The plan was to fly to India, buy a new Enfield, and ride it back, holding tea parties along the way. But that changed when Rob, the dad of one of Theo’s mates, invited me to the Adventure Travel Film Festival – where I was smitten by motocross.

Now an old Suzuki scrambler, that just qualifies as a road bike, a trailer and a tow bar, are slowly making their way to the garage: my take upon gold, incenses and myrrh.

I’ve booked a hotel in Chichester over New Year with an eye to riding the South Downs leg of the TET, and next September a place on Austin’s mini mondo (the chap who runs the ATFF)

I guess the off-road stuff is a bit of a detour, but it’s leading to other good things e.g.  regular exercise to build core strength and stamina, and loosen stiff sinews. I’m also learning film making. (Greg Villalobos inspired me to this first effort).
So many plans.

Before Max left for Nicaragua, we had a few conversations about planning.
Though it’s not a natural fit with youthful enthusiasm and spontaneity, lining stuff up and list making helps to make a trip all the more enjoyable and mitigate against your day being spoilt by not having packed a …

Perhaps we humans find ourselves at the top of the evolutionary tree just because we can plan, adapt and improvise.  Kubrick’s 2001 captures that beautifully when the ape ancestor takes over the waterhole. The bone has been imagined as a weapon, the first tool has been fashioned, the goal set, the confrontation planned and executed.
In triumph it throws the improvised club skywards where it turns into a space station,
and from there the rest is history.

I bet his descendants have lists on their Iphones synchronised to their online supermarket accounts.

If you can make a plan, you can surely be spontaneous and change it: that’s what I said to Max. Planning doesn’t so much restrict your options as provide the medium for them to flourish and grow.  Isn’t it easier to refine a drawing or thought on paper when the paper’s not staring blankly back at you.

The idea for a tea party is still brewing, alongside others –
just need a cuppa to help work them all out.