An exercise in planning

Morocco was like a little trailer for me. A glimpse of what might be to come. Whilst there, and without really thinking about it too much, I booked myself on a four week cooking course in Buenos Aires.

As well as the cooking I have a month of Spanish lessons, and my own apartment in Palermo that I am taking for an extra month. The plan, if you can call it that, was to travel South America eating, writing and taking photographs. I like the idea of a one way ticket - no end in sight, just a rambling adventure from one place to the next; a bit like Huckleberry Finn, but without the river.

So I go in Trailfinders to book my one way Huck Finn ticket, and it turns out that there is no such thing. I can book a one way to Buenos Aires, but that is ridiculously expensive. What are my other options? Well, there's the one world alliance's round trip ticket - sixteen flights in five continents. Clearly this is going to take a little more planning than I had anticipated.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Presented with these practical options, it seems that the best thing to do would be to just go round the world for a year. I have to nominate sixteen flights to take over the next twelve months. I can change the dates as and when I like, but the route is pretty much set. Not quite the carefree ambling odyssey I had thought then, but as second prizes go, I'm not about to hand it back. But I do have to book it, and with my first class starting in BA two weeks today, it's about time I got on the case.

As for the cooking schools, I am on the lookout for ideas in Chile, Mexico, Tokyo, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. If anyone has been to one, I'd love to hear about it...