Sunday 24 June 2012

Kenya believe it?! Standby, I'm going to Kenya on my own...


One of the rare perks of working in travel is that I can put myself on standby for any flight belonging to one of the world’s biggest holiday providers (I’ll give you a clue, their logo is the red smiley face).

I’ve known that I can do this for the five years that I’ve worked in travel, but for some reason I’ve never got around to doing it. I know, I'm an IDIOT.

I guess it’s the uncertainty of not knowing if you’re going on holiday or not. There are many things to be uncertain about in life – going away shouldn’t be one of them in my opinion. So there’s always the chance that you won’t get a flight on standby because all those other greedy buggers have booked themselves a flight at full price and taken up all the seats. Christ. How SELFISH.

I'm making up for it now though! I’m biting the bullet and trying something new. I’m really pushing myself at the moment to stay out of my comfort zone.

It’s bad enough that I work full time and am restricted to being adventurous and keeping busy in my evening and weekends, I’m NOT going to be a couch potato in my spare time, there’s too much to and… you guessed it, life’s too short!

So, I’m going to try and fly to Kenya for one week in one weeks’ time to see my mate Alice. On my own. Yep, all by myself.

Yes, it’s a 7 hour flight and I’ll probably be tired, but I’d rather be tired in Kenya and meeting up with old friends than always wondering what it would have been like to go to Kenya for a week. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I’m happy to say that it’ll be my third trip to Kenya, it makes me so happy to say that.

I’ve got no idea what I’ll do when I get there. I’ve got a few options, but I’m not going to put pressure on myself and plan too much, I don’t have time for that. I’ve been learning Swahili because one of my goals is to speak another language at beginner level, and I’ve chosen Swahili because I love East Africa and plan to go back there again and again.

So please, keep everything crossed for me that I get a standby flight next Monday 2nd July and can try something completely new. I’m not scared, I’m excited.

The only thing I’m scared of is not wanting to come home and settle back again in to my ‘normal’ life, because that’s happened a few times so far in life, but I’ll get used to it. Or I’ll make another plan that involves travel and some form of stability so that I can see my husband and cat every now and again :)