I just had this flash of memory of once seeing a horse... At a bus stop (the horse was cordoned within the perimeter of the bus shelter). Left there. On a trafficked road. No owner around.
Probably not even the craziest thing ever.
So... What's yours? And crazy is up to your interpretation. It could even be crazy cute.
It's been swirling in my head for three days, along with Wagner's Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (you got to love the variety 😂).
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I worked on a project (my first ever speaking slot!) for weeks, average 9-10 hours a week, sometimes even 13 hours, 6 days a week. I've found out my best work came out at night so I've now become a nocturnal creature. I've always been a night owl but generally the night was for relaxing.
Anyway, during this time I told myself I'd not get distracted and only do it as a "reward" after the end of this mini project.
Then after the event, I "got distracted" and it was so disappointing that it actually felt like a punishment more than a reward 😂 Nothing nefarious in case you wonder.
Curious about how you reward yourself after working long hours/stretches? Some days my resilience is weaker than I'd like.
A podcast by this title just dropped on BBC News. It's centred on Bali Digital Nomads, so a different "species"?
No wonder people "hate" Digital Nomads when the obnoxious ones are the loudest.
I'm in mushy brain mode so I can't think properly.
I was on my business Instagram thinking I could add a note, you know, to give some resemblance of life (Instagram is my least favourite social media thingy, for personal and business).
My business is not dry corporate stuff, so I can post pretty much anything within limits.
But...
I thought I'd add a Pulp track as a note along with a note about me still whining about not seeing them in Mexico City.
I thought Pencil Skirt. Yeah, no, Jarvis talks about being turned on (what a surprise). OK, maybe not that one.
I Spy. That too. Invitations to insert things in people's bodies. No.
Babies. Absolutely not. As well as Do You Remember The First Time?
In the end I landed, exhausted, on His 'n' Hers.
So any un-pervy songs? I don't want to go Wickerman 😂
As I said, completely mushy brain.
OK, Mis-shapes is one.
I woke up with this one. One of my previous earworms got played live a few days later. Maybe this time too?
I also dreamt of Jarvis around '96 or 97 when he was still wearing contact lenses and I thought "He has such beautiful eyes" 😂
In response to the famous DNs thread, who was yours?
For me Edgar Allan Poe. Most of the interesting people seemed to travel a lot.
Sometimes places we live in aren't just easy places, sometimes tragic things happen there, before or after our time there.
The recent fire in Bangkok in what was my old neighbourhood made me wonder this.
ETA: I think I should have clarified that I meant more like crime or tragic events like murders, fires, etc. I've had a few of such cases in my home town for example.
I mean people who weirded you out.
For me it seems to be mostly on planes.
Those who stand out are this American guy on a Philadelphia-Paris flight who wanted to introduce me to his "mommy" who was waiting for him there. Gave me redneck vibes. Lucky escape I had another flight after that. Oh, what did I miss!
And this other guy on a flight from Bahrain to London sitting next to me who smelled foul (a smell I've never smelled before and after). He was so jittery I thought he was on something?
By the way a family of four on the same flight smelled awful too. Luckily they didn't end up near me.
Who are your weirdos?
While playing, Jarvis said something like "Oh, by the way this is our last concert ever". Just like that.
In the dream I was also still fucking sad about having to miss the Mexico City concert, but that's another story.
At a certain point this will happen for real. The real, real, real last concert ever. Because of more extreme age constraints, or something sadder, etc. It'll hit hard.
It'll probably be the end of an actual era, at least for me.
So I woke up from this dream where for some reason I found myself in the airport of an African country (I felt like one on the equator). The woman sitting next to me was talking to her little daughter in a language that sounded like a local one? The little girl was replying in Portuguese though. So I tried to speak my shitty Portuguese with the girl, with no much success.
I woke up thinking I "had been" in Angola and that I need to improve my Portuguese.
I looked it up and actually Equatorial Guinea might be more correct. Now I'm very interested in the place 😂 I do a lot of these but this was different in a way.
Any "weird" travel dreams you have?
