Wednesday, 21 July 2021

The Last Flight?





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This post celebrates my 33 years of air travel. As you can see, by many people’s standards, I haven’t travelled that much by plane, so all these visits are so much more vivid and special.

              1.      1988 – Athens, Greece

My Greek holiday was part of my European Grand tour, back in the late 1980s. I flew to Athens to embark on a Greek Island cruising holiday with Club 18-30. This was my plane and boat holiday, rather than my coach, bus or train holiday. I had an accident and got quite sick on this trip.

  

2.      1992- Egypt

In 1992 I travelled to Israel to stay on a kibbutz and from here my family had an interesting, culturally enlightening trip across the Sinai desert to Cairo.

 

3.      1993 – Paris, France

This was my second visit to Paris. We visited the Rodin museum, ate in the Iranian quarter and watched a French film.

 

4.      1996 – Prague, Czech Republic

Prague was the place on mainland Europe I hadn’t managed to visit on my grand tour. This was a lovely holiday and Prague was a beautiful city.

 

5.      1997 – Budapest, Hungary

My partner wanted to visit Budapest, so we did. It was quite hot.

 

6.      1999 – Israel

In 1999 I returned to the kibbutz in Israel to attend a wedding.

 

7.      2005 – The Dordogne, France

The noughties were a bit vague and messy, mainly because motherhood was very overwhelming for me. This holiday is a bit murky. I remember staying in a small French village and enjoying pleasant visits to the surrounding countryside.

 

8.      2017 – New York City, USA

We visited six foreign countries in the 2010s mainly via train and in particular Eurostar. I’m so glad I managed to fly to New York in 2017. It was one of the best weeks of my life.

 

            9.      2021 – Belfast, Northern Ireland 

It took one and a half years to finally visit Northern Ireland and Belfast, because of the pandemic. It was such a relief to get here, thirty-one years after visiting Southern Ireland and Dublin, which I travelled to via train and boat. The holiday didn’t disappoint, I really enjoyed our trip.


Monday, 12 July 2021

Breath and Body


I did my first mindful meditation with my daughter in March 2018. It was the body scan from 'The beginners guide to mindfulness'. Since then I have been a regular meditator. The two basic meditations are breath awareness and the body scan; which really get you into the present moment. Acknowledging that you are essentially a living, breathing body, whatever else is going on in your life; it can keep you grounded in the now, aware of your life essence.

Monday, 5 July 2021

Water Therapy


When I was going through a very bad time in 2018 I had strong feelings that what I wanted to do most was to be by water; by rivers, the canal, by the sea, lakes and ponds. I just wanted to walk, sit or stand by water, to contemplate it and feel myself moving along with the flow of life. I still feel this way, I especially want to be by the sea, especially to live near it. We and the world are mostly water, so I guess this makes sense.