How fast can I write?? I'm in terminal 3 and we are boarding but I have the urge to write because I had a beautiful encounter. I just hope that he will be reading this with his daughter when he gets top US.

As I had time to kill in the airport and had made myself dizzy going around the shops I went to buy some tea and sit down to drink it. I had a man in front of me at Starbucks, ordering a yummy chocolate cake and later in that busy waiting lounge he happened to sit next to me, so me being me, I asked to find out how the chocolate cake was. And there started a lovely conversation.

I find that when you are truly present with the person you're talking to and allow the conversation to flow it will find its way to wherever it needs to lead. I believe that there are no coincidences but only synchronicity in life.

This lovely man had been working for US troops in many countries and currently in Afghanistan; he was on his way home to visit his family to spend the Christmas together. Our long winey conversation took us to his passion when I said "what do you plan to do after this work ends" which happen to be certain gems found in Afghanistan. Isn't it true that you will never meet a person with the same passion as someone else, and even if they are close there is always something unique about how it is planned ahead? He was even carrying a hardback book on him about an American who travelled to Afghanistan to teach people about extracting this gem and how to polish it in a way not to cause any damage. Anyhow I felt that the seed that was planted in his heart and head was revealed and I truly hope that he follows his passion as I will never forget the spark in his eyes as he talked about it.

A day later in India:

Well I had a very interesting journey indeed, something I had never encountered. A lot of my friends thing I'm a little strange and somehow attract people just as strange, but I do believe that there are very special.

As I got on the plane to Abu Dhabi there was a bit of mishmash with seating and found out the woman sitting next to me given separate seats to her husband, so as I was travelling alone I said I would happily swap seats with her husband. That took me to the front of the plane…don't get excited! I wasn't in first class…But I ended up sitting next to another American man, called Doug, working in Reading and on his way to Malaysia to get married with his girlfriend. Anyhow we talked about yoga, about life, about our past, his family etc…and later discovered that as well as his executive business interest he is also a massage therapist. He then offered to give me a massage on the flight if I wanted one, which I must admit I was a little hesitant about but after 2 movies, some chocolate ice-cream and getting very bored he said he can give me a shoulder massage. We somehow manage to turn and arrange ourselves in a way that he was sitting behind me and giving me a great massage. He said he has done this in a flight before giving the airhostesses massages. I could actually believe that. In fact I believe there is a group of us out there who have had massages from Doug in peculiar places.

Well, I slept like a baby after that strong shoulder and neck massage…