Pride comes before a fall.

Or so they say.

I might have remembered this had I not been so distracted by delight at my own organisational brilliance.

Five weeks away? No problem.  As long as the technological gods are smiling.   They weren’t.

Eight hours before my flight out, my laptop decided it too wanted a holiday and despite my repeated attempts at cajoling and coaxing it back to life, it steadfastly refused to play. (And apparently swearing doesn’t become more effective no matter how far up you turn the volume.)

A brief Singapore stopover momentarily restored my faith in the form of a small but (I was soundly assured) effective replacement laptop.

By the time I realised I’d been sold a piece of equipment whose operation requires tertiary qualifications in Information Technology, I was landing in the Cambodian boonies and three Singaporean sales-assistants were falling about with laughing with another “stupid traveller” tale to tell over beers on Friday night.

My well orchestrated ‘foreign correspondent’ plans, meanwhile, were lying in pieces on both sides of the equator.

With some calm and capable guidance and assistance from home – thank you Kim Goldsmith and Steve Cowley (legends, both) – and some reluctant but necessary persistence on the part of this techno-luddite, I’m on my way to being back on track.  Kinda, sorta.

Reinforcements are on their way – and now I’m at the mercy of the Postal Gods – and in the meantime I’m fumbling my way around just enough to get through.

So this is all by way of explaining and apologising for a disappointingly slow start to this whole blogging business.

If you don’t hear from me again soon, assume those gods have again conspired against me, and I’m curled up somewhere in the foetal position, dribbling and mumbling something about torture and Singaporean sales assistants.

Oh, sure, I’ve had blogs before.   I’ve also had the best of intentions of keeping them updated.   Apparently that’s the key.

But here’s the thing – it’s a busy world.  And if you’re anything like me, stuff that doesn’t NEED to be done immediately (or at all) tends to plummet to the bottom of an ever evolving and usually growing “to do” list.

So why am I having another crack at the whole blogging thing?

Because I’m about to embark on another Rotary International-inspired quest – and I don’t know about you, but I think the work Rotary does around the world deserves as much exposure as it can get.

In a little over a week, I’ll be hitting the trail – bound, again, for Cambodia and the regional city of Kampot, where there’s a little chunk of my home-town of Dubbo in the form of the Chumkriel Language School.

The 2012 Rotary Dubbo team.

From there, my Rotarian travelling companion and I will be taking a brief swing through Calcutta and the Bengali region of India (where there’s another project on the boil) en route to Kathmandu where we’ll meet up with a fellow Dubbonian who has been visiting Nepal for the best part of two decades to help give the gift of sight.

As I have with past “tours of duty”, I’ll be documenting our travels – so I hope you’ll join us through this, the latest incarnation of my attempt at blogging. If you’d like to see what’s gone before – here are a couple of links that will explain the Chumkriel Language School project, and what fun and enormous reward we’ve had along the way.

http://dubborotarycambodia.blogspot.com.au/search?updated-max=2011-04-10T15:36:00%2B10:00

http://rotarychumkriel2012.blogspot.com.au/

Now, assuming I make it home in one piece and I’m still capable of stringing a sentence together, I’m hoping I’ll be sufficiently bolstered by a legion of adoring followers to continue to blog regularly, including the occasional pilfered piece from the publication of which I’m editor and general dogsbody, Weekender  (there’s a link down there somewhere…)

Cheers – welcome aboard.  I hope you’ll find it’s the Write Stuff for you.