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Finding well-being through travel and books. |
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Hello and welcome! I have two great passions in life. The first one is travel. After a series of life-changing events, my husband and I decided to spend the kids’ inheritance and see as much of the world as possible (I’m still bitter about Damascus). Our bible? A Thousand Places to See Before You Die. Please join us on our adventures seeing new places, meeting fascinating people and trying new, exciting, and sometimes just plain weird, food. My second great passion is books. Reading expands my interior world in the same way travel expands my external one. And, books are a great way to armchair travel - not only through distance but through time as well. My tastes are eclectic, so we’ll be looking at a wide range of writing in a possibly haphazard fashion. Come along for the ride! My best, Kirsten ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| I’m sure many of you have been sitting where I am now. It’s done. My manuscript that I have slaved over for absolutely ever is done to the best of my ability. But, as soon as I wrote ‘The End’, I felt forced to decide whether or not to try to get it published the traditional route, or self-publish, or – as is my wont – to leave it sulking in my hard drive. After all, if you don’t put it out there, no one can reject it. It took some pretty spiky self-talk about manning-up (so to speak) to get me to contemplate pitching to an agent. I soon discovered it’s one thing to write a novel and quite another to write a query letter and synopsis. The best thing for me was to get help, lots of help and I did, from friends, my writing buddy and two professional editors. Still …. Not much happened. Then I decided that if I tried I might fail but if I didn’t, I already had failed. So, I took a deep breath. I had the hyper-caffeinated hundred metre stare as I checked and cross check the agents on Agent Query  . And just to cover all my bases I checked Association of Canadian Publishers Now, I’m aerobically leaping for the little flashing envelope that indicates a new email has come in – and then, crushing disappointment either from a rejection or … it’s something completely unnecessary like a reminder of my dentist appointment. I still have a number of query’s outstanding, so the drumming of fingers with impatience continues, interspersed with nail biting. Perhaps the best antidote is to start a new project. If anyone has any other tips and tricks to deal with 'agent angst' please do share them! Onward. |
| Cordoba: I am too old for hostel apartments but everyone should see La Mezquita. Please put it on your bucket list. On the other hand – the food in Spain is a health hazard. Russell and I were just recovering from food poisoning in Grenada when René went down in Cordoba after a dodgy salad. Antoinette was the only one to escape unscathed. Rome: We left Russell and Antoinette in Faro and flew to Rome on May 3rd. While we failed to find the specific trattoria responsible for the limoncello incident of 2005, we had some wonderful meals and walked and walked – mostly in the rain. We did get some glorious photos during one period of brilliant sunshine. But basically we were simply recovering from Spain. Florence: Food highlights: -Tagliatelli with butter and truffles at I Parione, a trattoria we found a few years ago when we had an apartment on the street behind. -Taglionlline with butter and caviar at a wine bar overlooking the Arno as the sun set. Note: there are enough wine bars that one could conceivable go an entire week without frequenting the same establishment or drawing a sober breath. Just saying. The de’Medici: Their escutcheon is everywhere – a shield with six balls on it. According to The Lonely Planet this must have been the cause of some mirth over the years as the de’Medici supporters would clatter down the streets shouting ‘Balls! Balls! Balls!’ and the word has the same double entendre in Italian as it does in English. I’m just immature enough to find that hilarious. We had a lovely walk in the Boboli gardens and saw a wonderful porcelain exhibition. The roses were wonderful – the climbing roses must be hundreds of years old and the peonies were out in full bloom as well. Poplar fluff was in the air … with every new city there seems to be another new allergen. Sigh. Took another horse and carriage ride around the city centre. It’s a different perspective and you can look up without worrying about either breaking an ankle or stepping in something distasteful (there are a lot of dogs in Florence!). Venice: We arrived in Venice yesterday and had champagne on the rooftop terrace of our hotel as we watched a gondola race below. Apparently it’s a big thing. There were about eight boats in the harbour painted various pastel colours and four standing gondoliers per boat. Tricky – the water is not calm there and a lot of big boats, ferries and such churn it up further. The coast guard cleared the field for them to race. I swear to God – half of Japan is here in Venice. Cheesy perhaps – but we took a gondola ride this morning. It was actually pretty interesting – colour commentary from the gondolier and an entirely different perspective from the land view. Then we walked (or tried to) for a few hours before lunch. This afternoon we have a guide for three hours. Hope to learn lots. NOTE:Photos to follow as soon as I can get them the right size for uploading! Best ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Show up and do it!"
