Just a quick thought, imagine a life with no music.

For me music and lyrics stir so much emotion and triggering so many inner thoughts and longings.

I have an album/band/song that supports and provokes emotions during every mood and I believe that a life with no soundtrack would be an incredibly lonely one.

Now playing: Radiohead, Karma Police.

Short-term security, long-term cravings

I sit here at my desk nearing the end of my last day at Prestige Signs, gazing out of the window at the grey Cornish drizzle.

The weekend is coming but after a hectic blowout in Exeter last week, I'm looking to a couple of low-key few days off this time around.

It was great to see Phil, one of my oldest friends, and even better to see him making a great life for himself with his lovely house, long-term girlfriend and his management job.

After my lent detox perhaps what happened that night was inevitable. I woke up the next day unable to piece back the night before and with half of my eyebrow missing.

Despite not remembering anything past 23:00 it was great to get a few of the old crew back together.

Anyway, I digress.

I'm posting to inform you that my freelance work at the West Briton has seen them award me with a permanent position.

I've enjoyed it here at Prestige but working full-time in the local press is an opportunity that I am in no position to refuse and it's nice to have my hard work and graft since starting in there January recognised.

The contract is temporary, covering a woman off on maternity leave, and only runs until September.

After this I'm unsure where my future lies, but I'm going to embrace the opportunity and work hard to improve my skills as a journalist and hopefully leave a positive mark on the powers that be at the paper.

It feels good to have finally got a full-time post in the industry that I've always studied hard and hoped to work in, even if it is only temporary.

Right now I'm not worried about September. By that point I'll have more invaluable experience under my belt and they may even opt to keep me on if the woman does not return after giving birth.

My urge to travel still remains however, and I constantly find myself immersed in travel literature.

I've done well in my life so far and visited scores of countries forging relationships and creating plentiful memories along the way, but all of this along with inspiration taken from the trips of others, has only served to whet my appetite and make me long to visit more exotic far-flung corners of the globe.

My dream is to take a trip on the lengthy journey that is the Trans Siberian Railway, visiting cities and taking in the varying terrain of biggest country of the world.

Also on the list is the opportunity to sample the neon metropolis that is Toyko before heading out to the Japanese countryside to absorb the centuries old culture and traditions that exist there.

One day, when I've finally developed adequate Spanish skills, I'd love to travel around South America and hike the heights of the Machu Pichu and attempt to dance the tango on the streets of Buenos Airies, shortly before tucking into a mean and juicy steak.

Hopefully one day.

From my life experience so far I'm now a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and for the foreseeable future I'll continue to work hard writing stories and the approaching Cornish summer.

I'm excited to visiting Thailand in September and who knows what lies ahead for me after that.

The world is a big place and if I don't allow myself to be insulated within a bubble, the possibilities are endless.

I hate the concept of YOLO, I normally see it as an acronym to excuse behaviour that wouldn't normally be acceptable. However, the words you only live once are certainly ring true, so I'm going to do all I can to ensure that when I look back on my life I remember one of adventure, discovery, happiness and success.

Progress

So already three months have zipped by and we are a quarter of a way through 2014.

We've survived the storms and now can begin looking forward to beach days, Flora Day, barbecues, summer bike rides and beers in the sun.

On the employment front I've taken giant strides so far in 2014.

I am now employed by the West Briton on a freelance basis, regularly contributing articles on a variety of subjects and this week claimed my first page.

It's nice to once again be getting paid for what I studied hard towards and I'm hoping my three days in the office will act as a foot in the door.

To supplement my income I'm working for a local sign company, doing sales, quotes and getting out to meet clients. I'm enjoying the work and can now, as a result, add another string to my bow.

However, all this 9-5 lark has once again given me itchy feet.

I'd love to take off for another lengthy trip but I now have professional interests at home and another long trip would only serve to take me back the position that I found myself in when I returned from America back in December.

I long one day to travel all around South America taking in Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia amongst other places, but that will have to wait a few years now. At least it'll give me time to brush up on my Spanish.

I'm hoping to jet off to Thailand for a couple of weeks in September just so I have something to look forward to and save towards.

Thailand is renowned as being a combination or culture, partying and beaches and all of these components are of great interest to me.

Unfortunately no festival line-ups have really grabbed my attention this year so I may just opt for Boardmasters as it's just around the corner and we could potentially muster a decent crowd for the weekend.

