I have less than 4 hours of my last shift for 38 days!

In about 17 hours time I will be unattached to English soil and speeding my way to the Land Of Smiles.

That excited, holiday feeling always hits me when I board the Heathrow Express train at Paddington Station in London. I take a seat and the sound of the advertisements and travel montages on the TV screens in the train give me the feeling that I am already somewhere more exotic. It is guranteed to lift my mood even more than it is right now.

After that I anticipate my mood being lifted a further 3 times. The take-off from Heathrow where I really will be on my way, the landing in Bangkok, where I will get that warm feeling again being in a country I truly love and the biggest lift will come after walking out the exit of the domestic arrivals terminal at Phuket Airport where the person I call teerak (my love) is waiting to greet me.

The sun will be preparing itself to fall in the sky and the first thing we will do on arrival at our destination will be an evening stroll on our favourite beach. Then I will know I have arrived for sure.

I am happy.

April 1st today. No April fools at LTO though…… except me of course , but now it is April I am getting really excited because it’s only 3 days now until I get on that Eva Air 777 and fly like a bird back "home" to Thailand!

I finish the nightshift on Wednesday morning and I fly the same evening. I’m going to attempt to stay awake for the day with the intention that I’ll be able to sleep on the flight. I have not been very good at getting sleep on the plane in the past, but the theory here is that I’ll be so sleep deprived by the time the plane takes off I’ll be able to sleep anywhere.

The countdown has begun to my dry run of life without The Office! I’ll be taking my laptop on the road with me.

38 days away from it as of 4th April 2007. I can’t wait. Once I am away I think my posts are likely to be more like a travel journal, but I think it will be a welcome change of content for a while to allow all you readers a rest from my spiritual awakenings! Not that I’m dismissing them at all. I just think that it’ll be nice to have some bright sunny photos of where I’ll be visiting etc…

For those who don’t know I am going to Thailand. In fact I’ll be visiting the place you can see in the Leave The Office header image. If I get the chance I’ll take another photo of that and post it as a comparison.

So the month of April and part of May will, I hope bring some colour to Leave The Office and whilst I’m there soaking up the atmosphere of Song Kran (Thai New Year), the sunshine (I’ve got my sun block as it’s the hottest time of the year), the delicious food and the company of my beautiful, special lady I may occasionally stop to think of these two guys. I assume many of you will know who they are!