I was having my regular coffee chat with one of my business friends, and she was telling me how one potential client had been reluctant to work with her because she's in Mexico. This client said stuff like "Is there even Internet in Mexico?"
Back when I was in Southeast Asia potential clients wanted to know my location. Some were excited about it, others a bit less (this lady in Colorado almost scoffed at me when I said I was in Cambodia to explore the Khmer temples. She had asked, I didn't volunteer the information).
On a related note, some clients actually love that I was in SEA for a long time and that I'm bi-lingual (and learning a third language) as they see it as having a "global perspective".
Has it ever happened to you that clients said no to you because of where you were and not who you were?
Just a few days ago I said I had this song stuck in my head and now they played it in Paris. I'm not saying I called Don't You Want Me Anymore, but maybe I did 😂
They also played Have You Seen Her Lately?
My other current earworm is Master of the Universe by the way. Just in case...
I had tried since the 90s but because of lack of funds and living in a badly connected place well before low cost airlines even existed I couldn't. Then they split.
Then they came back for Wireless Festival and I could finally see the light 🥰
Amazing atmosphere, especially as I was with my best friend. The vibe close to the stage was electric.
After that I saw them live in London wherever they played (Brixton Academy and Royal Albert Hall) until they split again.
Hopefully I'll see them live again. I saw them last year in London, but had to miss the Latin America tour and now the European one 😔
When was the first time for you?
ETA: I found a friend's photo from the confetti throwing into the crowd but I can't seem to be able to add it 😔
Damn you, Jarvis and friends 😂
Some posts in the last few days have made me ponder whether we are losing the "art of wandering"?
Just the other day I came across this bit in one of my Substack subscriptions:
"Kids don’t have this problem. They wander. They’ll spend ten minutes looking at a ladybug or pick up a funny-shaped rock like they’ve discovered treasure. Adults don’t really wander anymore. We go places because we need something. Groceries. Dry cleaning. The gym. Work. We don’t walk into bookstores unless we’re buying a specific book. We don’t visit museums unless someone is visiting from out of town. We don’t stroll through gardens because there’s no box to check when we’re done."
I love wandering just for the pleasure of it, but I'm perplexed when nomads, who theoretically would have much more freedom in terms of how they manage their time in one place, wonder about what to do?
What happened to the childlike spirit of discovering places or things just for the sake of it? Maybe it's me romanticising the great writers on their Grand Tours.
In one of my Google peregrinations, I came across this sentence:
"The mere act of absorbing another culture permanently alters a person's emotional expression."
But this was more in terms of people from "colder" backgrounds becoming warmer and more emotionally demonstrative with direct contact with other cultures, like for example Southern Europe or Latin America.
Have you experienced it yourself? I haven't really seen it *that much* in the people I've met. They still seemed overall emotionally cold.
For me it was the opposite also, as I became more expressive when I moved to a "cold" country such as the UK.
(Before anyone starts, don't take living as literally living in one place for 3546 billion years. It can be "living" in one place for a few months etc, long enough to start absorbing the new culture in *some way*).
Because that's what I'm always cautious of, especially when asked for my opinion on something the locals love and identify with and I happen not to like.
In my latest case my opinion on Frida Kahlo.
It might seem like a silly example, but often you don't want to hurt other people's "country identity" even if you express your opinion tactfully.
So has it happened to you to unintentionally offend locals, not necessarily with your opinions, but not knowing local customs etc?
I just came across this quote in a newsletter, and it spoke to me:
“A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” - Lao Tzu
Not wanting to get into the inane traveller vs tourist diatribe, but I liked the sense of freedom and "flow" in this sentence.
How do you see it?
It's rare that this happens but when it does, it feels off-putting especially for women.
I posted on the Mexico City community asking for advice on how to get to the city from the airport at 3 am.
Lots of advice, some contradicting each other, on what to do. I get a DM from someone saying they can pick me up from the airport. A total stranger who knows I'm a woman travelling alone. They don't introduce themselves as a taxi driver. Just "I can pick you up". Obviously I'm not going to go along with it.
But it really reminded me of how trust in strangers' kindness can also become dangerous?
Has anything similar happened to you?