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The beard / The trip / The car

The beard!It’s now been two and a half weeks since I shaved. The resulting beard is still merrily growing. I’m still not sure if I want to keep it, so I’ll probably give it at least a few more days before I decide to shave it off or not.

It’s a big decision to make – whether or not to keep this strange growth of hair on your face. So, in the interests of a healthy world democracy, I let people vote on it for a week. See the results below.

Meanwhile, after thinking about it for ages and ages and ages and ages, I finally booked my next overseas trip on Friday. I’m off to Europe (the U.K., Belgium and France, to be precise) in September. Off to gallivant around with just a backpack and a Lonely Planet guide for company.

Yes, that’s right, the rest of the family is staying home. For some reason they can’t see what’s so great about being hungry and shivering in a cold wet damp Youth Hostel for 4 weeks.

No, seriously, we talked about it. Travel with young children can be severely unfun. The memory of Isaac’s vomit flying around the car on our last trip down the Great Ocean Road is not one that will fade quickly. (Some of the stains didn’t fade quickly either). Travelling a lot is just not something that kids find very enjoyable. So it was decided that since I really want to go, I’ll be going alone.

I’m still working out exactly what I want to see – but since I’ve never been before, it’ll all be new. I’ll definitely track down the English rellies, and drop in on friends in Brussels and try to hunt down sites of significance to a Tintin-ophile such as myself.

I wonder… is someone who really likes The X-Files called an X-Filophile? Is someone who really likes Filofaxes called a Filofaxophile?

Meanwhile, the car broke down yesterday. I knew I should have done something about the lack of acceleration I’d noticed. L was out driving yesterday with a friend and suddenly noticed a complete lack of any acceleration whatsoever. So the car’s in the garage, and I’m back on the tram and train going to work for a few days.

Gives me a chance to keep reading that Lonely Planet book…

By Daniel Bowen

Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.