Music !

Hi Readers,

Back in less than a week! This is what being confined to a couch with your leg up for a few weeks results in!

Another light hearted post that won't send you cowering thinking "Here he goes on one of his wayward posts again!"

Like many millions of Spotify users around the world on Friday, I received my "2022 Year In Review". For those who are not Spotify users, it's a summary of your listening habits for the past year on Spotify. The song/s you listened to the most, the artists you listened to the most, music genre etc.

I find it quite interesting to see what I've been playing, and like many others, would have have had a few shocks along the way.

Such as "How did that song end up in my most played list?!!!!

Many might be embarrassed to share their results, but what's the point of that? It's your choice of music to listen to, not a list for others to criticise. Maybe have a few little giggles, but let's not sink to ridicule. Who knows what theirs looks like !!!

I must admit that the song that I played most is not just a favourite of mine, but the kids in my class like it too and we play it a lot before school when we are doing maths games together before the bell goes. A 59 year old and 10/11 year olds sharing the same musical tastes, who'd believe that !!

Spotify then puts all your most listened to songs into a folder for you, and for me that means I'll only play them even more, something that I've been doing since Friday.

So what was my most played song I hear you asking? Or not asking.

You might just have to wait for that. It did get me thinking about the types of music I play, and when I play these songs. More often than not I have the music playing in the background and may be paying minimal attention to it. Other times I may be selecting a specific song for a particular reason. I have songs that cheer me up, relax me, put me to sleep, help me concentrate, inspire me, cause me to reflect or get me up and going. You name it, there's a song for just about every occasion.

And then there are songs that are just good to listen to!

Have I touched a chord here, no pun intended?

What are your go to tunes at different times in your life?

Unfortunately for anyone who has lived with me or been around me long enough they've had to put up with a playlist that extends from the 60's right through to today. You'll never know what is going to come up next, it's just so surprising and unpredictable.

Many would say deplorable!!

I know Jen couldn't fathom so much of what I played, and when we travelled in the car, like many others, it was "Driver's Choice" for the radio or music. I knew I couldn't put her through my music all the time so we'd often alternate each song. That way we each had 50% of good music!! Then we'd do random requests, or try to find cover versions of songs that we both liked. Sometimes we'd try to outdo each other by putting on the worst song that we could find. Jen had a habit of trying to convince me that she actually liked the song she had chosen, but the fact that she couldn't let it play out to the end was always a giveaway.

So, the first clue to my musical tastes from 2022...

So I listened for 20 334 minutes. I can't guarantee that I was focussed on every song as it was playing, as sometimes I just put the music on out of habit. I just can't seem to be able to cope with silence. What else could I have done with all of these minutes instead?

• I could have run 96 marathons at my best marathon time.
• Mown our lawns and trimmed the edges 339 times (That's 6.5 years of mowing time!!)
• Had 4 066 showers, based on my average 5 min showers at the moment.
• Driven from home to school 1 070 times
• Flown to London and back 8 times
• Cleaned my teeth 13 556 times
• Had the same operation on my ankle again 169 times
• Watched 339 editions of the nightly news
• Sat through 226 staff meetings !!!
• Mumbled "FFS" 🤬 406 680 times after bumping my foot against the table as I get up from the couch to get my crutches.

I could go on !!!

But I don't think I'd give up one of these minutes as I just love the music so much. I could listen to a particular song right now and it might take me back to any number of significant or memorable moments in my life. The one song could so many contexts, whereas others might be specifically related to a certain moment in particular.

Does this happen to you, or am I the only weirdo here?

In a previous post I did go into detail about a particular song by Coldplay that really struck a chord with me, and whenever I hear it I end up in the most positive frame of mind.

"Turn Your Magic On"

https://bkerrins63.blogspot.com/2022/10/turn-your-magic-on.html

Before I go and and reveal the depths to which my music tastes sink or soar, can I just share one more example of a song that will stay with me forever I think, and this time next year I'm predicting it will be my most played song. I may have mentioned this in a previous post, so bear with me again.

