Mumble. Grumble. Escape.

I had a post half-written yesterday when my hard drive started acting up. Acting up in such a way that I hit the reset button thinking that it was just some processor error that would correct itself upon reboot. Instead, I was faced with the white-screen-o-death (on PCs it’s the blue screen, but I use a Mac at home) and no amount of futzing with the disk utility would bring my hard drive back online. So yeah. Two months old and the hard drive has taken itself out – you would think I was abusing the poor thing!

Fortunately I hadn’t written anything that scintillating, so it was no big loss when the drive sputtered. Thank heavens for backups of almost everything else!

Some of you know that I’ve been kicking around the idea of some overseas travel for awhile… thinking that once I’ve completed my work contract and my bargaining commitment it will probably be time for a long holiday as far away from my cube as possible. Originally it was going to be the Camino de Santiago, an 800 km trek from France to Spain but more recently I’ve fielded a couple of invitations that have made me think more seriously about travel to the Middle East. Having flirted with this idea previously, I started doing a little research and well… the more I’ve read the more I want to go.

Istanbul to Cairo overland in March/April 2009 through Syria and Jordan. Sound like fun? Apparently you can take the train for most of it, and then ferry from Jordan to Egypt across the Red Sea. I’m not kidding people. This is the trip I want to take… and I’ve promised myself that the day we ink our new agreement (next fall sometime probably) is the day I buy a plane ticket somewhere.

I feel pretty lucky in that I have some friends living in the region, and some other contacts I’m going to try and milk for places to stay and travel advice – though I expect I will be mostly going it alone. I’m open to people who want to join me in parts – so if there is one of these places you’ve always wanted to travel to keep an eye here for my itinerary and let me know. I’m not looking for anyone to join me for the whole 7 weeks. As much as I fear being lonely, I prefer to do a lot of my traveling alone – hooking up with people along the way for bits of the journey.

The next year is going to be a hard go between work and the union – and this might just provide the light at the end of the tunnel to look on to. I am satisfied with my life in so many ways, but a little restless for a new adventure… nothing too dangerous, but nothing staid either. Any advice? Please feel free to send it my way 🙂