Glass Half Full...that's me!

So, as we are all aware our 1 year around the world trip is coming to an end...we cannot believe it ourselves. It will be so sad to say goodbye to our life on the road and all the adventures we have had...it will also be so hard to adjust to mainstream life again. Of course we are filled with mixed emotions about our impending return to London and our old jobs and lives, but we had a discussion and decided to compile a list of the things and reasons we are excited about ending our adventure and coming home...this way we will be more excited than sad and be able to enhance our return to London instead of dreading it. We have entitled this the Glass Half Full List, as we always look on the bright side of life...like Monty Python.
Seeing family and friends and the kids, Mel being closer in proximity to her family and some of her friends, not living out of a backpack, not having scabby legs, no more bug bites, sleeping in one place every night, having all of our stuff in one place, not getting parasites and/or Dengue Fever, getting back into a routine, being clean, getting to use our favourtie products, eating our favourite foods, not having to steal anymore to survive, getting to wash our clothes more than once every 6 weeks, wearing clothes that are white and look white, not having to bring my own toilet paper into the bathroom, having a tin opener that works, not having dirty nails, having food choice in the grocerry store, eating food sans bugs and hair, speaking the native language of the country, being able to leave our stuff out in the open and not having to hide it or lock it up or carry it with us everywhere we go,using clean dry towels, having more than one towel between us which means we each used only one half of this towel, not having to pay to use the toilet, not having to pay for toilet paper and soap in public restrooms, not having to bargain for everything we buy, having money coming into our accounts versus only flowing out of our accounts, Al is particularly looking forward to driving on the "right side of the road" though Americans might disagree with that, not having to worry that the food we put in the communal refridgerator is still there in the morning, not having to carry around the heaviest backpack in the world, not having scoliosis anymore, having clean feet that don't look like homeless man feet, wearing makeup and high heeled shoes for Mel, shaving regularly, being able to find tampons, luxuries such as lotion, having sneakers/trainers that don't stink of vomit, we get to throw away every single piece of clothing in our backpacks, making scrapbooks (that's more of my thing), regular trips to the gym/triathlon club/zumba/yoga, changing our careers, incorporating all that we have learned on our trip away into our daily lives, eating healthily with little effort, knowing what is in our food and drink when we order or purchase it, never wearing a tank top again (well never a green or purple one for Al), catching up with all the new friends we have made on our travels, getting to dye our gray hair, coming back to an English summer - oh the countryside...gorgeous, walking around the Thames in the summertime, picnics in the park with our mates, catching up on all of our favourite English television shows, visiting Sainsburys, drinking all the wine we purchased in our drunken stooper, getting to throw dinner parties (Mel), getting to look through all the crap we have purchased and sent home, getting to watch my skydive video and re-living my bravery, getting to watch the bungee swing video and re-living even more of my bravery...I am very brave, roast dinners, curries, sushiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
That completes our Glass Half Full list of most of the things we are looking forward to for when we return to Blighty...that's England for our non-UK readers. I think making these lists is a really good way of realizing some of the most precious things in your life. Maybe when you think life is not so great or you are stressing about impending things that are out of your control, a Glass Half Full list might be all you need to turn that frown upside down.