I won’t be posting again on PBASE for just over a week.

We’re off on a very special holiday to try to find some treasure of our own. It’s a plan hatched a couple of months ago and we’re off to try to realise our dreams. Well, one of them at least.

So, tomorrow we’re off.

One of my colleagues did a ‘stress management’ workshop in the office a couple of days ago and we were all asked to go along as ‘guinea pigs’ to iron out any difficulties before she does the workshop for real at our industry conference next month. I don’t think I learned much really, other than that I’m stressed out! Well, there was one small thing. It is possible to get yourself a ‘life coach’. This was described to me as someone who listens to your innermost secrets and then helps you to set goals to help you achieve them. How cool is that?

Although this plan was in place before the workshop, the principle is the same. We both want to escape this horrible, crowded place and find ourselves somewhere a bit less frenetic and more peaceful so we have to do that by taking little steps. We’re hoping to start that process while we are on holiday this week.

I want to be able to say ‘I held the rainbow in my hand’ to quote the Waterboys, one day soon.

This little chest is symbolic of that need to open the box of my dreams and let one of them fly out.

The chest was a gift from Jo for my 40th birthday and among all my cheapo junk jewellery there are still little ‘happy birthday’ and ‘40’ foil confetti bits! The silver bangle with the dhow and palm tree in the box was a gift from my buddy in Melton Mowbray, Claire, who told me when she gave it to me that it was made in the 1920s in the middle east (so a connection with yesterday’s posting) as a latter-day equivalent of a postcard. Apparently people brought them back to give as gifts to those who had not been fortunate enough to share the trip. So today, it’s my ‘postcard’ to you all because you can’t share our trip.

When we come home, I’ll either be elated or crushed depending on whether we achieve our dream but the most important thing is we will have tried! If we try and fail, it’s no disgrace but if we never try we have not been true to ourselves and I’m determined we will always be true to ourselves.