i don’t think i’ll be winning a travel blogging award anytime soon: it’s five weeks today since i left home, and i’ve blogged about my travels exactly once (and i hadn’t even got on the plane at the end of it).

i have however, been keeping a travel diary - with a notepad and pen and everything. i’ve decided that the best way to share it with you is to write posts which include a few days at a time (that way, i might have finished by next october). i’ll continue writing other posts (when i have time) in between the travel ones and i will edit my diary entries somewhat so that i’m finished before christmas.

i hope you enjoy them - either way they will be a useful keepsake when i’m 90 and can’t remember my foreign adventures… let’s start at the beginning, with my arrival in singapore (aka: the molten centre of the earth).

travel log, part one

10 april 2008

on the plane to singapore:

very impressed with self, as my theory of seat booking was correct. i wanted an aisle seat, so chose a row where only the window seat had been reserved. the middle seat would be a last-resort booking for anyone, right? right - huzzah! no-one was in the seat next to me, so i could spread out with my stuff instead of having to duck under my seat to get things.

the man in the window seat was either a big drinker or a nervous flyer, or both: he consumed at least three gin and tonics and three glasses of wine, then promptly fell asleep (and! as far as i can tell, he didn’t, um, “go” once…) as i can never sleep on a flight, i watched lots of stuff on the seat-back screen: ’til death, 30 rock, rules of engagement, back to you, pushing daisies and two eps of sex and the city. i also saw most of a julie delpy film (which i didn’t like much) and juno (which i will be writing another post about soon).

i wished i had my laptop, my carmex and my meg cabot, but i coped.

11 april 2008

before i knew it (okay, it was a long time, and long overdue, but i’m skipping ahead now) we were landing in singapore. the pilot announced it was 26 degrees celsius. “that’s not too hot,” i thought. then i realised: it’s half past five in the morning. after disembarking, i had a short wait at customs and a shorter wait at the baggage carousel, before hefting my heavy suitcase over to the exit, where my dad stood, in his sheffield united t-shirt and shorts. hugs ensued.

stepping out of the airport, i couldn’t believe the heat. it doesn’t creep up on you but blasts you like a thump to the face. we dived into a taxi and twenty minutes later we were at our hotel in little india. everything looked - unsurprisingly! - indian, which was weird for a city whose main occupants are of chinese origin.

back at the hotel, it was about 6.30 AM, and i wasn’t feeling my best. my room wasn’t ready yet, so my dad went for breakfast while i showered and had a snooze. then i dressed, my dad came back, and i acted like i was ready to sight-see, despite feeling like i’d been run over…

for most features writers, the glossies - those monthly women’s mags printed on paper as shiny as their nickname implies - are a holy grail. we all want to write for them, for the cash and the employment but most of all for that lovely feeling you get from seeing your name in something with such a huge circulation that you actually read.

while i have been lucky enough in the past to snag an eighth of a page in essentials, and a half page in company, i hadn’t really “cracked” the glossies. i’d never got a page of my own.

until i left the country.

ironically, the month my first full-page feature appears in a monthly women’s mag… i’m on the other side of the world. if you are not, i encourage you to pick up a copy of this month’s easy living (the one with marriella frostrup on). anyone else who is interested, can read this lovely scan (thanks, mum!) instead: get to grips with your iPod. (click with your mouse to bring up a magnifying glass icon, which will let you enlarge it).

next month: i make my prima debut - and won’t be around to see that, either…

when someone reads an article then says “wow, this sounds just like you,” you can’t help thinking they’ve seen your incredible potential. that they’ve just read about some fabulous journalist-author-whatever who had one or two struggles on the way to a hugely happy life and kick-ass career. someone you can model yourself on, and use as an inspiration: like marian keyes, arianna huffington or nora ephron.

of course, that’s never the case. someone has read a piece about a woman who also likes to wear black trousers, or who watches teen programmes they are really too old for, or has had depression for as long as they can remember.

it’s this last thing that most recently reminded someone of me.

at first i was a bit insulted… so it wasn’t something about a fabulous person, but about someone suffering from self-doubt and an all-pervasive sadness? bummer.

» more…

yes, indeed: my first piece for handbag.com went live while i was in transit, so i’m a bit late in shouting about it. but if you’re interested in my top ten wellbeing treats, you might like to take a look. 

coming soon to the blog: my holiday diary. woot!