Bridget McNulty

A big bloggy realisation:

// November 17th, 2009 // 7 Comments » // Blogs, Inspiration, Links, travelling

I don’t actually think I’m a good blogger.

It just hit me!

Take a look at some of my favourite blogs, the ones I still read even though I’m in foreign countries and have sketchy internet connection…

* Naturally Nina – http://www.naturallynina.com/
This has grown into my favourite blog of the moment… Nina writes honest, heartfelt and inspiring blog posts about life, love and everything else. And her blog is beautifully designed.

* A Cup of Jo – http://www.joannagoddard.blogspot.com/
I hate that I love this blog so much (because so many other thousands do), but what can I say? Joanna is a master blogger – probably one of the best out there. Despite her many followers, the blog feels personal and heartfelt, and she always has hundreds of fabulous links all over the web: seriously, you could save hours just by looking at the treasures she’s unearthed for you.

* Color Me Katie – http://www.colormekatie.blogspot.com/
This New York photographer is zany and playful, and posts beautifully photographed, wildly colourful short blogs about her life and loves. A delightful break to any day.

Now, what do all these blogs have that make them intensely readable? Short, snappy blog posts that are highly visual and that engage the reader.
Now take a glance over at Sweet Life, the blog I’ve been regularly updating as we travel around the world: www.justtheplanet.com/sweet-life

High-quality, well-written blog posts, even if I do say so myself (this was what I was told to write when I first started a blog). Original content and all that jazz, but not a whole lot of images and I just don’t know how to write those snappy blog posts that make people feel they have to comment. And so it hit me: I’m not really a blogger. I’m a writer, yes, and I’ve been loving writing travel pieces and trying to paint word pictures about the places we’ve been visiting. But at heart, this is the kind of writing that comes naturally to me – far too many words, and something you’d read in a book or a magazine. Not ideal for blogging.

Now how am I supposed to fix that? Tell me, please!

PS – I joined NaNoWriMo and took up the challenge of writing a 50 000 word novel in one month. But it’s 17 days in and I’ve only had one day when I’ve been able to get my hands on the computer not for work but for play. Eek.

The Travelling Life

// October 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life (and the living of it), travelling

You know, I was pretty sure I was going to get sick of traveling. That might be a foolish thing to be sure of when you’re on a nine month journey, but I’ve always been such a homebody that I thought the allure would wear off. I was wrong.

So far, so good. We’re 6 weeks in and going strong, with not a hint of travel weariness or being sick of living out of a suitcase or being in a different bed every second night. Both Mark and I have become champions at sleeping in strange beds (hard, soft, long, short, small, massive, pillowy, bricklike) and apart from the odd sleepless night, we appear to be doing well. It’s not only about the beds, though (obviously). It’s about the whole malarkey – the finding out how to get from one place to another, finding a place to stay when you get there, making sure it’s the right kind of place (and within your budget), finding somewhere to eat, taking in the sights, and sometimes, every so often, finding a spot to chill out. I think if we were hardcore tourists, it would be completely exhausting. But we are, for the most part, quite laidback when it comes to traveling.

We’re doing it for such a long time, you see. And I think this is what I’ve learnt, so far: that traveling is a lot like real life. You have days that are hard work and admin, days that you have piles of paperwork to plough through (especially when you’re documenting it as thoroughly as we are!), days when you don’t feel so good and you just want to take it easy, and days when you really just need to chill. The beauty of traveling, as opposed to real life (apart from seeing amazing things and experiencing new cultures, of course) is that it’s easier to be good to yourself. There’s no point in pushing through, no reward from a boss at the end of the road if you get all stressed out and work yourself into the ground. And I think that’s what I’m really enjoying about it… The immediacy. It is all about right here right now. What do you want to do today? How do you feel? What do you hope to get out of the day? Okay, let’s work with that.

It’s something I hope to carry home with me, along with my already-battered suitcase and my taste for lime and black pepper (which I picked up fairly recently, in Cambodia!)

If you’re looking for more up-to-the-minute updates about our travels, videos, photos and video blogs, visit us at Sweet Life – www.justtheplanet.com/sweet-life

In the meantime, aren’t you tempted to take a travel day? A day where you do what you feel like doing, right here, right now?

Seaside musings…

// September 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Blogs, Inspiration, Life (and the living of it), travelling

So we’ve been by the sea for nearly a week, and I have to say I love it. Absolutely love it! Forget cities, forget towns, I love love love being by the sea. I always knew this, of course, but now I’m 100% sure.

