Coffee Helps

I love this Go With The Flow lifestyle, I really do.

In the olden days, back when I worked 9-5 and my life was governed by a strict routine that bored me to tears (or at least to drink), I’d be reading about some really cool event or another that was happening in a different country, and think to myself I wish I could go there… maybe one day.

Ladies and gentlemen, One Day has arrived, and I’m pleased to say it’s here to stay for as long as I can wing it. Why, oh why did I stay in one place doing nothing for so long? Wishing, dreaming, longing. It’s like something has clicked in my head and I realise, for the first time, that I can go wherever I want. The old mantra of I just don’t have the money doesn’t ring true for me any more. If anything, I’m considerably less well off, financially, than when I was doing the 9-5 thing. It doesn’t matter. If I really want to go somewhere, there will be a way – even if that means reviewing several hundred YouTube videos and taking on so many freelance writing jobs that my eyes start to sting from looking at the screen.

I was reading Petite Anglaise the other day – a blog I’ve followed with great interest and enjoyment since my blogbirth – and noted that Petite (AKA Catherine Sanderson, but it really freaks me out to find out that bloggers have real names) is doing a reading from her book at the end of the month. In a really cool old bookshop. In Paris. Ah, said Old Me, wistfully, I’d *love* to go to that! Petite Anglaise! Book reading! Cool old bookshop! *Paris*, for crying out loud!

New Me nudged Old Me quite sharply in her metaphorical ribs. Uh… hello? What’s stopping you?

I paused, surprised. Nothing, actually, I was forced to admit. A bit of research later, and it seems that I’m going to see one of my favourite bloggers doing a reading from her book, in a really cool old bookshop, in Paris. It works out extremely well: I just leave Lyon a couple of days earlier than planned, get a cheap train to a city that I’ve always, always wanted to visit, spend some time on couchsurfing.com to find some free accommodation, meet Petite, stay for a few nights, get in a spot of sight-seeing, and then hop on a ludicrously cheap bus to Belgium to start my month-long housesitting stint in a pretty house in the countryside, doing my writing work whilst sitting by the garden pool.

I wonder how long I can get away with this? It feels like I’m cheating Real Life, somehow…

Filed under: blogging, book release, books, boredom, decisions, dreams, fun, happy, life, Lyon, Paris, travel, work, writing