Life is Short World tour 2012

I have taken this year off to travel.  I call it my ‘’Life is Short world tour 2012’’.

There are a few reasons why I decided to do this.  Some of you know the whole background, others some aspects and yet others just think I’m off yet again, for no apparent reason.

The decision to take this trip happened at the end of 2010, when I returned from Mysore at Christmas.  I gave myself a year to save the money in order to take 2012 off.

A few factors affected me strongly:

• 3 close family friends (my parent’s generation) developed terminal cancer and passed away within 6 months.  I also heard of cancer striking seemingly healthy people in my age group.  It reinforced the fact that life is precious.  You cannot take your good health and that of your loved ones for granted.  Embrace the present, instead of living too much for the future.
  
• I was feeling a little ‘’stuck’’.  I had a comfortable schedule of classes and things were going well.  I am not the greatest self-motivator (ie I’m Lazy) and sometimes I need to shake things up in order to push myself to grow.  I did something similar in 2008 when I quit all my classes and went to India for 5 months.  When I returned, I was forced to start from scratch again … get new classes, market them, build rapport with new students and encourage them to develop a regular practice.
  
• Becoming self-employed was supposed to be flexible.  I can (supposedly) take time off whenever I want to.  However, I’d discovered that I was working nights, weekends and spending all my time off going to Mysore.   I’d always wanted to spend time in London with my brother & his family.  Another unfulfilled aim was practicing with teachers and friends from all over the world that I’d met in Mysore.  Exposing myself to other teaching styles and shala environments would make me a better practitioner and teacher.
  
• Going to Mysore always meant that I had to build up my class numbers upon return.  It takes almost a year to establish a consistent student base.  So, when I decided that I wanted to take some time off in the middle of the 2012 and still go to Mysore end of the year, I figured that I might as well take the whole year off.  It wouldn’t be fair to my students (especially the beginners) to keep coming and going.

So, the result was to buy a Round the World ticket and travel east from Sydney, ending up in London, in time for the Summer Olympics.  Plus, there’s always the lure of Wimbledon and the possibility of watching Roger Federer (my hero) in action :o)

I returned from Mysore March 1 2012.  I had a hectic 2 weeks to organise everything for the trip (eg file my taxes) and to spend as much time as possible with my 4 nephews whom I would miss terribly.

March 17, I left Singapore for Sydney … and hence my tour began …