A kind of traveller

There is a kind of traveller who travels around without needing a base to return to. Wherever he travels is his base; it’s where he wholly operates from, it’s where he lives in his physical entirety for the time that he is there. He travels with reckless abandon, with nothing to lose or gain; he travels for the sake of the travel, following his heartfelt instincts. When it’s time to move, he lets go of everything that may bind him down, and trusts that the Universe will bring new supplies, resources, opportunities and encounters for him to experience and benefit from in his new ventures.

Such a traveller wastes no time. He goes at a pace as slowly or quickly as is needed to accomplish the purpose of the travel. There is nothing wrong in travelling a great distance if it’s only to stay there for a short while. Equally, when all his travels are done, he may stay put in a place of his choice for the rest of his life. Such travel is purely about quality, it has nothing to do with quantity. With quality is meant the lesson to be learned, the experience to be had, the work to be done.


Thus, you may travel without roots, stumbling along and allowing serendipitous things to happen to you, or you may travel with a plan and yet allow amazing things to happen to you. You may travel all the while having an anchored base to return to, or you may finally travel back to your roots. Each of these types of travels may be experienced by you if you wish, and then it is left to you to decide which journey was the most liberating and most worthwhile.

http://flic.kr/p/9R77UP

On Sarongs & Throws

Or How to hide your mess when under-the-bed is no longer an option.

I have always been mystified by sarongs.  These Indonesian/Malaysian traditional wrap-around skirts are so colourful more than anything else, that I’ve always felt they would serve better as wall pieces or displayed as materials of art rather than a piece of clothing. My feeling came true recently when some friends announced their intent of visiting me at very short notice.  Delighted as I was to be seeing them, chaos reigned supreme in my room, and in my mind too upon receiving the news of their imminent arrival.  My mind went into auto-pilot mode and before I knew it, I was working at amazing speed, efficiently bundling clothing and books away into the closet and the book case respectively.  Narrow longitudinal gaps between the closet and the wall can be efficiently used to squeeze in things such as overcoats and the laundry basket.  At this moment I remembered my sarongs.  I quickly dug them out from the closet and threw them over the piles of things that were seen from the in-between gaps that had been used as storage space. Open cupboards could also be covered by draping their front with a sarong.  I immediately regretting having discarded a rug that I had bought years ago from a shop called South Of The Border Imports.  It was a Mexican style rug woven in bright colours, rugged and huge as a rug should be.  Not only would it have adequately done the job of covering up things, but it would have made a bean-bag if wrapped carefully around a pile of winter woollies and pillows.

              Sarongs http://flic.kr/p/adGKTK                                     Mexican rugs  http://flic.kr/p/fLQoe