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Perspectives
Read more: PerspectivesWhen you stand at the edge of a cliff and peer over, looking down nearly a kilometre to the valley floor, you feel a flood of emotion – perhaps exhilaration, maybe awe, even terror. You needn’t choose, because all of these emotions can exist simultaneously. You may even feel powerful, omniscient, as though you oversee…
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Block head
Read more: Block headMy brain is starting to work in a whole new way; I think I am actually accessing brain cells that have been hibernating for the past 39 years. I am now calculating distances by blocks. Formerly, I used minutes, as in “It’s about 10 to 12 minutes away,” or kilometres, “Oh, about 5 k’s from…
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Compelled
Read more: CompelledI never do this – post twice in one day – but the first of today’s posts I started last night, and I have just read something that compels me to write again. Charlotte Otter is a South African woman living in Germany, and she write Charlotte’s Web, which is on my blogroll (check it…
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Third Date
Read more: Third DateI have been very candid about my month-long love affair with Seattle dating back to January of this year. We had a rocky start, though. It was a Seattle rain storm that took from me a favourite hat and an umbrella, but we soon made up and I embarked on a whirlwind romance with the…
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Do what you love
Read more: Do what you loveI have a few mantras that I bandy about, depending on my mood, the situation, or how I am being affected by the constellations. One mantra, which forewarns everyone to ‘get out of my way’, is ‘People Suck’. I do not indulge in this mantra too often, because it is a little negative, and tends…
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Spring has sprung
Read more: Spring has sprungToday is the first day of spring. And in Sydney, spring is my favourite time of the year. Dark mornings of drizzle give way to pink and orange sunrises, and the midday sky turns a vibrant blue. The air smells fresh, like grandma’s house when she throws open the windows and gives it a good…
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Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi
Read more: Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi OiMy barrista is Slovakian. I know this, because I went in for coffee today, and I asked where he was from. The Olympics was playing on the huge flatscreen suspended on the wall, and I wanted to know who he was rooting for – so to speak. “Hey, you guys just won a bunch of…
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The Second Drawer
Read more: The Second DrawerSo, here’s the thing. Having made the decision to move to the states at the end of the year, I am kind of already there in my head. I look around my apartment, and mentally take stock: to get rid of, to store, to take with me. The latter of the three lists is growing.…
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36 Things
Read more: 36 ThingsThis meme comes from Charlotte’s blog, and Helen’s before her. Helen got it from Lilian, who took it from Jennifer. It had 40 things on it, but Lilian didn’t really like three of them, so then it became 37 things. I could go through Jennifer’s 40 Things and seek out the three that Lilian didn’t…
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Words, words, words
Read more: Words, words, wordsI love chocolate. I love good coffee, red wine, and popcorn from the cinema. I love breakfast cereal, more than I could ever express. I so enjoy a good Pad Thai, and I am all about Vietnamese rice paper rolls. However, I can go at least a day without chocolate, cereal and coffee, up to…
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Red Tape and Pure Hope
Read more: Red Tape and Pure HopeI cried at work today. I hate crying at work. It is worse than crying in front of strangers, and is perhaps exacerbated by the fact that I am a teacher. Kids are sweet and curious creatures, and little distresses them more than a teacher in distress. So, when I showed up for afternoon sport…
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Diner’s Regret
Read more: Diner’s RegretThis will be short and sweet. I’ve coined a phrase. Yesterday as we left a delicious lunch, my father rubbed his full stomach, and bemoaned finishing both his entree and main. “I enjoyed it, but I shouldn’t have had the lamb shank and kidney pie. I should have had something lighter.” “Do you have ‘diner’s…
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Green (card) = Red (tape)
Read more: Green (card) = Red (tape)I want a green card. Not a thick piece of paper coloured green, but permission to live and work in the USA indefinitely. More accurately, I want my third green card, because I have already had two. I got my first when I was ten, because my mother relocated my sister and me to the…
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Window seat
Read more: Window seatI am not a window seat kind of a girl. I say this metaphorically, and literally. In life, I do not like to sit by the window and watch. I like to get out there in it, and invariably I end up a bit mucky for my efforts. But this is my preference. I actually…
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Long Distance Relationships
Read more: Long Distance RelationshipsI have said before that no matter where I am in the world, I miss someone I love. Because I have lived in three countries and have spent my adult life being a traveller, I am fortunate to have forged lasting relationships world over. Of course, many of those I love are travellers themselves,…
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Travel Meme
Read more: Travel MemeQuestions and answers about my favourite topic. Play along at home, and drop me a comment if you want to add your own answers. Where, of all the places you have never been, do you want to go to most? Southeast Asia – Camobodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam. Intrepid Travel has a 4 week tour I…
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Pure Glee