In Jen's last few weeks she got me to listen to this song with her in her hospital bed, and we played it together most days. It became our song, and it is fitting that it was used for the final song at her funeral. We have always loved this artist, and the words in this song are so poignant. I can listen to it and be uplifted. Other times I hear it and am reduced to tears, but I just love it so much. It just goes to show how much a tune can have an effect on us. I feel it is type of legacy that Jen has left for our family, something to always remember her by.

https://youtu.be/DL7bjuGcRFU

Now back to the big reveal.

You may well be wondering why this song, but upon reflection I just find it uplifting and happy, something that I've needed to search hard for this year.

I was surprised by the other songs at first, but not once I realised that they are happier songs as well. It appears that I must have liked this type of music during a year that at was at most times very bleak.

And in the top 5 artists, does one stand out to you as being distinctly different from the others?

Yep. Andre Rieu.

Not for his mullet, but for the fact that the living area in our house is just glorious in the mornings when the sun comes streaming in. On Saturday mornings we'd have a long lazy breakfast together and put Andre on while we cruised through our eggs on toast, coffees and lazy reading of the papers. It was usually the best time of the week. I'd also put him on while I was writing my school reports as it was less distracting than my other choices.

No surprise here, I think The Boss has topped my list for the past few years. I have been following him for so long, some of my all time favourite songs are attributed to him.

I haven't been able to check how many times I played each song, but I'd be sure that there would be around 100 or so on very high rotation.

Not much else to say Readers, but I'd love to hear how some of you went if you have a Spotify account. And if you don't, you can always just tell us what songs float your boat via the comments tab below.

I might even lose readers after you see my results, as you might be thinking "Yep, he's totally lost the plot now!"

I hope as usual that this post might prompt some level of thinking for you, and take you back to various stages of your life. 

Just because of a song.

Until my next post...

Cheers 😁. 🎶🎶🎶🎶

 Food Is Life !

Hi Readers,

Another post in just under a week, but since I'm couch bound after recent ankle surgery I just have to find ways to keep myself busy.

Hopefully this post will be light hearted and more about reminiscing, so that means you can read on without fear of being challenged with something to reflect on or think about.

As I've been restricted to the couch at home with my leg up for the past four days (only 7 more weeks to go !!!) I've had more than enough time to catch up on schoolwork, watch tv and listen to the radio and music. I need to mix it up or else I'd just go off my nuts. Cabin fever is starting to seep in. I tend to leave the food channel playing on the tv with the sound down while I have the radio on in the background while I do things from the couch. It's amazing what things I've seen being cooked, and it's a great distraction as I can make up in my own mind what they must be saying as they cook the various dishes.

But what it does do is make my mouth water at times when I see some of the dishes presented, especially when they come from places that Jen and I have visited on many of our overseas trips. In some cases I have even seen places that we had actually eaten at as well. 

Then it came to me. So much of our life is defined by food. Who remembers places, events and people due to the food that we associate them with?

When I was in Baker's Delight a week or so ago I saw that they were selling Portugese Tarts. They obviously noticed me drooling, and asked if I'd like to buy some. I think I really did want to buy some, but reneged as I was savouring the memories of eating the real things in Lisbon a couple of years ago. I think I was looking at them not with the desire to buy some and eat them, but with loads of memories flooding back. Not just was I remembering eating them for the first time in Portugal, it then brought back all the fantastic memories of that trip.

 They look the same no matter where you get them from, but there was just something special about eating a Portugese Tart in Portugal.

And what better way to wash them down with Cherry Liqueur dispensed in a chocolate shot cup which you then eat, another Portugese treat.

I must admit I needed to work these off the next day, a bit of food guilt, plus I lined up for more again !!

