I am writing this post on 1 April, and it’s my first post of the year. The last 3 months have been very busy, and there hasn’t been much of note to write about. But I realised yesterday that so far in 2024 I haven’t travelled much beyond the county of Staffordshire, and my last trip of any distance (Birmingham) was last December. I didn’t travel outside the UK at all in 2023, and my last overseas trip was to Ghent, Belgium (for a conference) in July 2022.
This is unusual for me, and perhaps shows a new pattern. It led me to think of the possible reasons for the change. For many years I would travel to a conference, usually abroad, at least once a year. Of course the lockdown put a stop to such conferences (in 2020 and 2021), but they have started up again since. Air travel is definitely less appealing to me, and in the UK for the last two years at least, there have been rail strikes at fairly regular intervals, which has made planning difficult. But this doesn’t tell the whole story.
Back in 2018 I finally took steps to get counselling for travel anxiety that I had been experiencing for several years. Although it helped, I think the timing of the pandemic and lockdown so soon after meant that I didn’t have a good chance to put the counselling into practice. So, as I noted in the post about my 2022 conference, the anxieties were still there. This residual anxiety, on top of the challenges of all kinds of travel now, means my attitude and preparedness for travel has changed.
Regarding conferences in the coming year, I am on the organising committee for one in August in Astana, Kazakhstan. A combination of the timing (when I have responsibilities at work), and the location of the conference, means that if I attend it will be online (and it remains to be seen if that is possible). Another conference which is of peripheral interest is in Milan, but it is during my University’s graduation week. So I won’t be travelling to either of those.
There will certainly be some travelling within the UK in the coming months, including Chatham for external examining at the University of Greenwich, and a PhD viva at the University of Newcastle. Non work travel to some concerts and shows later in the year is also planned.
So in conclusion, I will be travelling again before long. But a lot has changed in the world of travel, certainly since the pandemic, and as noted above, my attitude to it has changed too. But I have my memories of great trips to the USA, Brazil and many European countries which were made in a better time for travel. I am pleased that I took advantage of this while I could.
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