This blog is a tribute to my mum and my husband.

My mum is my inspiration for leaving my corporate life to see the world.

She's 66 years old, and has traveled the world, and in the last 8 years, and has back-packed through India, Europe, China, Nepal, Japan and South East Asia all by her lonesome. She takes public transport, stays at hostels and has more energy , enthusiasm and passion for the world and meeting new people than I ever had in my 20's. She travels for 2-3 months at a time on a tight budget, fully immersing herself into the places she visits, preferring to walk & catch public transport.

I've always wanted to travel with her, but I never had the time.
With deadlines, quarterly plans and campaign KPIs to meet, I was never able to commit mentally to travelling for longer than 2 weeks.

I quit my job, in April, after 9 years in a global multi-national company. It was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in my life. So what made me do it? Well, after forgetting my wedding anniversary, and wondering when I'd have the time to travel with my mum, I realised, I needed to make the time. No one was going to tap my on the shoulder and say "OK, it's time – off you go."

I was going to have to do that myself.

And my husband's played a huge part to encourage me. He's been telling me to travel with my mum before it's too late. To stop being such a workaholic. He lost his parents, and has a strong sense of what's truly worth spending time on in life (except for his Reddit trawling which we are both guilty of). There's lots of reasons to do what you love, with those you love, and time just keeps ticking along. (insert cliche here). In all seriousness, his foresight and support are a massive reason I've taken the plunge to do this, instead of waiting for the "right" time.

The pic I drew is based on "Adventure Time" by Pendleton Ward. The drawings remind me that there's more to life than emails, deadlines and definitions of success by career. 

A little explanation on the "characters": I had to make me Jake cos it wouldn't be filial (Asians will get this) to make my mum the dog character, so she's Finn. My husband has to be BMO cos he works in IT and it was just fate smiling upon my humour. The sword on the orignal "Adventure Time" title had to be changed to an umbrella as my mum never travels without one. It's her version of the "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" essential towel. There will be pics of this on our travels, to be sure. Plus, drawing this pic made my mum laugh, snort and call me "crazy". That's a win all on it's own. 

The first leg of the trip is with my mum & husband. We have a week in Shanghai.

Then my mum & I head off to Beijing, Tibet and Nepal. And then….who knows where.

Hope you enjoy the blog, the occassional random musings, pics and travel tips.  

"You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows." – Bob Dylan