours of Saturday morning I'm hopping on a plane for another adventure (Life is full of them. Hurrah!), starting and finishing in London with a series of stops in between. There'll be new places, old faces (and old places with new faces...) and plenty for me to babble about. I do hope to write regularly but am not keeping any promises :P So, here we go!

(the original) ARod ;)