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| Spain 2013-04-29 Do you hear that crash? That's the sound of my preconceived notions about cork trees smashing around me. Where I got the idea they were tall, skinny and subtropical, like rubber trees, I do not know, but they are a stubby type of oak tree and they grow in Portugal and Spain - amongst other places, I suppose. I guess that had I ever really thought about it, it makes perfect sense wine corks are produced close to the wine. We went to the beautiful cathedral in Seville on Sunday morning, during the time for mass, there was no line up and no cover charge. we just waltzed in and had a good gaze. After, we were 'mugged' by the gypsies working the cathedral crowds. The scam is to present you with the gift of a sprig of rosemary (for luck), seize your palms and read your fortunes (in 30 seconds or less- I must have a short future), and then demand €20. Sigh. Live and learn.we had to have coffee at the grand hotel, Alphonso XIII to recuperate. Lola! Ah Lola. A beautiful gray Andalusian mare pulling a carriage. We had a 45 minute tour of the Maria Luisa Park, the Spanish Square, a number of the country pavilions from the 1929 World's Fair and back to the Cathedral. Tapas - learned about cuttlefish when I accidentally ordered four. Not improved by parsley sauce. Fabulous Flamenco! Saw a passionate performance at the Flamenco Museum. Small venue, so we sat very close to the small stage. Across from me was a small girl, perhaps two and a half or three who sat quietly though the entire performance, huge eyes above her soother. She made a nest of her coat and only pulled the sleeves over her ears when the stamping of the dancer's feet became too loud. On the way to Granada - the verdigris of olive trees, vineyards, snow capped mountains. Bloody cold in Granada. Icy rain for the majestic Alhambra. Tour utterly worth it although I may never be warm again. Best ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Show up and do it!"
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| We had a wonderful trip out to Giverny. The weather was perfect and the spring flowers were all in bloom. The hyacinths smelled wonderful and there were varieties of tulips I had never seen before. What entranced me most about Giverny weren’t the gardens. It was the fancy chickens. They had large enclosures with old breeds of French chickens and roosters. Very fancy birds! The good news: The apple blossoms are out – pink clouds everywhere. The bad news: The apple blossoms are out – I don’t have enough Reactine … French attitude is making a comeback. A few years ago, it seemed to be improving. This time, waiters were back on their old game. It didn’t matter if we ordered in perfectly good French (how badly can one screw up asking for a plain omelette?), the waiter would, with condescending smile, reply in English. If one was to be charitable, I suppose it could be assumed the waiter was just trying to put English speakers at ease. Charity having left the building (and the fact my husband’s first language is, in fact, French), it’s pretty clear they use it as a power play. Even the crows have attitude, stomping boldly over the grass in the Tuileries where no mere mortal dares to tread. The gypsies are still begging in the streets of Paris. They always have an animal with them, sleeping or lying quietly on a blanket, food and water beside them. I thought it so sweet until I learned (okay - rumour has it) the animals are kept sedated - that’s probably why the food is there. Normally I am pretty generous with the homeless, but for that reason alone, sedating the animals and using them for sentimental value, I refuse to give any money. Every trip needs a theme, and I have determined this one to be hot chocolate. So far, Ladureé’s hot chocolate is actually second to the Westin Place Vendome’s hot chocolate. Both are simply melted chocolate to which some hot milk had been added. However, the Westin lets you add your own milk – the chocolate comes in a small pot like a tea pot accompanied by hot milk in a jug. At Ladureé, it’s predetermined. No, I refuse to be called a control freak – this is about having the correct proportions! We are in Portugal now – tried hot chocolate here in Quinto do Lago. Nope. Not a patch on the French. My clothes still fit – it’s only week one. Best ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Show up and do it!"
