Travel

Come Away With Me

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Somebody come away with me.

Somebody who wants to be free. Free from the chains of the modern day world we’re living in.  Free from social media.  Free from social norms.  Free from judgement. Free from the perceived personalities that are forced on us to live in a modern day western society.

Come with me to another place.  A place where everybody lives within their means and money is no object, because everybody lives day by day on just what they have available to them and money holds no true value.

Let’s pay a visit to the past and never question the future.

Come and live in the forest, away from suits, away from technology, away from traffic, away from home décor and beauty magazines.

Let’s live near a stream and fish for our dinner.

We’ll live by the beach and spend the days making pictures in the sand and our nights making fires.

Let’s live in a small community of like-minded people, where nobody is competing with anybody else. Where everybody is just who they are.  Where nobody feels the need to put their neighbour down in order to make themselves look superior.

Let’s just be free.

Come travel the world with me.

Travel

BORED TRAVELLER – Top 10 Things to Do With A Rainy Day

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As an adventure addict, a rainy day can really put a dampener on your days off.  If you’re travel obsessed, but the weather is proving to be a soggy obstacle, here are a few suggestions for activities to see you through a dreary day while waiting for the world to turn a little bit further. Continue reading BORED TRAVELLER – Top 10 Things to Do With A Rainy Day →

Travel

There’s a Fly on my Eyelash…

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… And other Failings and Frustrations of an Unhappy Expat.

Sometimes, the reality of travel doesn’t quite live up to the romantic vision you once had of your nomadic self.

It’s not all glitz and glamour in revolving restaurants, fun and frolics in the sea or peace and tranquillity in the forest.  Opening your mind.  Discovering yourself. What if you don’t like who you discover? What if your mind is so open you can’t shut it down?  What if the big wide world is so incredible that you can’t be happy with the simple pleasures of home anymore?  It’s really easy to get wrapped up in the fantasy of what travelling should be and the effects it should have on you.

A lot of people expect to develop a new personality, the one that belongs to that happy hippy you see in every travel photo, ever. You know that girl, with her floaty dress, perfect skin and Rapunzel hair, a flawless braid along one side of her nauseatingly carefree head, dancing along the shoreline of an empty beach, laughing at something hilarious an empty clam shell just said.  But we can’t all eat, pray and love with such perfection – Screw you Julia Roberts. Continue reading There’s a Fly on my Eyelash… →

Sometimes I Overthink..., Travel

*Post Updates* – The Bucket List

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In one of my first posts on this site, I told you about my bucket list.

It would seem redundant to have posted that list if I had no intention of ticking items off somewhere along the way, so this is just a quick update, to say that I have marked two items off in the last month:

Number 9 – Bungee jump

and

Number 16 – Get a tattoo

You can check up on my progress at Act Positively, Plan Negatively, And Expect Nothing

I’ve been fairly quiet lately, I’ve been silently brewing a few posts under the surface

New material COMING SOON!

Travel

A Travel Tally

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I’m repacking my bag, ready for the next adventure.

It turns out there are only about 3 items I still carry with me which are originals from the first bag I packed.

Time for a tally!

Days away from home: 916

Amount of times I have had to replace/re-purchase the following items:

Bank cards x4;

Cameras x3;

Earphones x3;

Thongs/Flip flops/Jandals x4 (It should be noted, that the first pair had lasted me 7 years prior to this trip); Continue reading A Travel Tally →

Sometimes I Overthink..., Travel

The Facts and Feelings of K Road Crime

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Karangahape Road – the unglamorous and drug addled roadside hooker centre of Auckland.

Known fondly among locals simply as “K’ Road”, this is a street in upper central Auckland famous for its bars, clubs, smaller shops and being a former red-light district.

The conversation started half way along this street, at about 11pm, sober, bar one or two experimental cocktails.

“I feel very safe here” Continue reading The Facts and Feelings of K Road Crime →

Sometimes I Overthink...

BITCH

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A man once told me I was “not girlfriend material”.

I was in a relationship with that man at the time and this was just one comment in a tireless string of other deeply offensive shit he laid on me throughout our brief time together. This was a relationship he chose to be in, a relationship he remained in after informing me of how far beneath him I was… A relationship I chose to end soon after that conversation. He was surprised at this decision.

And they say women are complicated. Continue reading BITCH →

Sometimes I Overthink...

Came for the Drugs, Stayed for the Artwork

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A Little Journey Through the Wonderful Strangeness of Brains

Last week I saw my brain. It was my first time, I was a brain virgin before that. It was a good looking brain, I think and apparently a healthy one, which is pretty good news. Even has an uncanny similarity to every stereotypical alien encounter image I’ve ever seen – I have an alien face in my brain – I’m pleasantly entertained by that. My only disappointment at this experience is that, although having a picture of my brain is cool as all hell, it hasn’t helped me to understand the science behind brains at all.