We arrived in the sleepy seaside town of Ban Krut last week – exhausted, sweaty, a little strung out. Sick of being on the move. 5 nights later we emerged (like butterflies out of a cocoon!) rested, relaxed, happy and calm. We’ve spent the last six days getting enough sleep, swimming in the sea, waking up early to watch the sunrise, eating delicious food, reading a lot and spending real quality time with each other. Most days we had a vague itinerary when we woke up (rent a motorbike and explore the surrounds, walk the length of the beach, do some photographic or writing work), but nothing too strenuous. We left plenty of time for afternoon naps and long picnic lunches and spontaneous swims…

It was a delight! Which was why I was so surprised to wake up on Monday feeling down. Nothing specific, nothing related to traveling or being away from home (I went through the checklist and none of the possible problems rang true). Just a bit… off. Now, my initial impulse was to say, “How could you possibly be feeling down? Look around you! You’re in a beach paradise!” but I decided not to fight against it (what’s the point when you’re already not feeling great?) and spend the morning lying in our little air-conditioned bungalow, watching movies on TV. I gave in to feeling down.

And wouldn’t you know it, a couple of hours later I got up for lunch and felt much better. I think maybe I just needed some nothing-time. Weirdly enough, I remember having a conversation about this exact thing with a friend who asked how we’d avoid burn-out. I said, “If we need to take a day out watching TV we will – no problem!” When it came down to it, though, I actually felt a little guilty… Isn’t that silly?

Of course, not having to move around so much has also made it a lot easier to keep an eye on my diabetes, and get back into tighter control. When you’re hopping between trains and buses and walking unknown distances it’s not a good idea to be too tightly in control, but when you’re in one place it’s easier to make sure my blood glucose readings are closer to what they should be. This also means, though, that I’ve had more lows this week than at any other time during the trip. I hate lows! I’m sure all diabetics do…

So we had a blissful (for the most part) six days in Ban Krut, and then got an opportunity at the last minute to spend a night on Koh Talu Island, less than an hour away – a private island with a low-key resort and a truly inspiring coral regeneration project. I’ll be writing about it soon, I’ll keep you posted. We had such a wonderful time there – snorkeling, swimming, and finding out all about the project (see Mark in snorkeling mode here!)

And now we’re about to catch our train back to Bangkok (no running to catch it this time, thank you very much – we’re going to be very early!) Tomorrow night I head off to Vienna for the Novo Nordisk International Diabetes Media Prize Conference (keep your fingers crossed for me!) and on Friday morning Mark will fulfil a long-held dream and go to Singapore to watch the F1 Grand Prix live (the ticket is a little early-birthday-gift from me).

So it’s an exciting couple of days ahead! I’ll keep you updated when I can…

(This blog was first published on Sweet Life, our Traveling with Diabetes blog).

Around-the-World-ing:

// September 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Blogs, travelling

I know, I know, I’ve been useless at updating you guys on what’s going on!

But I’ve been pretty terrific over at Sweet Life, our traveling blog. Well, not terrific, maybe, but quite good. And combine the blogs with the daily Best Moments of the Day (short video snippets of our best moments each day) and the weekly video diaries, and I think the result is pretty good.

Check out our Best Moments here: http://bit.ly/1amRtW

And our blog here: www.justtheplanet.com/sweet-life

And let me know what you think…

Thanks

And we’re off!

// September 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Life (and the living of it), travelling

For reals.

We leave this afternoon.

Our bags are packed, our tickets are confirmed, we’re outta here!
I can’t quite believe it…

For regular updates, check out our Sweet Life blog, and to find out exactly what we’re up to, you can watch this little video we made:

http://bit.ly/3YGoog

I’ll still be popping back here, though, so come and visit!

Byeeee….

Finished.

// August 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life (and the living of it), travelling

I’m finished. Exhausted, yes, and done with packing, yes (nearly), and done with goodbyes, yes.

We move out tomorrow, and then spend three heavenly no-packing-up, no-million-things-to-do days at my brother’s, so I’ll have time to spend with the baby (my neice), which makes me very happy! And time to unwind a little, and catch my breath. I feel as if I’m extremely tightly strung at the moment. I had forgotten how stressful moving was!
Now combine moving with trying to plan 9 months on the road… Yikes.

I also just wanted to say, in this brief moment of respite in between boxes, that I’ll still be popping in here now and again, but that my main bloggy emphasis will be over at Sweet Life (once again, for those who haven’t been paying attention! www.justtheplanet.com/sweet-life)

It’s such an integral part of our journey, the personal perspective, that I don’t want to dilute it by writing on two blogs at once and splitting myself in two. That said, sometimes I’ll think of something particularly suited to this blog (I’m sure) and I’ll write here too – so don’t stop visiting, please.

It’s funny, throughout all this extremely busy, frantic, preparation time I’ve felt stressed at the amount of work to do, but by no means stressed about the upcoming journey. I’m ready for it. It’s such a lovely feeling…

I hope you’ll come follow us and join in the journey!

Any travel tips?

// August 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life (and the living of it), travelling

With only a week to go till our Big Adventure begins, we’re gathering travel tips like squirrels gather nuts for the winter… Head on over to Sweet Life, our travelling blog, to see the great suggestions we’ve got so far – and please feel free to add your own!

It’s getting exciting…

Ask and it is given.

// August 18th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Cape Town, Decisions, Life (and the living of it), travelling

At least, that’s what they say.