Now Readers, I'm not for a moment suggesting that you have to fly to the other side of the world to get the idea of what I'm banging on about in this post, but that was the experience that resonates with me so much. I won't go into detail about the roast chestnuts that we also bought that were on sale everywhere. They tasted like hot cardboard, a major disappointment and one which I'm choosing not to write much about.

My focus today is highlighting the good memories that our food experiences ignite.

As I was laying here today I started to think about when I was in Primary school and the occasional sick day was taken. Our Mum was pretty tough if you tried to pull a sickie. She'd often make us gargle salt water, and if you were prepared to go through with that she was often convinced that you were actually sick. Perhaps the salt water gargling made us even sicker!

Anyway, being sick meant you were restricted to the couch, but that also meant she'd make you some chicken soup. And Readers, we're not talking about soup from a tin or packet, but REAL soup. Soup that only a Mum can make. Soup made with love.❤️

The memories of that steaming soup with chunks of chicken. Thick butter that was on the large slices of bread cut from the loaf. Not sliced bread, but thick wedges cut from a loaf. Butter melting into the soup. Wiping the bowl clean with the pillows of bread. 

Divine!!!

I remember when Jen and I were expecting our first child 31 years ago that I said to her "You will now become a fantastic cook!". Somewhat shocked ( and possibly offended) she said "Why?"

"Because all mums are just great cooks". Maybe I thought this because both our Mums were great cooks and I just assumed that being a mum made this happen. Anyway. as long as I knew Jen she was a great cook anyway!!

Food can take us back in time.

Recently I made a sandwich of white bread (I'm usually a multi grain sort of guy) with tomato, cheese and black pepper. As soon as I chowed down these memories came flooding back of the time I worked in a bank in Melbourne back in 1982 in Acland Street in St Kilda. For overseas readers, Acland St is a very cosmopolitan street now, a big tourist attraction in Melbourne. However, back then it was pretty sleazy and yet to discover its popularity. There was a shop near our bank and they made amazing basic sandwiches, and the tomato and cheese with black pepper on white bread became my favourite. Perhaps it also became my release as I just hated my job so much, and the joy I had wandering the streets of St Kilda eating these sandwiches still remains a favourite memory. Every time I make them now I can picture them being made on the crowded bench of that shop in Acland St.

I still think if I had to choose my last meal, this would be it.

Myself and my four brothers were all bundled off to boarding school in our early teens, as were two of my sisters. We still have a great laugh regaling our stories of the food we had dished up, and even now when I eat the same meals, memories of different versions from boarding school come flooding back.

Some foods I just won't eat again, others I have gradually come back to.

For instance, I didn't eat hot dogs for a year or two after boarding school as we just had them so often back then. Even as I write this I can still feel how soft the rolls were and how the hot dogs themselves were usually on the cold side. Also the oversize dollop of sauce that the Marist Brothers would put on them, as they wouldn't trust us to use the dispensers ourselves. Even the sick feeling in the stomach after eating them...It's all flooding back to me now. Why I remember the softness of the rolls is a mystery to me, it's the first thing that came back.

Another staple every Wednesday for lunch were hamburgers, or "Deathies" as we called them, short for "Deathburgers". I suppose the name we gave them explains everything!

What I clearly remember about them was the taste. It was something I'd never tasted before, and never have since. Also the fact that if you tried to open them the buns would tear apart as the cheese was clearly of an industrial strength. Perhaps that was why I could never pinpoint that unique taste, it was locked away somewhere inside amid the swamp of cheese and other 'things' that were in there too. I've never been one for Macca's burgers, and I put this down to my experiences with 'Deathies' at boarding school.

Finally, my last boarding school memory ( there are so many more, these resonate most)

We were often given ham steaks, and if there was ever a more inappropriate name for a food, this was it.Think of a tin of Spam.

I swear the ham steaks looked and tasted like they were cut from a lump of Spam.

But Readers, don't despair or feel sorry for us. The ham steaks were usually accompanied with mashed potato ( does 50% lumps still qualify it as mashed?) and, wait for it, a ring of pineapple. It must have been their acknowledgement to Hawaiian cuisine.

