All my bags are packed, la la la la!

Dig a well before you are thirsty.

The past six weeks have been frantic. Rocksalt has undergone a sea-change, which we hope will propel it into the digital age. How well a plan for three thirty-something 'ladies' to be all virtual and digital and finger-on-the-pulse cool, will only become apparent as time ticks by. We are no longer a little business working from a little office with a little weekly tipple and a little telephone that accepts hilarious grievances from dim witted parents (which I shall desperately miss). We are now a cyber business, operating from any corner of the globe in any capacity. The aim is to be in tune with contemporary business models that require minimal post-it notes and maximum clever digi-words to create the illusion of our very own photography business zeitgeist. (Do people still say 'zeitgeist'?). Clearly we have no idea what any of this means, but as old people we have to try to keep up with the kids, don't we? Anyhoo - today we moved out of Rocksalt HQ and the excitement of what's to come is naturally marred by the sentiment of what is gone. I've loved the whole experience and will miss spending my days with the girls and the (mostly tipsy) 'work' we undertook. *silent sniffle*. But onwards and upwards! Rocksalt is now ready for whatever comes next!

But anyway, back to the main event - I have bought all of my tickets! Woo-hoooOOOO! I am now officially ready to go! I gleefully spent £2000 in the space of around two and a half hours on variously complex and mystifying tickets and visas. I have acquired passage through a whole manner of hostile places and a plethora of dodgy digs and I'm so squeaking excited my bowels feel as loose as a pensioners dentures.

I leave on the 17th January. Between now and then I intend to 'do' Christmas with Ma, visit lots of friends and family and generally live like a backpacking nuisance. It'll be good practise. I shall refrain from thinking about Winston & Oliver, Nanna Dil, my house and my bank account. These things concern me. I shall maintain a certain level of 'On s'en fout de normal' to stem the growing panic that I've actually gone and dunnit. I shall also continue to attempt to minimise the gargantuan pile of detritus that I am trying to fit into one backpack in order to save both my spine and my dignity when swaying forth from yet another rusty train carriage  into a city with spun sugar for the written word. I believe I am as prepared as any human could possibly be.

All documents are officially lodged, all tickets bought, all hostels booked, all trains confirmed, job secured, university-upon-return sorted, lodgers ensconced, cats cared for, garden maintenance organised, jabs jabbed, thermal socks bought, insurance paid for, gadgets bought, kindle loaded, house cleared out and...... what have I forgotten?!

Ah well, whatever it may be, see you at stop numero uno - Moscow. Sčastlivovo puti!

Proposed Route

To talk much and arrive nowhere is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish - Chinese Proverb

OK, enough fanciful dreaming of eastern adventures, time to put facts into action. Here is my proposed route. It keeps changing so if I blog from Utar Pradesh, don't be alarmed.

 

The stars denote the main cities I plan to pass through or visit at length or indeed just have the misfortune of being on en route:

Cardiff - London - Brussels - Cologne - Warsaw - Moscow - Ulan Bator - Beijing - Xian - Chongqing -  Guangzhou - Shanghai (via a visit to Nanjing) - and finally Lianyungang where I will be living and teaching. I have given myself around six weeks to get to my final destination. If I have the time and money I will also try to visit Japan but at the moment it's looking too expensive and also for reasons I cannot disclose, it may not please my good friend, Ros.  

 

And so it begins...

Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect - Chinese Proverb

They say that adversity favours the versatile so with that in mind I have decided to terrify myself by being versatile. The adversity is also self inflicted as my business partners and I have decided to change the way we work in order to explore our own alternative interests. This means that our business is moving from the traditional office based job to a virtual cloud type thingy which means that we can be anywhere in the world and continue to run it. It means we are starting from scratch in many ways as we are reducing our current client base to fit our new fandangled plans but on the plus side it frees up a chunk of time as we re-establish ourselves as modern, forward thinking, über flexible photographers (www.rocksaltphotography.com if you need us... ;)). How very exciting - @RocksaltPhoto moving with the times but also allowing its three intrepid worker bees to do, well, anything we want!

My particular choices are as follows.:
1.) I have enrolled in university to study history and archaeology. This insanity will begin in late 2013 so that gives me nine months  in the interim to fill.
2,3,4 & 5.) I came up with the obvious idea of travelling to China by rail in order to teach English as a foreign language. What else would a seasoned photographer choose to do?!

I duly checked with Rocksalt HQ, enrolled on a TEFL course, put my house and two cats up for rent, doubled my home insurance and landed a job in Lianyungang. The myriad reasons for choosing to do this include ticking off some major bucket list items such as visiting Russia and China, travelling along the Trans Siberian line and living in a different country. I also want to do something totally different to my regular job and learn a whole host of new skills. This blog will chart my progress and hopefully be a rich source of clues should I get kidnapped/murdered/sold/eaten.

Here we go...