On a footballing note I'm looking forward to the biggest game of my life on Easter Monday when we take on Veryan in the Junior Cup Final. This season has been a mixed bag for me with my season being interrupted by my trip to America. 

I have been in and out of the team since, but now appear to have won my place back so fingers crossed I can maintain my form and get a start in the showcase event and put in a performance that my family and friends know that I'm capable of.

It's also great to see Argyle mounting a promotion push. As a fan it's been a difficult few years and it's great to see us on our feet again and I'm looking forward to getting to as many games as I can between now and the end of the season.

So, in reflection, the start of 2014 has been productive thus far and I'm hoping to continue the forward momentum to have a successful year and keep an acceptable balance between work and leisure. 

New year, new ideas

Well as predicted, my blog has fallen into somewhat of an idle state since I returned from my travels around the USA.

Since I've got back I've spent the majority of my time trawling the internet looking for jobs, catching up with friends and trying to restore my health and fitness once again.

I can honestly say that this has probably been my favourite Christmas, lots of eating and drinking go without saying, but the friends and family with whom I've shared this festive period, are the ones who've made it special.

I'm not a winter person at all, I long for a 12 month summer, but I am a sucker for the atmosphere at Christmas time. Everyone is in such high spirits and at their most social and socialising is what I've done a lot of lately.

It's fair to say I'm looking forward to a detox and a health kick as we emerge from the dark depths of winter.

Looking for jobs is a painstaking process as anybody who's spent time unemployed will testify. Page after page of often irrelevant listings have to be searched through on the off-chance that something appropriate may be there. 

It's fair to say after being laid off through no fault of my own on two separate occasions, I haven't had the best of luck when it comes to employment.

I've also suffered numerous setbacks with unsuccessful interviews and this was once again the case in early December when I attended an interview regarding a job of copywriter and PR guru at a Cornish company. I came away from the interview feeling that it went well and not so much confident, but not pessimistic about my chances either.

Although the company were impressed with my writing they felt that I did not have the necessary PR skills desired for this role.

My search continued and after emailing every newspaper and magazine in Cornwall I eventually had feedback from a well-known title and I was asked to drop by for an informal chat. After turning up armed with my portfolio and an eagerness to make a good impression, the boss seemed suitably impressed and offered me a trial with the potential to cover a six-month maternity contract.

So fingers crossed, my luck may have changed and my employment curse hopefully lifted and I'll without doubt put in 110% this coming Thursday and Friday to try to get this break.

I'm still heavily debating going down the teaching route, but if this trial passes successfully, I could have my foot in a very important door.

 

Returning to reality

So after around two months of living on the road, it's time to begin the long journey and to head back home to Cornwall.

As I sit typing this waiting for my shuttle to JFK airport, it seems a long time ago that I first arrived in San Francisco after over a day of travelling to get there.

In the time since then I have stayed in 14 towns and cities, in some good hostels, some bad ones, a few motels, hotels and in some spare rooms and on a couple of sofas.

I've gone from the beautiful California coast, through the proud state of Texas, onto buzzing Louisiana and then said cheerio to the warm temperatures, heading up to Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, New York.

I have seen so many incredible landmarks made famous by various films and television programmes and visited cities that are famous worldwide and I've genuinely been overwhelmed by many of these places.

A lot of these sights will stay with me forever and it's kind of hard for me to pick a favourite because enjoyment in each place ties into the personal experience I had there, in other words the people I have met.

I've been really fortunate that in each place I've managed to meet a few people that I was able to share days and nights out with. Several of the people I struck up particularly good friendships with and I'm sure that I'll run into many of you in the future at some point. So this is a big thank you to all of you guys for making this trip extra special, teaching me new drinking games and being a part of so many special memories, both drunken and sober.

I've genuinely had the time of my life on this trip and I'm fortunate that so many highs have only been accompanied by sporadic lows, those lows normally associated with being forced to leave great people behind, moving on and arriving in a new place alone. Luckily in the majority of cases I've made new friends almost as quickly as I left others behind.

So the time has come to go home, see my friends and family again and try to sort out some sort of career for myself. I've learnt so much during this trip, including a lot about myself as a person and I feel that I'm now a more confident and better all round person as a result of these travels. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity for a similar voyage in the future, possibly in South America after hearing so many good words about it from other travelers. At least the real brand of football will be far more common there!

So in reflection I'm sad to be leaving behind the constant sense of adventure and the beautiful variable lands of the USA, but I am looking forward to seeing friends and family and no longer living out of a backpack and sharing a room with numerous other people.