These things were salty and rarely looked forward to, but when it's the only thing on offer one has to go for it. Suffice to say I don't think I've ever eaten a 'ham steak' since leaving boarding school 41 years ago.

While I am bagging out these boarding school classics, they still revive so many great memories that we can laugh about now. Even seeing them in shops or stalls now still makes me recall those days with joy.

I can relate so many moments in my life just by thinking of different foods, as there might have been a special significance attached to the moment I ate them.

For example, I have eaten oysters so many times, but there is just one particular wedding that I went to and ate so many, that I'm now wary of them. This one night eclipses all the other times I've enjoyed oysters. If I eat oysters now, that one night straight away comes back to me.

Drinks.

Just like me, I'm sure that you all have memories, good and bad that you've had with different drinks.

A few months ago for Father's Day, our 3 sons presented me with a classic bottle of Bundaberg Rum, as they know I love it. But this wasn't always the case.

My first experience with it when I was about 18 was so bad that I didn't touch it for more than 20 years in the belief that it and I just didn't get on well together. Until one night when I tried it again, sensibly this time and found that I really liked it. This bottle they gave me is treated with such respect that I don't even mix it with Coke, I just have little shots every now and then that I sip and savour.

However, even now when I sip it and enjoy it, I can still remember the taste of it when it just made me feel sick. I remember where I was, who I was with, and just how sick I felt the next day. I also remember the surprise I got so many years later when I tried it again and thought "How much have I been missing!!"

Similar experiences occurred with Southern Comfort, something which I now love.

Jen always tried me to get into wine, as she loved it but never had anyone to drink it with at home, so she was always on her own when it came to wine. Luckily, all our close friends love wine so she could indulge with them.

We have so many bottles of really good wine still in our house as one of my best mates is a winemaker, and by all accounts his wine is some of the best going around.

I can't be the judge of his wine, for if you gave me a glass of the best and the worst wine I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I've tried a number of times to "like it", it just doesn't work. After Jen died, we had some friends around so I opened a bottle of his best wine for them to drink, as I wouldn't be drinking it. They insisted that I have a small sample as we toasted Jen, so I put some in a shot glass, drank it, but had to have a quick beer chaser as I just can't handle the taste. I'm sure Jen would have been laughing.

My great friend Raj with his Hennings Wine label.

Any of our friends who have tried his wine swear by it, and he doesn't get offended that I can't stand it!! He's just the best.

I could go on and on about how I can relate different foods to different periods, places and people in my life. Sometimes these memories surface out of the blue even when I get a sniff of a particular dish.

How about you?

What dishes take YOU back in time?

Which ones bring back the best or worse times and events in your life? Hopefully you are only focussing on the happiest of memories.

As I finish, I'm starting to think of our 3 boys and what memories from their upbringing that they'll recall most when they are older. I know they always joke about my concoctions with pasta that only I have been game enough to eat. Whenever I offer them a taste of my "Pasta Surprise", it's always met with a polite decline. Smart thinking boys!

But they are memories, and memories are forever, and I hope that when they are my age they'll continue to laugh about, joke about and recall with love many of the things we ate together, where were were, who we were with or what we were doing.

Just another ramble Readers, nothing deep and meaningful to reflect on, but hopefully something that will enable you to take time to be calm and think back over the significant moments in your lives. 

With food.

Until my next post...

Cheers 😁

 Small Habits, Big Difference

Hi Readers,

Not as big a break in between posts this time, that may be a blessing for many of you! 

Then again, if my waffle bored you, then you wouldn't come back and read it, unless you were a masochist!! 🤔

There could be a number of posts in the next week or so, sorry about that. You see, I've been to the doctors a few times since the passing of Jen, and it appears that I have a few things that need fixing.

At the moment I'm laying in a hospital bed going nuts as I am unable to leave my bed and am pretty much immobile due to being hooked up to different things.