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| Buckskin has made a comeback in Paris. When we first saw an older man wearing a fringed buckskin jacket, we were having lunch at Le Deux Magots https://www.lesdeauxmagots.fr, soaking up the sun and watching tout Paris out for a Sunday stroll. When we first saw the jacket, we (admittedly uncharitably) thought the poor soul had been rummaging in his 1970’s closet. Joke was on us. Later that day as we struggled upstream through the mass of humanity on the Champs Élysées, a three year-old was also stomping along, her pudgy legs fitted out with fringed buckskin boots. The definitive moment came, however, when we passed the Ralph Lauren window in Place de la Madeleine where a pair of fuchsia buckskin trousers glared out at us. Shall I get me a pair of those? Also in Place de la Madeleine – we had our first trip to Fauchon https://www.fauchon.com. How we have missed this pair of shops before is beyond me. But it is full of the most divine chocolate, biscuits, prepared foods and teas. It is also blindingly expensive. We bought a box of chocolates and a bottle of champagne to take to some friends we are visiting and the bill came to €112. In the opposite direction entirely, across from Samaritaine, we bought a small kettle. We had previously bought a tiny espresso maker so we could have coffee in our hotel room in the morning, rather than leaping out of bed and getting dressed, or, alternatively, paying €20 for a pot of coffee courtesy of the hotel. Good to go now and it makes great coffee. A group of police were clustered outside a small shop behind Musée D’orsay. We were first afraid something was going down – but they were just buying there lottery tickets. What does this say? On a darker note, there are a lot more police around, carrying stubby submachine guns, especially around the Presidential Palace, just down the road from the American Embassy which is, as usual, heavily guarded by French gendarmerie. Today we are going to Giverny to see the beautiful gardens painted by Monet, and the artist’s house. I’m not sure how advanced they will be at the end of April but it will be a good afternoon out nonetheless. Among the many Monet paintings hanging in Musée D’orsay, my favourites are probably his paintings of Rouen Cathedral, and the one he did of his wife, Camille, on her deathbed, gruesome topic but gorgeous execution. The weather has been fabulous, warm and sunny. Best ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Show up and do it!"
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| Today’s prompt from the Blogging Circle of Friends concerns beloved childhood myths. "The Tooth Fairy (or Easter Bunny, or Santa Claus . . .) : a fun and harmless fiction, or a pointless justification for lying to children?" While the Tooth Fairy might seem to be a personification of dental fraternity propaganda, she has her genesis in ancient ritual. All major changes in our bodies prompted a ritual to mark and attempt to understand them. Bodily changes can be scary for young children and losing teeth seen as a loss of power and control. Think about it – you’re five or six years old and bits of your body start coming off! The Tooth Fairy makes that process easier. Receiving money or sweets after the loss of a tooth was something pleasurable after the pain. For this reason alone, to soothe a young child’s fears, I think there is merit in the long and noble institution. And then there has always been a desire to ward off evil. “Back when witches were believed to use pieces of your body, such as hair and fingernail clippings, to direct magic and curses at you, proper disposal of teeth was a serious business. The process differed by culture, from throwing the tooth up to the sun or over the roof, to feeding them to an animal (usually a mouse). The tooth could be buried, hidden, swallowed, or burned (sometimes after salting). In some cultures only the first exfoliated tooth was ritually disposed of.” (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2170/whats-the-origin-of-the-tooth-fair...) How long has the Tooth Fairy been around? Possibly since the seventeenth century when a poem by Robert Herrick, Oberon’s Palace, where the cave of Oberon has its wall decorated with bits of peacock feathers, fish scales, blue snakes skins and so on. The floor, however, is a mosaic of plum-tree gum, dice, brown toadstones, human fingernails, warts , and the teeth of squirrels and children ‘lately shed’, brought hither by the Elves. (The Folklore of Discworld, p 294) Nowadays there seems to be a single Tooth Fairy. This, according to Michael Finley (http://mfinley.com/pdf/toothfairy.pdf is completely wrong. There are “over 10,000 registered tooth fairies in the world, and an additional number of gypsy tooth fairies, thought to be in excess of 5,000, operating without any kind of certification.” This multiplicity of Tooth Fairies (which makes perfect sense when you consider sheer geography ) is fully supported by Terry Pratchett who, in The Hogfather states: ”Fairies aren’t necessarily little twinkly creatures. It’s purely a job description, and the commonest ones aren’t even visible. A fairy is simply any creature currently employed under supernatural laws to take things away …” I’ve rambled long enough here so the Easter Bunny and Santa will have to wait for another day. Tonight, my husband and I take off for a six-week trip to Europe. I’ll post from places abroad  Best ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Show up and do it!"
