Bats.

I’ve recently decided on my first tattoo. A tattoo of a bat.

The reason for this is not just because they look cool. Well they do right? But also because of my childhood fascination with them.

Some may have called it obsession. Maybe it was.

But I LOVED them.

My favourite childhood toy was a TY called Batty and I took him everywhere.

He was light brown in colour, had darker brown pieces of felt that formed the claws on top of his wings which expanded about a foot across, and his best feature were his big dark brown glass eyes which softened his face.

I loved the little fuzz ball so much that he brought me to tears on several occasions. The first vivid memory I have of this is when I lost him when I was in Year 4. It was in form time that I realised and I was in hysterics trying to explain to my form tutor, Mr Freeman, how much Batty meant to me and how lost I felt without him. Luckily all I had done was left him in the car that morning. Panic over.

The second occasion was when Batty’s cute little felt claws suddenly disappeared. Cut clean off. Still to this day I blame one of the girls in my class at Primary School.

The obsession didn’t stop here though.

When I went to Centre Parks I bought Batty a little companion, the exclusive smaller, multi-coloured version of him. Then I did an entire project on Bats in Primary School, explaining their different breeds, what they ate, how echolocation works – the lot. And finally in Year 7 when we had to invent our own religion in Religious Studies. Mine was ‘Batism’ – yes, the worshipping of bats – which was all put onto bat-shaped pieces of paper.

I may have been a slightly deluded child, but the memories stand out above the rest. So I’ll have an interesting story to tell once my tattoo is finished.

Trains.

Looking out of the window, I squint at the emerald countryside rushing past me as the sun’s beams shine through the window. Its radiance is enhanced by the droplets forming the mist that spreads itself over the golden daffodil fields.

Ben Taylor Band’s re-version of ‘Time of the Seasons’ by the Zombies, flows through my ears, giving a surreal atmosphere with its unusual beats. The gorgeous surroundings that engorge my eyes combined with the hypnotic beats cause me to fall into deep thought as I let my imagination drift.

This is why I love travelling.

Time to think.

Not even about anything important.

Just letting your brain take you through imaginations, thoughts and feelings.

I find this one of the most relaxing things to do.

A lot of people dread long train journeys as they usually encourage thoughts of delays, waiting around and stopping people getting on with their hectic lives.

But I get excited about it.

I feel sorry for those who don’t make the most of those hours just to give their head room to breathe and just feel like a child again with no worries in the world. Because sometimes you need this. Especially when the world around you starts to become something very real and very scary we all have to eventually face.