2014 adventures

# 1 of 2014: the day my sabbatical year began. The morning after the night before, I was up and showered and ready to greet the parents at the front door.  (It ought to be noted at this point that the night before  involved the end-of-year staff night out, and that therefore being up and alert at 9am was something of an achievement.) So, there they were at the front door having driven all the way across the country* the night before to pick up my belongings and see me off on my adventures. Bless them. "Here's your jumper!" Mum hands me the most gorgeous hand-knitted teal jumper for the cold nights I was about to face in the Andes. Knitted furiously in the weeks/months leading up to my departure.  "Hand-delivered no less."  "Hi Dad."  One photo of me slightly baffled and hungover in a new sweater later, and I usher them inside. 3 hours of chaotic packing/repacking/stuffing things in bags and 3 cups of tea thus ensued.  At which point, my lovely folks disappeared in a cloud of smoke. This may sound epic, but when the smoke is due to a broken turbo, it's more of a cough and crawl kind of exit...  Not a moment later, CJ (travelling buddy, best friend and drummer extraordinaire) pulled me out of the house towards the metro. Time to go drumming at our biggest event of the year!! *For more on British perceptions of driving, see Bill Bryson's acute and dry observations in Notes on a Small Island.