I can taste the sun.

I woke up this morning and as it has been the last few days the sun was streaming in through my windows (sadly it only lasts till about 11am when the clouds roll up and its back to the usual grey London skyline i have become so accustomed to.) i woke up, ate a cookie and thought to myself how the sun makes the world a better place.

For all my English readers and especially my fellow Londontowners you will all know that this winter has been a bag of shitballs. The cold weather has just dragged on and on bringing frosts, sleet, snow, icy winds, icy roads and icy moods. Every time it seems the temperature is on the rise another front rolls in from somewhere or another and the world returns to its bleak self. at several points during the course of the winter i have seriously considered buying a SAD lamp just to get some light into my day.

luckily for me Winter will be coming to an abrupt end next week as its only three more sleeps until i board the plane to India and when i arrive in Cochin next Wednesday morning the forecast is a beautiful high of 33 degrees Celsius, news that is music to my (cold,frostbitten,pasty white) ears.

There's not much more to do until i go, just the last minute packing really (although I'm sure ill land and realize i have forgotten some all important item but ill cross that bridge when i come to it) so until Tuesday its now just a matter of enjoying my final days in London hanging out with friends and enjoying the freedom.

Freedom, its the kinda feeling that makes you want to run along the top of a sand dune, jump up in the air like a starfish and then fall down and be absolutely covered in sand and happiness.

http://www.justgiving.com/Ayla-Georgia

"What do i want to be when grow up?"

It is a dream of mine to travel to every country in the world id go as far as saying its my life's goal (that and holding a baby panda but if i make it to China that just may come true so watch this space) 

Most people by the age of 25 have some inkling of what they want to do with their lives a career  ambition, a mortgage, a marriage, a family but for me its "i want to travel to every country in the world". i think a large part of my problem is that despite being 25 years of age i still don't think of myself as an adult i feel a bit of a fraud really, when i think about my future the thoughts always form as "what do i want to be when i grow up?" then my thoughts move fairly rapidly to "i don't want to grow up" this is the part where i break into a sweat and blindly panic that i have wasted my life thus far thankfully this panic lasts but a fraction of a millisecond and i remember what keeps me sane...Travel. 

There's nothing quite like waking up in a foreign place and not knowing where you will be going to sleep that night, of tasting new and exciting foods, of being lost in the crowd of thousands of people and you don't have a clue what they are saying. for a lot of people that's a description of their personal hell but that's my zen. Travelling is like marmite you either love it or you hate it for me i cant imagine a greater freedom which brings me to my point the thing is I'm 25, I'm an adult, I'm not going to stop aging just  because i want to unfortunately it doesn't work that way but i don't think it really means i have to grow up lets face it I'm almost certainly never going to enjoy wearing shoes, i have a ridiculous obsession with pandas (yes that is a real tattoo on my arm not a drawing!), Chocolate ice-cream is always going to be my favourite food, i cant sit on the beach without building some sort of sand structure and i still get excited about what toy I'm going to get in a kinder surprise.

But hey don't get me wrong though I'm more then capable of looking after myself which is why i have decided to pack my life in and go careening across India in a Rickshaw for two weeks followed by an unknown amount of time travelling around Asia with an extremely loose itinerary. The plan is to start in Cochin and drive to Shillong its a pretty mad adventure and I'm sure there are going to be a few hiccups along the road but it just wouldn't be fun if it was easy all the time! (if you want more details about the run please see my link below. and if that inspires you to donate or even if it doesn't get onto our justgiving page and give anything you can!)

I have now been back in England living and working in London for two years during that time i have spent time with amazing friends, gone on holidays, eaten a lot and have drunk far more and finally have learnt what i don't want to do with my life. with that in mind the plan now is to spend the next however long it takes to figure that out hopefully along the line i will come up with a magical solution that allows me to travel almost permanently. (any suggestions to this would be greatly appreciated!) you see although it is nice to have a home and creature comforts my feet are just to itchy to see the world yeah 45 countries by 25 is a lot but that still leaves about 150 to go so excuse me but i better get packing...

http://www.theadventurists.com/the-adventures/rickshaw-run

http://www.justgiving.com/Ayla-Georgia