I've had a dodgy ankle for a few years and finally it has been seen to, hence this hospital stay. That's the good news, but the bad news is that I need to keep weight off it for around 12 weeks. That will drive me around the bend, but when putting it in perspective I have zero to worry about. At least I'll get better.

Hopefully in a few months I'll be up and about with more confidence and less pain.

Now, to the title of this post..."Small Habits, Big Difference"

Where did this come from, and what on earth is he banging on about today??

Since I was away so much over the past 12 months, I read a number of inspirational books, and I think this one is going to resonate with me a lot too. Thanks to my sister Kate for this one, and also to the many others who have offered books to me to try while I'm off work. 

Again!

I'm only 20 pages in and already I have taken so much from it. I'd never heard about the book or the author, but once I got started I soon began to realise he's got some serious cred in his field, is well recognised worldwide and explains himself very well.

Wow. I've nearly got more pictures than words, I better get down to it!

The basic premise is that small habits make big differences.

I'm sure Readers that we all want to make changes in our lives, but we always have reasons to not follow through.

I'm too busy.

It's too hard.

It just won't work.

Let someone else take care of it.

It just won't last.

etc.

As in previous posts, I mention a lot about mindset, and trying to find the positive in every situation. Believe me when I say I've tried to maintain this over the past 12 months, no matter how hard it is at times. 

To make positive changes just by adopting or altering small habits can make a world of difference, and I hope you can go with me on this, or at least stop and think about it.

James Clear points out that too often we underestimate the power of making small improvements, and our focus goes towards making big improvements that involve large and sustained actions.

Who remembers making New Year's Eve resolutions!!!!! How are you going with them now??

We place undue pressure on ourselves to achieve these lofty goals with the end result being we just pull the pin completely.

The suggestion in the book is to make 1 % changes rather than big changes. Why only 1 % ?

It doesn't really seem noticeable, but it can be more meaningful, especially as it is easier to maintain in the long run. What starts as a small win can have so much potential to expand into something more. He provides his readers with a mathematical formula to say how by doing something 1 % better each day, by the end of 1 year you are 37% better. I won't bore you with the formula, even I have trouble going over it, but I love the premise.

He compares it to banking, so that captured my interest, having once worked in a bank before teaching, and now controlling our finances that Jen set up so well.

Compound interest happens when little amounts continue to multiply when added to an established amount. The same applies to our small habits. We add them to what we are already doing, and day by day the impact may be trivial, yet in the long term can become enormous.

The same could be said about bad habits, so which one should we direct our endeavours towards?

Think of some habits that you currently have, that have perhaps been established for years. Are there some that you are proud of? Not so proud of?

I sure do, and over the past few years I have tried to eradicate one in particular (Yep, I hear you all, "You've got plenty more you need to work on"!!)

I was always one to get frustrated in traffic and would often swear or mumble (or louder)  under my breath at the slightest indiscretions. Even if it was being struck in traffic.

Until I heard someone on the radio one day say "Remember, when you complain about the traffic, YOU are the traffic too". Changed my mindset immediately, and now whenever I find myself starting to vent I just remember that quote and I'm calm again.

A small habit that I try to practice regularly that has resulted in long term benefits.

I've been ringing lots of banks etc this year getting things changed since Jen died, and inevitably I get put on hold for ages, just like everyone else. When I eventually speak to a real human, I take the nice and polite approach and it works wonders. In most cases, it's not the fault of the person I'm talking to that there was a long wait, that is due to decisions made by people superior to them who don't cop the flak from customers like me or you. I even ask if they cop abuse, and it's like they are just waiting for it to start from me, and when it's clear that I'm not going to be like that the help increases markedly.

And despite the wait, I get off the phone feeling so much better too.

Which one are you???????

We often dismiss these small changes in the moment because their significance is not always apparent to us on the day. Maybe not even after 3 days, or a week. This slow pace of change makes it easy to give up on them.

