Interlude in between trips.

As you can see, my painting from Tanzania is back from the framers. It’s HUGE! It’s probably too big for the space, but I don’t care. As soon as I can locate a son with a hammer and nail, it’ll be up on the wall.

I haven’t felt like blogging for the last few weeks. Of course, as soon as I arrived home after China, I was engulfed in funeral organisation for Dad, along with all of the paperwork involved with a death. This is still ongoing.

And it’s not fun at all. Honestly, I don’t know how any of this would have been done if I was still at a full-time job. This stuff is so time-consuming.

A couple of days ago I picked up Dad’s ashes. Mum doesn’t want them with her at Bonbeach, so he’s currently sitting under my hall table, until I pop him in a cupboard before I head off to Borneo next week.

Yes, I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a year now. Orangutans! Pygmy elephants! Warmth! (I’m sitting here freezing to death at the moment.) I leave on Wednesday night for around 10 days. It’s so incredible that I’ve booked 10 trips this year, and I’m already about to embark on trip 6.

In other travel news, I received my flights for my big Iceland/Greenland/Scandinavia/Baltics trip. This is a huge mash-up of different tours and private travel with friends, and I’ll be gone for the whole of September. It’s crazy how I planted irises over Poppy and now, due to my vow of never being at home for my birthdays, I’ll probably never see them bloom. I’ll have to get Georgia to take a photo.

I had a win. My friends Baptiste and Morgan from Antarctica messaged that they were coming to Iceland a little earlier than the official tour in the south with Young Pioneers, and Corinna from Antarctica might be coming too. (Fingers crossed.) I was able to get my departure date pushed earlier to get there in time to go with them for no extra cost! We’re going to jaunt to the top part of Iceland, so now I get to see all of it.

Happy days.

I’ve been slotting in bits and pieces for this trip, such as booking extra flights, seeing where I can meet Nina from Sweden and Viking Girl from Denmark, and I have to start booking accomodation. I’m staying an extra day in Copenhagen because why not?

I’m also SERIOUSLY poring over tours to the Galapagus Islands, Peru, Equador and Easter Island for 2026. What an adventure that would be! I have one more year of being able to travel like an insane person before Georgia finishes uni, so I’m going to use that time as wisely as I can.

Anyway, I’d better hit publish and start packing for Borneo. That carryon won’t pack itself…