Well I can tell you one reason why I haven’t ventured into the bottom of a suitcase to find material for a blog piece before now. It’s simply because I am no Christina Columbus. I’m definitely someone who likes a holiday, oh- about once a year, but otherwise I am unlikely to burn a hole in my 16-25 Rail-Card very often at all. Though this is of course just me, and I shall always look up to those people who feel they’d like to more regularly explore the train-lines of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, or indeed any country they should feel compelled to explore. Further it is of course the nature of traveling that whereas some might book their travel tickets at four times the pace of Speedy-Gonzales, others book journey’s in the slower-paced style of the winning tortoise against the hare. I say “each to one’s own.”
So “why did you write about travel”? Well, like a table cloth that’s spent too many un-ironed weeks in a cupboard, there are many folds to the reason. The first reason is the fact that up until very recently I spent one day a week in another city. The second is that I was also recently on a train journey back into Leeds at 10:30pm, only to become a student for the third time when I witnessed a group of students enjoying their “night out.” To add a third side to the triangle, I am also working my way through recorded re-runs of recent episodes of a television series in which one leading character is a blue Police Call Box. My travel may be solely on Earth but I hope these reasons explain why a blog piece about travelling seemed “so obvious” at this point in my writing career, and why I first thought about breaking with tradition and let my mind press the computer’s keys on the subject of ‘travel’.
Since I’m writing about travel, I’ve decided to briefly chat about what I take, since I know that in travelling what you take with you is just as personal as where you go and who you go with. In my case, I will only ever go out with what I personally consider to be the following essential few items; a coat, a jumper and a satchel with useful items. Mixed in with these items, and entwined in bright-blue headphones, is my I-pod. Now I’ve not got the room to talk about certain things in detail, but I realise that my I-pod has provided endless entertainment for me when travelling. Indeed I have been on long train journeys (to Glasgow, London and Bristol) which had my ear-phones not disintegrated from repeated songs, I would have regretted starting because of their length. For the interest of readers, a favourite travelling song of mine is ‘The World is What You Make It’ (Paul Brady), though I can never put my finger on why this is.
On any journey I've ever started and been on, I find myself switching between one of three things. If I’m travelling a short distance by foot, I count each step I take in order to pass the time. Public transport poses other past times as 20% of the time I unwittingly and unwillingly find myself absorbing snippets of discussion which don’t make any sense to me. I’ve mentioned the trusted I-pod before now, and it’s true that around 80% of the time on journeys I focus on the words and music whilst also reading my latest find at a book shop.
To conclude: travelling is then something that most people do on a regular basis. The point about travelling is indeed that it’s highly personal; people are of course free to travel at will, and they shouldn't feel (or be) judged just because they don't do it. I say again, "each to one’s own". This blog piece is written to muse about the idea of travel, and its inspired by my own personal travelling experiences within the last month.