Let's compare it to a bad habit. If we keep doing it day after day, it becomes noticeable, and potentially a problem. That's when we need to do something about it, so then we are hopefully establishing a commitment to a better habit. The accumulation of so many bad habits can result in so many things that can affect us personally, socially and professionally, so is the choice being made for us?

Try ruling a straight line from the top of a page to the bottom of a page.

Now do it again, but make it just the tiniest bit crooked. At first you don't know that it's out of whack, but by the end of the line...whoa!!

Similarly, if a brickie put each brick out of whack by just the slightest amount or degree, imagine the overall result.

That's what I'm trying to get at Readers, that by just trying to be a little better each day, over time the changes and benefits can be much better than what we ever expected.

So, like most of my posts, I hope that something I've mentioned might strike a chord with you and just cause any level of thinking.

You might be thinking I'm taking too much pain relief here in hospital and am losing the plot again. You could be right!!

But hopefully, I just hope that you might stop and reflect on your various habits and identify the ones you are proud of, the ones you'd like to change and possibly some you'd like to experiment with.

And remember, no-one else may even notice what you are doing. You could be trying better at something every day and only YOU notice the difference. That's okay, because although others will benefit also, it's YOU that matters.

And finally, I keep lots of sayings, slogans and posters for self motivation and to use in future posts, and this one has been sitting on my computer desktop for ages, and was always up in my office when I had one.

And this is probably part of the reason why I am where I am right now !!!!!!

I always love the responses or questions that you can leave via the link at the bottom of each post. I'll have lots of time to write in the coming weeks so any banter is welcome.

Until my next post...

Cheers 😁

 The Purest Joy of Travel

Hi Readers,

Once again, a bit of time in between posts, but I won't bore you with excuses.

Believe me when I say I hate it when I have some ideas to waffle on about but just don't make the time to do it.

Take note that I chose to say I don't MAKE the time rather than say I don't HAVE the time.

We all have the same amount of time in a day, whether we run the country or teach a Gr 5 class. It's how we use that time that differs.

Obviously my time management could use a kick in the pants!!!

I was watching a doco last night about Michael Palin, the ex-member of Monty Python.

For those quite younger than me you should probably google "Monty Python" to see where I'm coming from.

Basically, he's an English actor and sketch comedy team member.

Since moving on from acting in Monty Python, he has moved on to producing a wide range of travel documentaries that are just fantastic as they differ from the usual ones that look more like an advertisement than a doco.

He does go to many of the mainstream places and tourist destinations, but it is more of the experiences he has there and the more obscure places that he goes to that capture my interest.

In this show last night, it was pretty much a doco about his doco's, in particular one where he attempted to travel around the world in 80 days without using any air travel. He was following the footsteps described in the book "Around the World in 80 Days".

And this is where the title of this post comes from.

"The Purest Joy of Travel"

He explains where he has experienced this on a number of occasions in his travels, and they needn't have been major events or significant occurrences. Sometimes they were just the purest of interactions with a total stranger in the street. Other times it was experiencing nature, or even just losing something and then realising how purile it would have been to fuss about the loss.

Haven't we all experienced things like this? It doesn't mean you have to travel overseas to experience the things that enable you to experience the purest joy of travel. You might have experienced it taking a local holiday, travelling to a nearby town or just walking around the block.

Where I'm coming from is that we are just so absorbed at times in getting somewhere that we miss so many things along the way.

I watched Palin show a worker on a boat (an old dow) how to use a Walkman (remember those?) as he spent 6 days crossing the Persian Gulf. This seems so standard to us, but watching someone experience it for the first time, but in such a caring way was beautiful to watch, and this was one of the experiences that Palin referred to as pure joy.

When they said their farewells a few days later you could tell how much of a connection had been made between these two men from totally different environments.

I just checked and the name of the program is "Michael Palin, Travels of a Lifetime" and you can catch it on SBS On Demand.

Well worth it !!