But I must admit, the last couple of weeks (possibly months) have been a difficult test of that… My man and I have been working full-time on getting this Round-the-World trip off the ground. We’ve written, designed and sent out hundreds of proposals (well, maybe not hundreds, but at least 30 or 40 which in real life is a lot of work). We’ve knocked on door after door after door, waiting for the magical one to open. We’ve thought as much out of the box as our brains would allow us, to come up with fresh solutions. It’s been hard work! Wonderful hard work, because we knew it was taking us to our dream of travelling around the world together, but on a day-to-day level it’s been pretty exhausting.

All this exhaustion reached a peak two weeks ago (today). It was the day before we were set to leave on our Joburg-Durban-Blue Train trip, and we had just found out that yet another company couldn’t help us out with sponsoring our flights. Up till then, each time someone had said no I hadn’t let it bother me – I just forged ahead and sent out the next proposal. But this time, it hit me. Hard. Because I had pretty much reached the end of my tether. I couldn’t think of anyone else who could help us out, and I couldn’t understand why people weren’t forthcoming when what we want to do – spread positive awareness about diabetes around the world – is such a great cause. I felt like we were offering delicious cupcakes to passers-by, and none of them wanted any.

I was feeling really awful about it, I must admit, but I remembered that whole thing about needing to let go and choose the downstream thought (remember I wrote about going downstream here?)

Now, those of you who have been reading for a while will know that letting go is not exactly my forte. In fact, I’m something of a control freak, so letting go is pretty painful for me to do. Still, I’d tried absolutely everything, and now it was time to hand it over to the Universe and say: Please help. I couldn’t have made it more clear what we needed to make the trip happen, so I had to let go and trust that it would come.

Did I mention that I find letting go of control extremely painful??

Anyhoo, a few hours after I made this decision, an email popped up in my inbox from a company I’d approached two weeks before and hadn’t heard back from, who now wanted to chat about our project. So exciting! Except we were leaving first thing the next morning and couldn’t meet with them till we returned… Nearly two weeks later.

The last two weeks have been full of uncertainty. While telling everyone that we were leaving on the 1st of September, we didn’t actually have any tickets (troublesome, that) and didn’t know if we’d be able to afford the whole trip unless the company in question (I’ll be writing about them later in the week, they deserve their own post!) sponsored at least a portion of our travels.

Back to real life yesterday, and within the first few hours of the day we heard that this magical company is happy to sponsor half our tickets, slicing our air ticket prices not only in half, but in a third. I cannot tell you how relieved I am! I actually felt shivery yesterday I was so relieved and happy!!

And, of course, it proves what all these books on Law of Attraction and the Art of Letting Go have been saying all along – there’s only so far you can go with action, then you have to let go and trust that what you have asked for will come to you. It might only come at the last minute (2 weeks before you leave, when you’ve already sold up and have nowhere to live after that date!) but it will come.

Phew.

Have you ever had an experience like this?

The Blue Train.

// August 4th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Cape Town, Time, travelling

Tomorrow morning, first thing, my man and I are heading off on an adventure, by train!

We’re catching the Blue Train, a ‘five star moving hotel’, as they like to call it, from Cape Town to Pretoria (near Johannesburg).

Here’s what they say about our trip…

“The route between Pretoria and Cape Town is a 27-hour journey of 1 600 kilometres (994 miles), through some of the most diverse and spectacular scenery offered by the African sub-continent.”
Sounds lovely! And it looks like a pretty incredible experience… Check out their website here.

It’s technically for work, we’re writing (and photographing) a review about it for Just the Planet, but it’ll be a mini-holiday too. We are really in need of a break! We’ve been working at breakneck speed to get everything organised for our trip, and we really need some quality time with each other where we don’t have to talk about work…

Once we arrive in Pretoria we’re getting our Mexican visas (woohoo!) and then spending a night or two at an as-yet mystery location, before spending two days with my man’s brother in Joburg and six delicious days in Durban with my family. Lovely lovely lovely!

If you want to follow our travelling route, I’ll be blogging from Sweet Life for the next couple of days (I need to get into practice for next month!) but I’ll pop in here next week too, never fear.

Now it’s time to tie up a couple of loose ends, do some final work, pack, and hopefully get a good night’s sleep so we’re bright-eyed and bushy tailed for our train trip in the morning!

How are you feeling today?

// August 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Cape Town, Life (and the living of it), Time, travelling

Me, I’m feeling as if I’m standing in the middle of a tennis court, with Life Lessons being thrown at me from every direction. I’m catching most of them, but some are either hitting me or dropping, and I’m not quite sure what that means!

It just seems as if I’m on learning fast-forward at the moment, you know? And I know it’s because I’ve asked for a lot from life-right-now… Doing a 9 month Round-the-World journey isn’t your usual run-of-the-mill life choice. But I feel like I need to wise up really quickly to grow up to the challenge.

Is any of this making any sense? Basically, I’m having to learn a lot while being really busy and dealing with challenging situations. And it’s not exhausting, or overwhelming, but it is big. Life feels big at the moment.

How are you feeling today?