Well here we are. Started on the Virgin flight to Mumbai. After getting set after drinks, takeoff, ping seatbelts off, I played a song that Jon had recommended to me by Ellis Paul “The world ain’t slowin’ down”. 3 times. It brought a tear to my eye. You are also a bit more melancholic when you have had four glasses of champagne. My boys have been very supportive in the whole sabbatical process.

Well it’s not a Harley, but it may well be a bit of a mid-life thing. Not a ‘crisis’ though. I am blessed to have my health and a bit privileged that I can make this choice or at least take my chance at this time of life. Let us see where my direction takes me. Is a beard with beads too adventurous?

So how did it get to this point. Weeks of cogitation with Lonely Planet guides, endless route and accommodation options and flights, weighing up the flexibility, listening to everyone and thinking if this was the right thing to do. Schedule is set, although a bit like cornflour in water, it looks all solid and then you stir it up and it’s all fluid again.

Highly calculated and planned? Not quite. I checked into my cheapy Heathrow hotel thursday night and they were not expecting me until 14 June. Now I could have blamed it on systems, other people, the international date line, but no I take it fully on the chin, it was me. But forgive me for this one as this is the day that I next see Jon and Tom when they join me in Nashville, so it’s the most important date in my head. Thanks to the hotels flexibility to accommodate me. My cheap option was well…wasn’t.

Just remembered another one of my past business travels. The Mary and Joseph thing has happened to me many times before. Once in Oslo where the mathematically likelihood of overbooking happened. I arrived late and with nowhere else to go (remember Richard Gere in Officer and a Gentleman?) they came up with a solution. The Hotel wheeled a makeshift bed into a conference room, but the guidance was that to be sure that I got up and out by 7.30am before the delegates arrived. Upside, a plentiful supply of mints and sparkling water. Downside, I have never had so many panic wake up experiences in one night.

Back to the plane…Looking out the plane window I saw France bathed in snow. I could be tempted to make some of sort of Anglophile comments about the French like Trafalgar, Agincourt etc but I won’t. Today I love everything and everyone ou j’adore la monde (see Mr Cherry, 40 years on and I haven’t forgotten basic franglaise)

My cool headphones worked a treat for noise, but with my polite behaviour it was also a distraction, as you had to keep looking to see if the airline staff were trying to speak with you. I care about being helpful. Years of teaching from Sue. The boys think that I need a hearing aid anyway so it won’t be news to them. I don’t need an aid I just have problems with the sound range from 300 to 3,400 hertz (the human voice, but give me a bat and…).

Nice flight crew today. Richard B please note, my bitterness for losing my 91,286 airmiles is over. You really do do the airline stuff exceptionally well. And the staff were really, well, cute. The glass of Argentinian red was delightful and it was plucked with care from the Upper Class bin even though I was one seat back. Premium was just dandy. The soft foot rest really comfortable too. The flight was empty and you really feel that you were being overly pampered. You know that feeling like it’s your birthday and you think that everyone knows it’s your birthday and say nice things?

Caught up on a bit of BBC News on my iPad. “Samsung launch and demonstrate Galaxy’s ability to take two photo’s simultaneously”. What’s new there ? I have been capturing the photo I want to take and the one I actually got for years! “Rail workers find Black Death pit”. I didn’t know it was lost, as the Eurostar arrives in Brussels every hour. “Parties to deliver on press regulation”. ‘Delivery’ that would be nice from any political party.

Taylor Swift in my ears and time to let my mind wander and mind mapping on a random subject while sipping the rest of the red wine.

Into and out of Mumbai Airport. I thought that at 2am that I would be the guy they named the Lonely Planet guides after. How mistaken I was. Quiet at 2am, terminal full and jostling at 4am. Pleasant little domestic terminal. In my rush to get the Mosquito Deet applied I sampled its taste. It numbs your lips, I will not do that again.

I’ll leave the taxi ride from Kochi Airport to my next posting…I am still trying to find words.