Not-a-holiday

It’s a diet Jim, but not as we know it….

I put myself on a diet, but it’s got nothing to do with food.

If I was to use the analogy of calorie intake and nutrition, as we all know, the lucky amongst us have access to healthier options, choices which provide nourishment and benefits to our health.   Then there’s junk food, a guilty pleasure, a treat. 

Let’s apply that to media.   From time to time, I find myself saturated with…

Accidents Happen in Sicily

At 5.50 am we clicked the front door shut and made our furtive way in the pre-dawn light through the deserted streets of a town in Sicily.

We didn’t talk, not only because the noise our luggage wheels made on the cobbles – amplified by the narrow laneways – drowned out any attempt at conversation.   We reached the car, stowed our luggage and fiddled with the satnav.  

We looked at each other…

Why you should look your worst for passport photos –

10 years of Beanie hair

As I stand in the allocated area, waiting for the computer to match my features with my passport photo, I have sensed a digital argument taking place within the computer. “She looks NOTHING like her photo…just check out her limp hair, and crusty eyes.. those jowls have certainly dropped since the photo. Nice try love.”

There is a good argument for getting the…

Seeking out quiet places when travelling will refresh and energize you

My partner copes with a hearing loss. It’s been a creeping presence in our lives for some time, its insidious presence in our lives progressing steadily over many years.

Its an invisible condition, and while such privacy is welcome, it also means that he often has to put in real effort to communicate effectively. Hearing aids help, but they are not the complete answer. The science is…

Museum Fatigue....it's a thing. How to avoid the burnout.

Detail of the Parthenon. Exhibited (controversially) at the British Museum

You know how people who work in a chocolate factory end up immune to its charms? The same is true of anything you enjoy, too much of a good thing… well – I’m sure there’s a proper quote to cover it – but simply put, it’s too much.

You will arrive in a destination, and perhaps you have invested some time…

The needlework of Romania

embroidery from Viscri, Romania

Textile art is often relegated to something the women did, basically to keep them busy in all that spare time. As someone who enjoys and appreciates it both as a pleasurable pastime and an artform, I’ve often received very lefthanded observations from (probably?) well meaning folk who feel they have the right to comment.

“oh, how lovely, but I just don’t…

Traditions and Heritage – the reclaiming

needlework from Viscri, Romania

What identifies you?  What sets you apart from another?  What makes you as one with the people who you live amongst.  The chances are it’s something to do with your shared heritage and traditions.  The way you do things, the way you cook and eat, the clothes you are comfortable in.  The stories you tell your children. 

The concept of strength in numbers is…

Our Sat Nav hated us

On the open road….with Satnav

We loaded up the Satnav with European maps in the naïve belief that it would be helpful.  I am being unkind here, as it did, on occasion, get us where we needed to be.  But you only remember the disasters, the times everything went unremarkably to plan fading into oblivion.

Let me backtrack slightly.  European speed limits seem to be classified information. …

A market in Rarotonga, Cook Islands

If you drew a line straight down from Hawaii until you hit the Tropic of Capricorn, you’ve found the Cook Islands. 

Kia Orana “Welcome”

Each Saturday in Rarotonga the Punanga Nui Cultural Market is held.  The market is a mix of village fair and market, with locals presenting their produce (this is a place where avocado trees are loaded with fruit and houses have tables offering home grown…

Reykjavik – Celebrating New Year the Icelandic style

Happy New Year from Reykjavik

New Year’s Eve is a big deal in Reykjavik, and it’s all about the fireworks. The rules prohibiting fireworks are relaxed on New Year’s Eve, and households gleefully purchase boxes of them for the celebrations, because we all love an explosion, deep down.

Periodically throughout the days preceding the event, random explosions took place, when “test”…

Bread and all its wonderful variations

“Bread – like real love – took time, cultivation, strong loving hands and patience. It lived, rising and growing to fruition only under the most perfect circumstances.”  ― Melissa Hill , Something From Tiffany’s

Often the villain in the culinary story is the bread.  It’s delicious and satisfying carbs – and their endearing way of attaching themselves to your midriff and hanging on, with the…

The theory of a good story It's my ambition to pen a memoir - a little story of my own journey. and I pondered where I am currently located in the plotline.

The story continues…..

So, in an effort to learn a bit more about the process of writing, I attended a workshop last weekend, held at the wonderful Frankston Library.  The convener was a published author and screenwriter, and whilst it was primarily geared to fiction, it was interesting to learn about the principles, especially if you harbor dreams one day of being published. 

She went…

Whatever happened to spontaneity in Travel?

Today’s travel template seems to be hell bent sucking the spontaneity out of life.   On hammering you into booking – booking tickets, booking tours, making reservations and generally requiring you to micro manage your time to the point where it can seem more like a deadline-driven work week.

Google any place and the first thing to come up will be “Book your tickets to xxx”.

Fail to book…

A market in Agadir, Morocco

bananas anyone?

Sometimes you need to dig a bit to find treasure, and the same is true of travel.

Beach clubs in Agadir

Agadir was not a place I immediately warmed to. It seemed somehow less Moroccan and more generic holiday destination. Boasting Nightclubs, Casinos and the like – not something I consider a drawcard. Leaving Essaouira for Agadir probably didn’t do it any favours either…

Street food - a snack in Verin Everyone loves street food - don't they? It reeks of authenticity, of regionality and - dare I say - adventure.

Everyone loves street food – don’t they? It reeks of authenticity, of regionality and – dare I say – adventure.

The best way to select street food is to look for the crowd. If there’s a crowd waiting, especially if they’re locals, go for it. If you’re lucky, its prepared in front of you, usually with local ingredients.

Verin, time to take a break between Porto and Burgos

On…

The Maypoles of Austria

Lake Hallstatt Its May, and its time to put up the Maypole.

Happy May!

As we drove into Austria, strange elevated Christmas trees began to pop up. In the front yards of houses and in the centre of the towns, the Maypoles, often decorated with fluttery ribbons, dotted the landscape.

A symbol of spring and the new season of rebirth. Dancers will often weave ribbons around the pole,…

The best view in Reykjavik

Humans are driven to scale the heights….

The world over, towers and rooftops are massive drawcards. All of us have waited in line, plodded up the stairs, to get that perspective. Reykjavik has its own vantage point, to see it from above, get to the Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral. You will have no trouble whatsoever finding it, as it towers over the city.

In Bruges

Gazing upward at…