Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith. - Margaret Shephard

I like to run away every now and then. Call it travel if you will.
Some of us just have travelitis in our - blood? our genes? I have friends who can happily tighten their belts by not going on holiday, and they're no more unhappy for it, but some of us seem to have an inbuilt need to travel. I don't know what the difference is. My non-travelling friends are not uncurious, or unadventurous - not at all. But there you have it. For me a trip abroad to a new place is not a luxury, it's a necessity. The one year since I entered full-time employment that I tried not to go anywhere due to brokeness, I was utterly miserable. I lived in Reading at the time and could not walk past the Heathrow bus without being overcome with the urge to jump on it. It's a good job I never had my passport with me. That would have been a fun phone call to make to work.

So where does that leave me now that I'm currently without an income? I have the freedom from the restraints of annual leave, and as I left work lots of people asked me if I was planning on travelling. Not far and not for very long was my answer as I weighed up how much rent I'd actually get out of one of the world's stingiest redundancy packages. So far I've managed 2 days by the Welsh seaside, and it was lovely, but... I do find myself desperate to book a flight, go somewhere, anywhere that isn't the UK. Preferably tomorrow. I daren't. Not yet. So I'm having to improvise.

My tips for the grounded traveller:

1. Anticipate. Plan a trip you can't afford yet, but will be within reach without winning the lottery. For me, this is that Greek Island hopping trip I've been wanting to do for years. I've bought myself a guide book and am going to start planning a route, and as soon as I have even the bare minimum of means, I'm going. I'm promising myself. In the meantime, I'm going to have all the fun of sifting through my choices, looking at beautiful pictures, deciding where and when and how. (This one won't work for you so well if you're not a planner. I love planning. Ooh the lists I could write for this trip, I'm giddy at the thought.)
2. Go to the most exotic local places you can find. If you're in or near London this is easy - Edgeware Road is I think the place with a restaurant for almost every country in the world. But it might be on your doorstep, and works better for a quick fix if it is. I'm lucky enough to have an Italian delicatessen as one of my corner shops - it's so incongruous, I couldn't believe my luck when I first stumbled on it. It's full of Italian customers, talking in Italian to the Italian staff, and you can go in, buy Italian pasta and olive oil and all sorts, or just listen to the beautiful language and pretend you are in Rome.
3. Recreate a favourite destination at home. I read about this somewhere, an idea of having a whole weekend themed around a country, e.g. Spain you could play Flamenco music, while eating Tapas, watch a Spanish film, you get the idea.
4. Relive previous trips. Dust off old photo albums. Pick up a favourite souvenir, sit and hold it, remember where you were and how you felt when you bought it. I swear this warms you up AND lowers blood pressure.
5. Get a bit of culture - search the internet for your local events - see an art exhibition - go to a concert - but choose something that's touring from somewhere that is, for you, exotic. The annual Flamenco festival that Sadlers Wells do every February is a great example. Oh but wait, that's a bit pricey I suppose (although cheaper than many plane tickets) - well, back to tip number 3 then - your local library may well still have CDs for rent at low prices, and if so will probably have a world music section. They will certainly have art books. Check the Film4 listings. Go somewhere new.

Tell me your tips for the grounded traveller and I'll try them out, add them to the list and report back on their success.

Gone paddling - back later.