Even before the shit hit the fan this year I was already planning on taking some time out in 2021 and nothing that happened from March onwards has changed that ambition. I was on my knees in November 2019 teetering on the edge of another burnout and, while I managed to pull back from the brink of that, 2020 was hardly restorative!

Making actual plans still seems like tempting fate at the moment and there are all sorts of dominoes that need to fall before I could go anywhere for the kind of time I’m hoping for – getting vaccinated, finishing my physio (well starting it!), shaking off the last of these long COVID concerns, getting my diet/diabetes properly under control again, the US avoiding a civil war…and negotiating a break with the boss.

…but when that all happens (not if) I have some things I want to do.

I want to

travel around the UK visiting my friends first and foremost (from Dumfries to Brighton, Swansea to Cambridge).

go to Amsterdam and visit the Museum of Street Art.

go to Berlin and visit the Urban Art Museum.

go to Lisbon and visit the street art neighbourhoods.

go to Downtown LA and visit the Arts District (and stay at the Ace Hotel).

go to Miami and visit the Museum of Graffiti (and Wynwood Walls).

stay in New York for more than a few days. Long enough to have no plans. Just be there.

go to Boston and visit Harvard.

go to Philly eat a cheese steak and do the Rocky steps (not in that order).

go to Nashville and listen to country getting drunk on bourbon.

go (back) to New Orleans and listen to jazz getting drunk on bourbon.

go (back) to Austin eat bbq and watch some (American) Football (not at the same time).

go to a quintessential, Hallmark, American ‘Christmas’ town in December.

see the Christmas tree and skaters at Rockefeller Center in NYC.

travel America by train.

blog it all.

Of course I won’t manage all of these in 2021 but it won’t be for lack of trying. I’m thinking months rather than weeks. Traveling rather than vacationing…though nice hotels not hostels and private cabins on the trains.

If America does decide to fall into (complete) chaos I do have a plan b – but this is what I really want to do. There are other places – probably more interesting places – on my wanderlust bucketlist but in 2021 I want to relax, recharge and reboot a bit and this is my (fantasy) recipe for that.