Here we go - with apologies to Irvine Welsh
"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a Career. Choose a family. Choose a big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fabrics. Choose DIY, and trying to decide who you are on Sunday mornings. Choose sitting on the couch, watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it, pishing you last in a miserable, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, dysfunctional brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future.......choose life. But why would I want to do a thing like that?"
and then delightfully, Renton goes on to say...
"well, I chose not to choose life. And the reasons? There are no reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin"
Maybe this is where I depart from the film (and I know it's fiction). I've never taken heroin. My narcotic of choice is Charlie Wells, Bombardier, brewed in Bedford, England; 200 yards from the medium speed diesel engine power station provider where I served my apprenticeship. And that's actually irrelevant because...
But in late January 2005, I chose to choose volunteering. My life has never been quite the same again...
So this was supposed to be a trip where I travelled independantly and did some volunteering on the way.........an idea I've been playing with for a bit.
Travelling on one's own can be quite frightening.......Will anyone like me? Will anyone talk to me (other than the obligatory receptionists at youth hostels, post offices and supermarket checkout operatives)? Is this going to be a long, cruel and self imposed period of introspection.
I must have been born lucky. I was munching my breakfast and looking gormless, when Horatio (all names except mine have been changed to protect the innocent), politely inquired whether I would like to wander into Boston with him.....
