It’s funny. Travelling anywhere other than the norm makes you think a lot.
But I reckon travelling can only work if you can open your mind to any possibility, to any eventuality, and embrace the experience as fully as possible. You must be willing to think outside your comfort zones, break and remake yourself every day, think outside your usual thoughts and say yes to the world!
There’s no point being away if you’re going to take all your neuroses and bad habits with you – you have to allow yourself to be reborn to new experiences, to see the world with a child’s eyes, smile at people, talk to people, learn from people, live a little – sod that, live a lot! Grasp it with both hands and squeeze every drop of enjoyment, every shred of experience out of every day… You have a responsibility to yourself to fill every day as full as possible.
And hopefully that is a skill which you can take back home with you – learn to say yes, learn to trust, remember to do exciting and scary things, even if it is harder somewhere colder!
We head for Point Walter. It is very pretty – clear open sky, slim pale sandy beaches, a jetty, a sand spit out into the water, blue and turquoise shallows, a little café, and an air of peaceful activity over everything. We find the café and get ice cream… They have such great names here – Jim and I both enjoy ‘Big Nuts’! *collapsing into giggles* That would go so nicely with the ‘Golden Gaytimes’. Actually, the Big Nuts is really like a fat, tasty Magnum with serious nuttiness on the outside… ‘Tis nice, I recommend it!
The sun is hot and prickly, despite the breeze and the fact that it is not even 30 degrees.
There are little wagtails – except they wag their tails the wrong way, from side to side instead of up and down. Frangipani trees are lovely too – they look for all the world like fake sugar flowers made for a wedding cake.
Safety Bay beckons today, I have my swimming gear just in case, though I am a weak and nervous swimmer at best and the thought of an unexpected undertow or shark fills me with dread!
We get to Safety Bay (after a short detour to get booze and postcards!) and it is lovely to see Bill and Jenny again; they are so friendly and hospitable. We have a drink and a sit down and the lads decide they are going to go for a swim. I throw caution to the winds and decide to join them, promising myself that I can merely paddle if I so choose…
Bikini on, teeny towel in one had, I follow them out to the beach (less than a hundred yards in front of the house). I paddle in after them. They splash about like porpoises in the water, diving through the waves and leaping over them while I bounce gently in the shallower tide nearer the shore. A Wabuba ball is brought out and thrown around. Only the size of a squash ball, it nevertheless has an extreme amount of bounce – flinging itself through the water and up again at a tremendous pace, bouncing as if on dry land. I discover that I throw like a girl.
Obviously.
Sigh.
But with a bit of practice, and watching the others, I’m soon flinging it about happily and bouncing further offshore to keep up with them. It’s warm as a bath once you get over the initial shock of cold breeze on wet skin. I wade further; it gets no deeper than my waist, though some of the waves make my ears salty with their spray. I begin to thoroughly enjoy myself in the waves, bracing against their foamy crests buffeting me in the chest and falling away behind me. The sea laps playfully around me, leaping up to greet me like a dog would, dropping seaweed around my legs like a gift, then tearing around again and flinging its affectionate salty slobber all over my hair. I feel confident in this uncharacteristically gentle and friendly sea, to allow it to take my weight, leaning back into its firmness and sloshing about carefully. Eventually, the guys and I decide to head in for food and I join them, swimming just a few yards up to the beach.
I’ve swum in the sea!
At last – an ocean that has been friendly enough to let me do it! Hooray!
Dinner is most welcome after that – a beautifully cooked piece of lamb, with various other barbecued bits, like beef sausages, chicken kebabs, nice salads (potato salad with blue cheese and sour cream instead of mayo is amazing!). Great dessert too – pavlova, and cheese (not together obviously).
There is a sunset, which we mostly leap up to see – I go outside and take pictures of the setting sun turning the Indian Ocean briefly orange, then purple. Beautiful, quite ethereal and barely real.
Then comes Jim’s birthday whisky (a very late present from Ed!). I am taught how to smell it; quite an interesting process. I didn’t realise whisky had a nose, but it does.
The first scent is rather bitter, though tinted with vanilla, the second scent stronger, a little like citrus but perhaps more like bergamot, and the third smells decidedly of smooth caramel. I had no idea it could be so exciting! I’m not sure I’ll ever be a bona fide whisky drinker but I can at least now appreciate the finer points more effectively without automatically thinking ‘Urgh, petrol’!
So, I’ve swum in the sea and enjoyed whisky – two things I never thought I’d do, however small they be!