After watching him experience little moments of pure joy, that ended up being the more significant parts of his trips, it got me wondering.

Back in about 2014 Jen and I were sitting at home one lazy Sunday afternoon and we saw something on TV about an overseas destination. One of us said something like "We should do an overseas trip" and a few hours later we were a few thousand dollars lighter and had a trip booked to Europe, our first overseas trip together.

What struck us the most on this trip was that we noticed so many people not much older than us struggling to get around in many of the places we visited. We then decided that would not be us, and instead of waiting until retirement to do our travels we spent the next ten years doing a number of trips overseas together and alone while we could, spending the boy's inheritance!!!

How lucky were we that we did this, because losing Jen back in June this year meant that if we had waited until retirement it would never have happened at all. I'm just so thankful that she got to do so much before she was unable to, and looking back now it is the simple things on our trips that still tend to have left us with the greatest memories.

If, and when I travel again, I know that she will still be with me experiencing it just as much as I will be.

Pure joys of travel memories.

Let me share one.

We were on a train in Italy somewhere, and we could never remember where we were going, but we always remember what happened on the train that day.

We shared a little cabin with another couple roughly our age, or slightly younger. We gradually got talking and we discovered that they were from Israel and were on a similar trip to us. It was just wonderful to share travel tips about where we'd been and where we were going. They also had 3 sons, and to share tales about what it was like raising 3 sons in different parts of the world was such a memorable experience. 

Their tales about hearing rockets being fired into their neighbourhood absolutely chilled us, but to them it was just a part of life to accept. Similarly, they were shocked to hear about how common it was to experience poisonous things like snakes and spiders, and that kangaroos were viewed more as a pest at times rather than a tourist attraction!

We just talked for hours about everyday life, but while there was so much in common, there was also so much that we found hard to comprehend and accept.

We learnt more from them in a few hours than what we could ever hope to experience in days and days of travel.

And speaking of trains, it was always a contest between the two of us to get a photo of the other asleep on a train. I still have no idea where this came from, but whenever I'd be just about to catch a snap of Jen asleep, she would magically wake up the moment I'd try to get the photo. Needless to say, she got heaps of me !!

This is just another example of the things we remember from our trips. For sure we remember the famous landmarks, but it was the things we did more than the things we saw that really stuck with us.

Just about my only 'sleeping photo'

And just as quickly as I took it, she wakes up!!

I can't even remember where this photo was taken, but I remember the moment. Another time on our travels that we always recalled with joy.

And some more random snaps that don't show a famous place, but to us they always brought back the memories we spoke the most about.

Meeting our son and his now partner in Venice, the first time we met Phoebe. 

A simple bike ride around the city of Lucca in Italy. We got sooooo lost !!!

I touched the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in Portugal, something I always do when I'm in a new country.

Speaking of Portugal, eating a REAL Portugese tart in Lisbon. Then another, and another...you get the picture.

A simple cuppa in Barcelona watching the world go by.

 

We always walk the streets mindlessly, just loving where we are and never forgetting how lucky we have been to do it.

Just sitting at a train station, watching the locals and feeling like one of them.

Well readers, as you can see, we have gathered hundreds of photos on all of our trips, but more importantly, so many more memories. As I look at each of these photos, and even more that I didn't include, so many joyful memories keep flooding back, and to me, that is the pure joy of travel.

I've often taken photos as I've travelled around Bendigo and its surrounds, as this is where I grew up, and these photos only remind me more of how lucky I have been to have grown up where I did.

This post has nothing about some of my inner thoughts about what has occurred this year, so that's probably a relief to all of you who take the time to read my ramblings. 

Are you aware of how much of your day you have just neglected by reading this far ????

All I ask is that you just take a few moments as you drive to work, or have a shower or as you cook dinner to reflect on the things about your travels in life that bring you the greatest joy.

Hopefully you'll find yourself with a little smile at the end! ☺️

The purest joy of travel.

Until my next post,

Cheers 😁