Read more: Pure GleeI was having dinner with my friend, Patrice, and she described her best travelling moment as sitting on the lawn of a resort in Papua New Guinea, and eating coconuts. It was her first time on grass in three years, because she had lived in a concrete jungle, and the resort lawn overlooked the ocean.…
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Staying Put
Read more: Staying PutBen and I chatted today, and the first part of the conversation was about his eventful flight from the west coast to the midwest (of the U.S.). He had me laughing with the tale of the mother and teenage son, who held up the security line because they had clearly never flown before (the toiletries…
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Five Minute Friends
Read more: Five Minute FriendsLast weekend, I went away with strangers. Well, not just strangers. I went away with my ‘foodie’ friend, Simon, who organised a group of us to go to the Hunter Valley wine region for the Lovedale Long Lunch. Lovedale is a region within the Hunter Valley, and each year a handful of wineries throw a…
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Long distances
Read more: Long distancesYesterday I turned 39. I spent the weekend with new friends up in the Hunter Valley – a wine region two hours north of Sydney – and I have some great pics and stories to share soon. And I mean not to take away from the fun, friendship and festivities of the past two days…
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Mantra
Read more: MantraI teach Drama, and today I went to a Drama class for Drama teachers. In an acting exercise I had to take off a piece of jewelery and state why it is significant to me. I took off the silver ring I wear everyday and said, “This is the ring I bought in Peru, and…
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Falling in Like
Read more: Falling in LikeI took my heart to San Francisco, but I didn’t leave it there. I tend to fall a little in love with cities. There are cities that I love all over the world. I love Sydney. I love Venice. I love Prague. My love affairs in recent years have mostly been of the north American…
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Heart pounding
Read more: Heart poundingI led a discussion in class yesterday, about ‘youth’. “Am I old or young?” I bravely asked a room full of 13 year olds. Without missing a beat, 27 voices chorused, “Old.” I laughed. We went on to discuss how ‘youthfulness’ can be a state of mind. In my heart and mind I am young.…
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Travel Assurance
Read more: Travel AssuranceTravel involves risk. Some types involve more risk than others, but there is a leap of faith that every person takes when they book flights, find accommodation, and make plans to be elsewhere. The traveller trusts that these plans will come to fruition. Yes, there may be changes of plans, perhaps an unforeseen glitch, but…
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LAX
Read more: LAXLos Angeles Airport is called LAX. And I am positive that LAX stands for ‘laxative’, because it really gives me the shits. They are renovating at the moment. This is wreaking more havoc than is usually wreaked by this overgrown, poorly staffed airport disaster. I arrived tonight, dropped at Terminal Three – the one with…
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Snow, sushi and shopping
Read more: Snow, sushi and shoppingIn Bandon, Oregon I awoke with a promise to myself. I would be going for a run – on that grey stretch of flat, taut sand. It would be cold to start with as the temperature outside was less than balmy, but I would warm up quickly from my exertion, and I would be energised…
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Blown Away by Oregon
Read more: Blown Away by OregonI forgot to mention the spider. As we climbed into bed at the Requa Inn, there was a spider – in the bed – on my side. Ben did the manly thing and squished it with a tissue. I concentrated on the BEST PIE EVER and the brilliant day we’d had rather than the spider…
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A Day of Contrasts
Read more: A Day of ContrastsFrom Napa Valley to Klamath, on the northern California coast. Day two of our trip was a day of stark contrasts. We had dined the night before at Terra in St Helena. Terra appears in the Michelin guide (one star), and combines European and Asian food styles and tastes. The fusion works, and although we…
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Road Trip
Read more: Road Trip“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” Robert Louis Stevenson This quote is taped to my desk at work – at eye level. I see it every day, and every day I think to myself, ‘How true.” Or mostly true, for me.…
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Fear of Falling
Read more: Fear of FallingLast post I revealed my desire to skip the nursing home and boldly jettison through older age with a pack on my back, a camera in hand, a grin on my face and guided by my sense of adventure. In writing my promised list of things I have done on my way to earning my…
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When I Grow Up
Read more: When I Grow UpMy oldest relative is my Great Aunt Joan. She is in her seventies and there are rumours (which I totally believe) that she was once a spy and worked for MI-6 (like James Bond). She lives with Foy and they are two very sweet, dear old English ladies. In fact, my family even refers to…
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Mexican Jumping Beans
Read more: Mexican Jumping BeansI am not a huge Willie Nelson fan, but I do subscribe to his sentiment, because like Willie I can’t wait to get on the road again. It is time. I have ants in my pants, itchy feet and can’t sit still. Were I six and were my mother here, she would wonder aloud if…
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Stolen Meme
Read more: Stolen MemeWell, appropriated is probably more accurate, as I will credit this meme to the Sydney Morning Herald – weekend edition. Right off the bat, I confess two things in this blog entry: One. I used to pretend I had my own cooking show. Granted I was a pre-teen when I did this, but whenever I…
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