;)
But I reckon travelling can only work if you can open your mind to any possibility, to any eventuality, and embrace the experience as fully as possible. You must be willing to think outside your comfort zones, break and remake yourself every day, think outside your usual thoughts and say yes to the world!
There’s no point being away if you’re going to take all your neuroses and bad habits with you – you have to allow yourself to be reborn to new experiences, to see the world with a child’s eyes, smile at people, talk to people, learn from people, live a little – sod that, live a lot! Grasp it with both hands and squeeze every drop of enjoyment, every shred of experience out of every day… You have a responsibility to yourself to fill every day as full as possible.
And hopefully that is a skill which you can take back home with you – learn to say yes, learn to trust, remember to do exciting and scary things, even if it is harder somewhere colder!
We head for Point Walter. It is very pretty – clear open sky, slim pale sandy beaches, a jetty, a sand spit out into the water, blue and turquoise shallows, a little café, and an air of peaceful activity over everything. We find the café and get ice cream… They have such great names here – Jim and I both enjoy ‘Big Nuts’! *collapsing into giggles* That would go so nicely with the ‘Golden Gaytimes’. Actually, the Big Nuts is really like a fat, tasty Magnum with serious nuttiness on the outside… ‘Tis nice, I recommend it!
The sun is hot and prickly, despite the breeze and the fact that it is not even 30 degrees.
There are little wagtails – except they wag their tails the wrong way, from side to side instead of up and down. Frangipani trees are lovely too – they look for all the world like fake sugar flowers made for a wedding cake.
Safety Bay beckons today, I have my swimming gear just in case, though I am a weak and nervous swimmer at best and the thought of an unexpected undertow or shark fills me with dread!
We get to Safety Bay (after a short detour to get booze and postcards!) and it is lovely to see Bill and Jenny again; they are so friendly and hospitable. We have a drink and a sit down and the lads decide they are going to go for a swim. I throw caution to the winds and decide to join them, promising myself that I can merely paddle if I so choose…
Bikini on, teeny towel in one had, I follow them out to the beach (less than a hundred yards in front of the house). I paddle in after them. They splash about like porpoises in the water, diving through the waves and leaping over them while I bounce gently in the shallower tide nearer the shore. A Wabuba ball is brought out and thrown around. Only the size of a squash ball, it nevertheless has an extreme amount of bounce – flinging itself through the water and up again at a tremendous pace, bouncing as if on dry land. I discover that I throw like a girl.
Obviously.
Sigh.
But with a bit of practice, and watching the others, I’m soon flinging it about happily and bouncing further offshore to keep up with them. It’s warm as a bath once you get over the initial shock of cold breeze on wet skin. I wade further; it gets no deeper than my waist, though some of the waves make my ears salty with their spray. I begin to thoroughly enjoy myself in the waves, bracing against their foamy crests buffeting me in the chest and falling away behind me. The sea laps playfully around me, leaping up to greet me like a dog would, dropping seaweed around my legs like a gift, then tearing around again and flinging its affectionate salty slobber all over my hair. I feel confident in this uncharacteristically gentle and friendly sea, to allow it to take my weight, leaning back into its firmness and sloshing about carefully. Eventually, the guys and I decide to head in for food and I join them, swimming just a few yards up to the beach.
I’ve swum in the sea!
At last – an ocean that has been friendly enough to let me do it! Hooray!
Dinner is most welcome after that – a beautifully cooked piece of lamb, with various other barbecued bits, like beef sausages, chicken kebabs, nice salads (potato salad with blue cheese and sour cream instead of mayo is amazing!). Great dessert too – pavlova, and cheese (not together obviously).
There is a sunset, which we mostly leap up to see – I go outside and take pictures of the setting sun turning the Indian Ocean briefly orange, then purple. Beautiful, quite ethereal and barely real.Then comes Jim’s birthday whisky (a very late present from Ed!). I am taught how to smell it; quite an interesting process. I didn’t realise whisky had a nose, but it does.
The first scent is rather bitter, though tinted with vanilla, the second scent stronger, a little like citrus but perhaps more like bergamot, and the third smells decidedly of smooth caramel. I had no idea it could be so exciting! I’m not sure I’ll ever be a bona fide whisky drinker but I can at least now appreciate the finer points more effectively without automatically thinking ‘Urgh, petrol’!
So, I’ve swum in the sea and enjoyed whisky – two things I never thought I’d do, however small they be!
;)
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