The start of a brand new life, a reboot. it’s surreal. We’re just a couple of weeks away from leaving the life that we have built in Denmark in the last 10 years. Leaving a life and home and friends and family that we love deeply. I’ve never been happier in my life.

So why create the dream and then leave it?

Honestly, I do ask myself that question, mostly at 4am, normally kicked off by an inconvenient pee break from sleep – FFS.

As you know if you are a parent, your first priority to your children is to keep them safe. It has appeared that my brain has gone into meltdown in trying to second guess the million and one things that could happen whilst we are away – to everyone.

It’s all a long way from the footloose fancy-free person that rode a motorbike through the Americas 15 years ago and then with Fie to India 13 years ago. Kids change you.

The REASON we want to do this is to have more time together. That’s it. The fact that we can do this in a tropical environment full of new experiences is also a large draw, to be honest.

Back to the meltdown – all I can conclude is that I have 10 years of listening to crap that the media peddle and people that are ignorant to South East Asia (ie: haven’t actually been there) pouring nonsense into my ears – has detached me from the fact that the men and women of the region are in the overwhelmingly massive majority – good people.

The only real uncertainty is that we’re stepping into a new life for a year – a completely new way of living and nobody knows how that will go – and being a parent, well…. you want to make sure everyone is happy.

In living this life in this part of the world, we build a protective bubble around us, confirmed and reconfirmed on a daily basis that “this is the thing we do”. Now we’re stepping outside of the bubble, away from brexshit, away from the giant orange wobbly jelly leading North America, away from the routine and “not enough time”, and not going gentle into that good night. It’s an investment in the most precious commodity – time.

There … I just talked my way out of a meltdown, thanks for listening.