Who we are, what we do, and why we’re doing this

So where to begin with this….
Firstly, this is the first proper blog i’ve written so go easy on me.

I’m Matt, i’m currently (at time of writing) 29, living in Essex. I work in Higher Education as a Senior Learning Technologist, and just finished my MBA.  I used to be a President of my Students’ Union, and a member of the NUS National Exec, but now I just run/OCR, cook lots of different food, and work. I’m a drummer in 3 bands (including a German Ompaa covers band) and find it very hard to sit still.

Kelly, my wonderful Fiancé, is a clinical research scientist working in bioanalysis. She was also a member of SU exec, and loves dance, food (that I cook) and our beautiful Labrador Holly. Kelly also LOVES to sleep, and we both love the magic of Egg chasing (Rugby for those that don’t know).

Tunisia, 2014

Basically, we both decided that life is too short, so we need to go for it. We got together in our first year at Uni (in 2005, ouch), worked together for 2 years as SU Exec, in which time Kelly’s family moved to Australia (mine moved to UAE not long after, yes we feel abandoned). We’ve both had major losses in our family, and we’ve had enough of living to work, so now it’s time to live to, well, live!

We got engaged in New York on our 10 year anniversary (I know, I took my time) and fully decided at that point we needed to see the world. So we have now committed our savings to doing just that. We’re planning a full year away, visiting countries around the world we’ve always wanted to see.

Where we got engaged. Strawberry fields, Central Park, NYC

So the route. We are starting in India, and finishing up over Diwali in Mumbai, then onto SE Asia. A fairly unplanned 3 months later we leave from Phuket and head to New Zealand where we’ve got a camper booked. Following that, we fly to Nadi in Fiji for 3 weeks, then 6 weeks in Australia (to see Kelly’s parents for the first time in years), 2 months spread over Indonesia and Malaysia, and finishing off in the Phillipines. Expect further blog posts about route planning, spreadsheets (yes, spreadsheets), and thoughts on the route before we set off.

What can you expect from this blog? Well, obviously our experiences of every country. I’ll be dividing posts by country, and throwing some curve balls in there about food specifically. Alongside this, a bunch of photos I take along the way (I take everything on an iPhone 6 and edit all on my phone) and hopefully some interesting tales to tell!