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| Today’s Blog Prompt from the Blogging Circle of Friends is: How are you more likely to make an important decision — by reasoning through it, or by going with your gut? I would have to ask – what kind of decision are we talking about? Most of the big decisions fall into one of three categories. Relationships (regarding significant others): My relationship decision making has certainly changed over time. When I was young I was ruled by my heart (and, to be honest, my hormones). After a marriage that was supposed to last forever didn’t, I had to do some serious reassessing of my criteria. I still cared deeply for the person – so that meant we were supposed to be together, right? Actually no. My relationship epiphany came when I read an article and a sentence leapt out at me. I’m going to paraphrase but it went something like: Relationships don’t end because people stop loving each other. Relationships end because one, or both parties, stop loving the life they are leading together. So now my relationship criteria is: Will I love the life I lead with this person. Yes, it’s a head decision more than a heart decision but I have been deeply happy with my husband of fifteen years. Money: Feeling or cold hard logic? Heart or head? Do you think you can buy happiness or the best things in life are free? I’ve been in situations where I have made a purchasing decision that I thought was the right one only to feel one of the following afterwards: regret, disappointment, frustration or a sense of blah emptiness. So, I’ve done a lot of work in this area. There is an area called Behavioural Finance that explains why our purchasing decisions go pear shaped. Now I understand it better I suffer much less buyer’s regret. Here’s the skinny on spending. People don’t make the right purchasing decisions. Let’s take as an example the not-so-humble latte. The Latte Factor® is a term that author and financial advisor David Bach coined after observing that a majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck; He claimed that they were wasting their opportunity to become self-made millionaires by falling into the trap of wasteful spending. Give up the lattes and you can accumulate enough cash to buy something really big (even if it’s an investment portfolio, that is still a purchase). And, logic would dictate that having more money is going to make you happier. Except that, perplexingly enough, it doesn’t. The core issue is that people do a poor job of predicting how much pleasure they are going to get out of a future event (the fancy psychological term is ‘affective forecasts’). Prediction errors come from two basic sources: First, how you imagine future events will play out is almost always imperfect – people don’t anticipate how easily they will adapt to positive or negative events, don’t understand the factors that affect how quickly or slowly that adaptation happens and most imaginings miss important details. Secondly, the context in which they are making their forecast is not the same as the context in which they will be having their experience. Understanding how people make their forecasts helps to explain why people often spend money in ways that fails to make them happy. The number one way is to buy experiences instead of things. Why are experiences better than things? People seem to get more happiness from experiences than things because they anticipate and remember the former more often than the latter. One key reason goes back to how quickly we adapt to an event. After agonizing for days to select the perfect new living room set, people find that their once beloved leather couch becomes nothing more than a place to park in front of the television. In contrast, their memory of a winter beach vacation at a new resort, when they finally learned how to scuba dive, continues to provide delight. The fact of the matter is that we adapt far more slowly to experiential purchases than to material purchases. People adapt most quickly to things that don’t change. Whereas your sofa has the same shape, size and color on the last day of the year as it did on the first, each time that you go out for a latte with your friends is different. If we are going to inevitably adapt to even the most magnificent material purchase and have it become relatively ho hum after an astonishingly short period of time then our happiness may be better served by consciously purchasing a variety of small frequent pleasures. Experiencing novelty, surprise, uncertainty and variability, all variables that slow the adaptation process is far more likely to occur with many small pleasures than infrequent large ones. So when you join your friends for that latte you never know exactly who is going to show up or join in the conversation – or where that conversation might lead, or the coffee shop might have a new flavor or special on that week. And, best of all you experience a feeling of connection. There –I have just saved you spending tens of thousands on a Masters in Psychology. Time: Time decisions are quickly becoming the most critical for me. I am acutely aware that time is my most crucial non-renewable resource, so how I spend it is even more important than how I spend my money. I have developed a quick and dirty assessment on how to allocate my minutes hours and days – and it’s a blend of heart and mind. I use four criteria set up as four quadrants of a square. 1. Is this something I want/ need to do? 2. Is this something someone else wants me to do? 3. Is it going to uplift me? 4. Is it going to drain me? I love to do 1& 3 Don’t love but must do 1 &4 Will probably do 2 & 3 And I’ll try to get out of doing 2 & 4. I know this is a very long post, but – it’s a big topic!! Best ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Show up and do it!"