Now I can't make any promises that this blog won't become idle once I arrive home, but I will try my best to post my thoughts as and when they pop into my head and keep you all updated when I walk back into what is pretty much a cross roads in my life.

Thank you all for reading!

2013- Download Festival- Madrid (Spain)- San Francisco, Monterey, Moro Bay, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego (California), Austin, Houston (Texas), New Orleans (Louisiana), Boston (Massachusetts), Washington DC, Virginia, Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), New York.

New York

Many people have attempted to convey the magic of the Big Apple to me, but I thoroughly believe that until you've visited the city yourself, it's difficult to comprehend the grandeur and magic of the place.

Iconic sights, an unrivalled skyline and a plethora of differing boroughs to explore mean that if you spend a few days here and find yourself bored, you're probably doing something wrong.

Having arrived here after spending just short of two months staying in hostels, staying with people kind enough to put me up and being constantly on the move, it was somewhat of a relief to meet with my parents and spend four nights in a comfortable hotel and regain a sense of familiarity.

Over the last two months I've met so many great people and hopefully forged lasting friendships, however over the last week or so I began to tire of spending four days in a city, cutting all ties and starting new in the next place knowing nobody, so it was great to see my parents again to put some normality back into my life.

We've certainly made the most of our time in New York, covered many miles and took in sights that even my Dad was impressed by!

The weather has been hugely contrasting and I've gone from strolling around Central Park in a T Shirt, to leaving the hotel with so many layers, that just my eyes and nose were exposed to the elements. I knew that wearing a T shirt in the northern hemisphere in late November was good to be true!

New York is a photographers heaven and I've produced probably my favourite shots of this trip here. Gigantic buildings and landmarks as well as an army of yellow taxis and buzzing crowds mean that a photograph can really frame itself here.

We spent our first full day walking around Central Park, enjoying the beautiful colour of Autumn leaves and after walking for what seemed like hours, we only managed to make our way through 3/4 of the park, which shows just how astonishing Central Park is. The fact that such a huge park has managed to pop up in such a spectacular metropolis goes a long way to explain the reason why New Yorkers flock there to run, walk or just get away from the mayhem that goes on a few blocks away.

After a brief period of respite we headed to the Rockefeller Center and took the elevator to the top floor and took in some of the most spectacular views I've ever seen. The Rockefeller Center towers over most of the New York skyline (by all account offering a better view than the Empire State Building), and being in such a spot offers an incredible view across the sprawling city. Words struggle to describe the view as illuminated sky scrapers stretch as far as the eye can see.

I personally enjoyed Times Square, a testimony of capitalism, the square is a human jungle where the crowds flock to take in the neon billboards, restaurants, designer stores and Broadway shows on offer in the surrounding area.

Continuing the theme of walking miles, the following day we decided to trek the considerable distance to the 9/11 memorial and Staten Island, well, until Mother realised that the Statue of Liberty was instead on Liberty Island, and so Liberty Island became our new destination instead.

The 9/11 memorial was moving as was to be expected and what got me was the fact that the Twin Towers rose that much taller than all of the surrounding buildings, allowing the terrorists to crash the hijacked plane into the towers. Currently the buildings around the memorial all rise high into the sky, giving a sense of just how tall the Twin Towers previously were. The names of the victims on the memorials are a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives.

After refuelling with some lunch we boarded the boat to Liberty Island, which is an impressive landmark. Like New York and the USA in general, the statue is big and grand and well worth a look, not just for the statue, but also the views of the Manhattan skyline that you can see during the boat journey to Liberty Island. Nearby Ellis Island also had a fascinating museum where we learnt about that patchwork of immigrants that helped form the new nation of the USA. 

It's also worth noting that we've certainly eaten well during our time here. I read an interesting fact that a New Yorker can live 60 odd years, eating out everyday and not eating at the same restaurant more than once. Our culinary journey has taken us to Ireland, America, Thailand and Italy and some of the food has been plentiful in both quantity and taste.

Today we enjoyed a gentle walk around the interesting communities of Chinatown and Little Italy, Chinatown in particular being particularly interesting as the area has such a strong cultural identity that if you woke up here, your initial reaction would be that you had woken up on the streets of Beijing and not New York.

So it's fair to say that New York is another place ticked off the bucket list and I doubt that any tourist has ever left the city disappointed. Now it's off to Madison Square Garden to take in some basketball before the journey home and back to reality tomorrow evening.

It's been a blast!