Returning to Blighty unemployed, I figured I’d have plenty of time to catch up with this blog. Reality was that I was worse at updating it since returning then when I was actually on the road. Distractions, catching up, work and general faffing are equally to blame for this.

We returned in time for Christmas, enabling me to catch up with friends and family. It was fantastic seeing people after so long, and even more fun seeing their reaction when they figured out who this hairy mess was. Thanks to Facebook party invites I even managed to surprise a selection of people who had no idea I’d even returned.

I spent Christmas in England with family, enjoying my first roast dinner of the year, which was of course a massive turkey enabling me to start the process of putting back on the 5 kilos I’d lost over the previous year. Additional to the festive celebrations, I became an uncle, which was pretty cool. Especially seeing my minuscule nephew at the grand age of two days old.

Espe and I met up in Madrid ready to spend an excellent New Year’s with the few remaining friends we have in Madrid. Shortly after arriving in London, Espe went home to Valencia and after a year together pretty much non stop, a week and a half apart was actually pretty tough. Into the new year and we headed down to Valencia in time for Reyes Magos. A celebration that, despite living in Madrid for four years, I was yet to experience.

With all this moving around, it wasn’t until mid January that I had more than 8 consecutive days in one place, and that place happened to be Bristol. Less than two days after landing back in England I found an email in my inbox stating that The Adventurists were recruiting. The Adventurists are the guys that run the Mongol Rally and Rickshaw Run. Two events that I’ve taken part in and helped out with as a volunteer in the past. The job role as an Adventure Organiser was seriously attractive; being very diverse, working in a small motivated team with plenty opportunities travel. On the downside, the salary was pretty poor and taking such a job would mean a pretty hefty career change which could screw me over long term, not to mention the risks involved regarding job security working with such a small young company.

I figured I’d apply and give it some serious thought on the off chance that they offered me the job. As it happened, they did (as it transpired without even reading my CV, which I’d spent hours on), and so I was left with the choice. Exciting, satisfying low paid job verses well paid dull high pressure IT job in the city. It didn’t take me too long to decide, and hence I now reside in Bristol as the fourth full time member of The Adventurists. Aside from the massive amount of admin’ and correspondence (which despite being dull tasks are made interesting by the very subject of it all), I’ve found myself in situations which I wouldn’t have imagined over a year ago back at Sun Microsystems. Take tanking it around rural Czech Republic searching for a suitable castle for a party, networking cocktail bashes at various foreign embassies (had to dust off the suit for them), teams meetings that involve chatting to participants about events that for me have been life changing and shortly will be for them too (while being plied with beers at the same time) and (this one gets me the most) working to convince an African government to let us bring 100 crap cars in as part of a future event (more to come on that). Quite a change from replacing a power supply on a V20z server, I think you’ll agree.

Work aside, which has actually taken up a fair amount of my free time, it is nice to be back in Bristol. I know a lot less people than when I was studying here, and currently I have very little money to go out with, but the night-life and music scene continues to thrive here. Despite the limited finaces, Espe and I have managed to see Chambao, Buena Vista Social Club & Gilles Peterson live over the past couple of months. We’ve also found a small “Spanish” bar very close to us with a mixture of English and Spanish and yes… they do serve Mahou.

To be honest, I can’t believe how quickly the last 6 months has past. Much faster in fact than while on the trip. I’ve managed to catch up with a fair few of you since my return which has been fantastic, especially after so long away (recognise any of this lot below?). There are however a lot of you who I have not, so get in touch (I’ve lost a lot of contacts since I was relieved of my phone in Africa).

So how are things after the trip? Well I landed such a cool job so quickly that I didn’t get that low feeling that many suffer after returning home after such a long time traveling. Furthermore, I’ve been so busy that I’ve hardly had much of a chance reflect, never mind look over the 25,000 + photos we took while away. That said, every so often something triggers my mind back to a specific moment. A collection of memories that will be with me for some time to come which hopeful I will be able to share over a beer with you sometime.