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| Happy Thursday, everyone! We are still in the deep freeze and it’s getting old!! Today our fearless leader has challenged us to list five strengths. It feels a bit like a job interview but here goes:1. Agent of change: I have the ability to be very flexible and I live with the philosophy of constant improvement. When I see that a change is required I work out how to make it happen. When a logical change is suggested, I adapt quickly. 2. Adventurous: A willingness to try new things and have new experiences has enabled me to have a remarkably interesting life, marriage, and career. 3. Courage. Typically I don’t spend time wallowing in OMG, I just get on with it. As an example, when I was in my early twenties, I was driving in the dark, at the end of December, to a ski resort in the mountains. Alone. Somehow I got off the right road and on to a forestry road that ended halfway up the mountain. As soon as I stopped my little car it sank up to the wheel wells in snow. I didn’t have a shovel and this was before cell phones and GPS. I looked out over the sheer drop on one side to the valley faaaaaar below and , okay, first I screamed. Then I said, oh good – now you’ve woken up the bears! Then I got down on my hands and knees, and with ski gloves on, hand dug my car out enough that I could slowly back down to a safe place to turn around. I made it to the resort a couple of hours late and with almost every nail broken, but I made it. 4. The ability to laugh at myself. Very useful on more than one occasion! 5. Kindness. It is always my default. So, that’s me as of today. Stay warm! |
| We’re in the deep freeze up here. It’s going down to -24C but at least it’s clear and mostly sunny. No real snow/precipitation for a few days. So there’s that. My husband, being the intrepid soul that he is, strapped on snowshoes this morning and took an hour walk on the lake. Of course this is the same man who spent two years working on the north shore of Baffin Island. Would it be too feeble of me to admit that I’m glad I met him after that episode? We chucked out an extra bowl of peanuts for the birds this morning. The blue jays were quick off the mark while the squirrels, that must have been sleeping, didn’t even get a look-in. All in all it’s a delightful time to stay snugly indoors and contemplate today’s prompt “Describe five things you want to see or do before it's too late.” Easy. Well, easy to say – some might be much harder to do. 1. See my children fully grow into their power. They are amazing people. There have been a few pot holes for them in the highway of life but they seem to be finding their feet magnificently now. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out. 2. Climb Mount Kilimanjaro. I don’t care if it’s only a hundred feet up. Getting to the top would be a bonus but just to be able to say I did it … 3. Visit the. Tiger Temple in Thailand. It is located in the oldest surviving Buddhist school and temple in Thailand. The monks have rescued a number of animals, including the endangered tiger. The tigers walk around freely and visitors to the site can walk around and pet them and help with the feeding. A few years ago I visited an elephant sanctuary in Thailand and had a ride on an elephant and a massage from a baby elephant. Way cool! 4. Travel India. My grandparents fled Germany in the 1930’s and lived there until the mid-1960’s. My father spent almost ten years there. So I feel a definite pull. This one is the leaky hole in my bucket list. My husband won’t go and he won’t let me go by myself … 5. Finish a good novel and have it published. Self-explanatory I think Stay warm everyone! |
| Happy Tuesday, everyone! It was a beautiful day here today, above zero (that’s Celsius!), and partly sunny. We have lots of bird life around right now. I don't know who was more surprised the other morning when I opened the front door. Me or the enormous turkeys under our front bird feeder. Those things make one heck of a racket taking off in a hurry. Our woodpeckers are becoming very tame. I was outside filling their suet cage and they clung to the truck of a nearby tree and just watched me with considerable interest. We have downy and hairy woodpeckers and I have seen a pileated woodpecker (that’s the one Woody Woodpecker is based on) on several occasions but they are extremely shy. Our birds are chatty as well. There is always some chirping, calling and the occasional squawking going on. It seems that singing mostly happens in the warm months. But we need music all year round, right? Which leads into today’s blogging topic – if I could play any musical instrument that I don’t currently play what would it be and why? Lordy, what a question. I grew up in a musical household. My paternal grandmother was a concert pianist and singer and my mother was an opera singer. One of my brothers plays the bassoon in a symphony orchestra. I have pretty much given up on playing myself after ten years of forced labour at the face of the piano keyboard. Oh – and then there were the flute years in the school band program, it’s best to draw a discrete veil over those. Sadly to say, I’m pretty sure I have retained the skills of neither instrument into my middle years but it has given me a much greater appreciation for the talent and dedication of musicians. The one instrument I really wish I could use is my voice. I would love to be able to really sing. I’d love to have a Susan Boyle moment and just knock the socks of everyone. The ability to sing would be wonderful simply for my own joy and expressiveness, but it would be nice to be able to entertain others as well. Off to check on dinner now. My husband has been slow cooking beef ribs in a sous vide and they are going to be ready soon. Some veggies had better be ready at the same time. |
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