Misfits Mid-Life Crisis Adventures in …………..Surrey, Croydon, Central London, Essex.

Week 50 (or Week 13 of the new adventure), Saturday 30^th May until Friday 5^th June 2015.

Wordsworth wrote “I wondered lonely as a cloud”. I spend a lot a lot of time looking out of the window watching clouds. When I was in Mozziebeak travelling on the boat to a dive site I would love to look up and watch the clouds pass by. For me it was all the part of the pre dive excitement. Once there was a beautiful rainbow waiting for us over the dive site (Manta Reef). Another memorable occasion was surfacing from a dive only to be faced with a sky full of dark storm clouds. We raced back to land with large raindrops hitting our faces like bullets, we all ended up wearing our dive masks in order to see where we were going.

 Interesting door knocker.

At work I spend a lot of time gazing out of the window over the metropolis that is Croydon and watch the clouds. I imagine myself being like them not being constrained by international boarders, not having to save money to travel and do nice things or having to sit in an office for 8 hours a day.

 So sweet…..

I’ve always been a cloud surfer, I remember watching them at school (answers why I didn’t do very well) and imagine myself travelling away with them. I love to fly; I get a kick out of flying in and out of clouds. Travelling on LAM (Mozziebeak national airline) small propeller plane I felt closer to the clouds than I do in a huge airliner. There is something about the noise, the vibrations of the engine and the propeller outside the small window which makes me want to reach out and touch the white stuff.

 I was expecting to see Hobbit’s dancing around the tree.

I did a skydive a few years ago for charity and remember falling through the clouds trying to grab them as I free fell towards the ground. Of course it was over so quickly, once the shute opened the noise from the freefall suddenly stopped and was replace by total silence. What an amazing feeling looking down on the Earth from above, birds really are lucky.

 Helps make 8 hours go past quicker.

We’ve all seen cartoons were people walk from cloud to cloud; I wish I could do that. I have great memories of the late 70s Japanese TV show Monkey, the main character would travel around on a cloud. I spent many an hour flying cotton wool balls hanging from cotton thread tied to a bamboo stick pretending that it was a magic flying cloud. I often look out of the window at work and see the clouds in animated form from the start of the Simpsons, and hear the singing from the beginning of the theme “The Simpsons” (just me then)…

 I was robbed, that’s at least one sweet missing.

Clouds are what dreams are made of, and when I look up I travel back to sunny Mozziebeak. I think of all the lovely people I met, the friends I made, the sites and sounds from this small beautiful costal settlement.

 Mum on a night out in Surrey.

While looking out of the window I zone out and have to remember why I’m sitting in a hot stuffy office for 8 hours a day. I’m collecting every penny I can so that I can return to East Africa as soon as possible; I am hoping that this might be late July or August. I went to the pub this week with my mum, we sat down and I felt like I was in a job interview when she said “So tell me what your plans are for the future”. I said Mozziebeak is my future at the moment, after what who knows. I’m looking forward to walking around Tofo and looking up at the white clouds that drift over the small town and over the Indian Ocean.

 “Cheese“….

End of a busy week. I stopped for a road accident, but was told that I was not needed. Mooched about Regents Park with MOZ feeding Squirrels and Pigeons (I wonder if there is such a thing as a professional Squirrel and Pigeon feeder, I could deffo do that). I have noticed while cycling a lot of single gloves lying in the road, and a number of dead birds in the gutter (Birds and gloves were not together I should point out). Met Moira, had a huge Kebab and enjoyed sitting watching Geese, Ducks, Swans a couple of Rats running around bushes a few bunnies and a Squirrel on a seat, a lovely evening.

The Mid-Life Crisis cont…..

This week I have been watching: “Graham Norton” (Season 17, eps 9), “Have I Got news For You” (Season 49, eps 9), “Thunderbirds are Go” (Season 1, eps 9), “Murder in Successville” (Season 1, eps 5 “Dr Death”), “The Game” (eps 6), “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (eps 3), “Game of Thrones” (Season 5, eps 3 to 6), “Springwatch” (2015, eps 5 to 8), “Springwatch Unsprung” (2015, eps 5 to 8), “Gadget Man” (Season 4, eps 1), “The Woman in Black 2”, “1864” (eps 5 & 6), “Vicious” (Season 2, eps1)

This week I have mainly been listening to, “Morrissey”, “Smith”, Julian Cope”, “The Cure”, “Sleeper”, “Kate Bush”.

Reading on Kindle……“A Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire” book 2 “ A Clash of Kings” by George R.R. Martin.