As 2014 breathes its last, I am more than ready to turn the telescope around and look through the right end for once in my hitherto unadventurous life. With this in mind, I have revised my travel plans and allowed for the possibility of major changes further down the track. I'll still go away for three months in the northern hemisphere summer of 2016, but now hope to spend six weeks in the UK and six weeks in Canada, with a focus on Vancouver and Toronto for wheelchair friendliness alone. I will then head home and think long and hard about where I’d like to spend the next few years, apply to unis in the relevant area, sell the house and head to wherever accepts me in plenty of time for the 2017 academic year.

None of this is intended to be permanent. I will stay at (insert campus here) long enough for them to call me Dr Scribbles, then follow anywhere the path of academic research and lecturing work leads me. It’s a big world out there, and I want to see as much of it as I can while I can. I will continue to live, write and punt anywhere and everywhere. Settling down is for people who have partners and families and, since I’ve spent a great deal of my span avoiding both, I see no reason that can’t continue. One of the many benefits of solitude is having the freedom to be the selfish so and so I really am .

Here's to a 2015 devoted to planning new adventures, and learning the life skills I will need to make them happen.