Off the Beaten Track | Sandy Barker on writing, travel, reading, life…

  • Long Distance Relationships

    I 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

    Questions 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

    I 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

    Ben 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

    Last 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

    Yesterday 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

    I 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

    I 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

    I 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

    Travel 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

    Los 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

    In 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

    I 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

    From 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

    “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

    Last 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

    My 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

    I 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

    Well, 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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  • Traveller or Tourist?

    Years ago in another lifetime, I was a tour manager in Europe. I was responsible for running coach tours – 21 to 35 days for a well-known touring company popular with 18-35 year olds. My responsibilities ranged from accompanying a client to the hospital in Venice, to nursing broken hearts and hang-overs, and everything imaginable…

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  • Giving Back

    Images of wide-smiled African, Asian and South American children in need, pepper our media so much so that we become immune to them. Even those of us who sponsor a child, or community through charities such as Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, Save the Children and World Vision, can become numb to why we do this.…

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  • Going Home

    This weekend I fly to Perth on the west coast, and will drive 5 hours to the southwest coast to see my dad for his 60th birthday.  I am going ‘home’.    ‘Home’ is a word laden with connotations that make me feel a plethora of emotions.  Coming ‘home’ after a long trip brings mixed…

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  • Losing watches

    At a recent interview – for the job I am in currently – I was asked to describe my organisational skills. I replied, “Freakish.” And they are.  I am a list-maker. I have reminders – electronic and on post-its and on calendars – for all sorts of things. I do not forget birthdays, appointments, work…

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  • Loathe of Flying Part Two

    On every long haul flight I invariably end up wondering WHEN scientists are going to sort out this teleporting thing.  If you watch episodes of the original Star Trek, you will see Spock and Kirk and the gang talking into their mobile phones, and Uhura chatting away on her Bluetooth earpiece.  The crew even shock…

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  • Loathe of Flying Pt 1

    I LOVE to travel, but the cruel irony is that I hate to fly. I appreciate that there are people who are desperately afraid of flying. That is not me. I suffer only from loathe of flying. I do not fear the plane falling out of the sky. In fact, often times I am so…

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  • Glitter, gambling, glamour. It can only be Vegas.

    Las Vegas. An oasis of guilty pleasures in the middle of the desert. Glitter, gambling and glamour. Right? Well, sort of. Last year the call went out. My mother wished for nothing more than to return to her homeland, and wanted my sister and I to join her for an American Christmas – in Las…

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  • Writing Meme

    Charlotte Otter writes a blog called ‘Charlotte’s Web’ (link on this page), and on occasion she posts a meme. I appropriated this meme from Charlotte, who appropriately appropriated it from someone else. If you’re a writer too, then pass it on. It is about my passion for writing. I am loving writing this blog, and…

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  • Natural Habitats

    I am a friendly person. As such, I am blessed (and cursed) to have friends all over the world. The blessing, of course, is that I enjoy these diverse and enriching friendships immensely. The curse is that I miss these friends more often than not. Some of these friendships were forged when I travelled, and…

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  • Seattle Wind-up

    So, now that I am back home in Sydney, I have a confession about my time in Seattle: I never went up the Space Needle. And we stayed right near it. Less than a 7-minute walk from it. In fact, it was my beacon when I navigated Seattle. I just headed towards it, because I…

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  • Post-travel Blues

    Coming home is one of the best things about travelling. I mean, what can beat coming through the door after a long absence and being greeted enthusiastically by a pet? Well, this was not exactly the homecoming I received from my cat yesterday morning. She was so ticked off about my extended absence that she…

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  • Flying Fish

    I am not a food critic by any means, and I will not attempt to become one in this post, but Ben and I have been really impressed with restaurants we have eaten at in Seattle.  And there are so many to choose from.  Ben and I are staying close to downtown, so we are spoiled for…

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  • Seattle Surprises

    Seattle Surprises In Seattle, the seagulls are freakishly huge, the homeless call me ‘Ma’am’, and the sunsets are incredible.  I have taken to buying something extra when I go to Safeway, which is the neighbourhood grocery store.  There is always a homeless man standing outside, asking for change – and it is never the same…

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  • Seattle is the Home of Starbucks

    I am naïve. No, really, I am. Until I was on my way to Seattle, where I am for the most of January 2008, I did not know that Starbucks was born here. I have subsequently walked past the flagship store – twice – and it looks very nice, but today I actually went into…

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