From London to Ibiza.....

Written yesterday - on the flight from London to Ibiza (with Bruce Parry from "Tribe" sat in the aisle along from me - he's also an island resident).

On the plane back to Ibiza. The trip to London was fantastic and being away from the island for a few days helped me to put into perspective just how much has happened since I moved to the island.

The first trip to London was an emotional rollercoaster. Stressful family encounters coupled with great excitement about seeing friends again. This trip has been far more relaxed and easy, although equally hectic. After spending the first day with family and getting the family time in, I was able to go and see friends and do work-related stuff without any guilt. The one thing about coming back to London is that I generally could do with a holiday after as so much gets packed into a few days!

Seeing close friends and filling them in on Ibiza-developments helped me realise just how much I have achieved in less than nine months. Talking to Didier and Laure, Didier confided that before I left for the island, he was concerned about whether I would find anything truly challenging to do there. I can understand things from his perspective - when people asked me if I knew what I was going to do or if I knew anyone or if I had any contacts for work leads, the answer was always no. I was just going to go and see what happened. I can see why this caused concern for those I was leaving behind to venture off alone. It was less a case of my ability, more a case of whether something for me actually existed there. I was going from a capital city to a small island known for its nightlife - was the challenge there and would I find it? After talking we all realised that yes, I have found something work-wise that is two steps up from what I've done before in an area that I truly love. The challenge is there and I've managed to find it!

Being away for a few days I can appreciate just how much has been accomplished. It's still difficult though when you're living it day in, day out and you know the ups and downs you've been through. One of the things that I find amazing is that my friend Wilding the novelist has gone through a similar process to me with writing his first book. Just after the meditation course in April, we'd been chatting via email and he said that his writing the book was the leap of faith for him that moving to Ibiza was for me. I didn't get it at the time, I sat there thinking "but why is writing a book a leap of faith for you, you're such a brilliant writer?" I thought it was just a question of finding the time to do it.

When we met for a drink in July (just after he'd got a publisher for his book), he told me about stages he went through with the book, three-quarters of the way through but not sure if he could do any more. It was a similar emotion to me questioning day in, day out whether I could make that move work, whether it was something I wanted to do. It was like you hit the bottom chasing a dream and you're left wondering "if this doesn't work or I can't do it, what do I do?"

I confided in him about a particular moment when I felt intensely alone. Wilding being Wilding immediately made fun of me but he was sensitive enough to know that he wasn't stepping over the mark, he made me laugh with his comments. Things are going well with his book deal and we follow each others progress closely, we appear to experience similar emotions going through the process. In some ways, I get more excited about the developments in his life than I do in my own. It's not a case of not being excited about what's happening to me, of course I am. But when you live it, it's sometimes difficult to get your head around what's actually happening, it's just your life and you're living it. I know many people who are high achievers, doing really well in whatever they do but he's probably the only person I know who took a total risk in writing the book, doing something he'd wanted to do ever since he was a boy. You realise that very few people chase their dreams, even work out what their dreams are.