The human body is an interesting animal, Continue reading Came for the Drugs, Stayed for the Artwork →

Travel

Excuse Me, Do You Sell Prawn Cocktail?

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Where is Home?

1. Home is a small town in South Wales, where my immediate family live and where I grew up.

2. Home is Fremantle in Western Australia, where I felt healthier than I’ve ever been and made great friends.

3. Home is Broome, where I discovered a person inside me I’d never even known existed, faced my fears and fell in love.

4. Home is Auckland, where I am right now, looking for work and a place to rest my head at night.

5. Home is wherever I can get my hands on a prawn cocktail flavour crisp sandwich.

Continue reading Excuse Me, Do You Sell Prawn Cocktail? →

Sometimes I Overthink..., Travel

While You Were Tweeting…

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Sitting on the bus, watching Melbourne pass me by, I spotted a small alleyway. A side street from the main road. Colourful. Exciting. It was Hosier Lane, famous for street art and elaborate graffiti. I would later visit it and see incredible artworks the size of the buildings. People around me on the bus are on their phones. They didn’t see it. It belongs to me. Continue reading While You Were Tweeting… →

Sometimes I Overthink..., Travel

Act Positively, Plan Negatively, And Expect Nothing

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Everybody has one.

It probably grows unexpectedly every time you go somewhere new and exciting.

It might only be a short one, but it still counts.

You may not have given it a name, still counts.

It might not have been formally documented in a Microsoft Project plan, with timescales and budget afforded to it, but it definitely counts.

It may not even be all that realistic, but you still might try, yup, counts.

I want to take a minute to share, with anybody who’ll read it, MY BUCKET LIST!

Continue reading Act Positively, Plan Negatively, And Expect Nothing →

Travel

Don’t Fart in a Shared Dorm

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The Ten Commandments of Backpacker Etiquette

 

Let’s be honest with ourselves, we all have little quirks that annoy others.  Friends, family, loved ones, they are most likely to tell you when you’re doing something that causes frustration, or give off clear signals to suggest that your behaviour is not to their liking.  But what about people you don’t know?  What about the ever-so-polite people you meet every day who you don’t even realise you’re upsetting!

 

For those with the money to do it in style, I’m sure you’ll shrug off the trusty backpack.  Maybe you always choose the upgrade to a private room on group tours, or have a personal chauffeur to drag your overweight suitcases to and from the limousine for you, where you travel with leg room and a three course meal and champagne, served to you by a monkey in a top hat and tails on golden roller skates.  Maybe not.  I don’t know you.  But when you travel on a shoestring budget, you are likely to experience some pretty cosy sleeping arrangements, a few sweaty and awkward public transport journeys and some accidental elbow bumping at hostel mealtimes.

 

Your experiences whilst travelling are completely unique to you, but wouldn’t a few universal ground rules make things mildly more comfortable?  Please take a minute to consider a few suggestions for appropriate backpacker conduct.

Continue reading Don’t Fart in a Shared Dorm →

Sometimes I Overthink..., Travel

VIPASSANA – Can You Really Un-think Yourself Happy?

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Meditation. It’s not as easy as it looks.

 

Four months ago, I was messy. The kind of messy that makes people you know stop answering your calls encase you cry, again. But luckily not everybody is as harsh as my mother, and a good friend suggested to me that maybe there was something more productive I could do with my time than sit around complaining and feeling sorry for myself. She wasn’t wrong. My brain works at about 100mph and could probably do with some down time. Ten days of silence, alone with your own thoughts, learning to meditate. That sounds like BLISS! Not everybody’s initial response I’m sure, but at that stage in my life, perfect!

 

Vipassana is a Buddhist meditation technique, focussing your mind on you, teaching people to accept the reality of the present moment “As it is”, the basic idea being, to lead people towards a simple and happy life. One important thing to understand is that this is NOT a religious preaching seminar. You do not need to be a Buddhist, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Sikh, Muslim, Christian, Atheist, Agnostic, Jedi or even if you still have gils, this is a course and a technique which is available to absolutely anybody at no cost, as long as you’re lucky enough to have a 10 day gap in your working / living schedule which corresponds with a course.

 

In my prior ignorance, ten days of silence sounded extremely difficult. I talk incessantly to anybody who’ll listen, so most of my friends and family snorted at the idea I could even entertain an hour of zipped lip. But I love a challenge.

Continue reading VIPASSANA – Can You Really Un-think Yourself Happy? →

"You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place" – Miriam Adeney