The initial working space…
The blog : we’re 55 entries young:)
It is quite amazing how time flies, and it has only struck me today that already 6 months have passed since I uploaded my first blog entry. It is good to have this task master, as it forces me to sit down and concentrate a few times every week on what I will write about. Of course I have opted to present two different streams of contents, one dealing with South America, the other with my experiences in Thailand. Looking back at the first few entries of the blog, I wonder if I was too ambitious (I assume most bloggers are when they start out). Writing two entries each week should not be that difficult (most people would say), after all, it amounts to a mini-essay that all English literature students are asked to write nearly every week, approximately 2,000 words. But it is not as easy as it sounds, particularly when the demands of work and a social life (apparently I have one, or so a friend tells me), keep popping up every time I want to sit down and do some ‘writing’. There is not only the recall of events that needs to be accurate, but also all the place names and times and any other incidental information that needs to be checked, and it is all time consuming. Then of course there are the moments when I will sneak a peek at my phone and see that I have missed a dozen or so messages from friends….. But the writing has also been rewarding, as it brings back memories that lead to still other thoughts, and in a way the stories have allowed me to relive some of the best moments of my life (some of which I will not commit to paper or the digital equivalent).
World heritage site in Thailand
Travel and the couch potato
I look back at the first few entries, and realize that I said I was going to write about health and fitness and travel and fun stuff – I know I have done the travel bit, and I hope the entries have been interesting, maybe informative and dare I say ‘entertaining’ perhaps? I was at first interested in pushing people in their 40s or 50s to get out and get active, to explore, to travel, to make life changes, to enjoy life instead of hoarding and keeling over at the age of 60. In a way that is still my intention, but I also said I was not a life coach or a motivational speaker, so I am not screaming and shouting from the rooftops, I am simply telling stories, and I still hope that by reading them, people will get the urge to get up and do something different, try something different, be adventurous, or at the very least, leave the comfort of their home town or city and travel to the capital of the next province or state or whatever to explore. There’s more to sex than the missionary position, so there’s more to life than sitting on a couch.
Uluru, or Ayers Rock, central Australia.
Eating crow
I also said I hated going to the gym, and that I hadn’t made it a regular thing – sometimes we must swallow our own words. I started this year, not as a new year’s resolution but out of dissatisfaction with my sedentary lifestyle, by going down to the fitness room at the condominium and walking roughly 5 or 6 kilometers every day or two. That turned into stationary jogging when a good friend boasted that he could easily run 10.5 km in a mini-marathon (he is 41, and I am 5X) – it was too much of a red flag to a bull, and it resulted in me joining a mini-marathon. Somehow the fitness bug caught me during that event, and I have finally figured out why it is that all those people show up so religiously at gyms or enter sporting events – they are competing against themselves (and yes, against everyone else as well), but most importantly, they are pushing themselves to see how much ‘more’ they can do (there is also the narcissism factor, but I won’t get into that). That’s all great, and for a while I also got on that band wagon, pushing my body probably too quickly. I had to slow down, and then realized that it isn’t necessary to see how far and fast I can push my body, or to compete with myself; I have already won. It is now simply a matter of going to the gym to get rid of the feeling of lethargy, to get rid of daily office stress, and to enjoy a few hours every day where I am not glued to a computer or other device, and can let my mind wander freely or go blank for a while. So I must eat crow I suppose, but then again, I feel the better for it.
The world is too beautiful not to take time out to enjoy its many wonders. Protect it well, it’s the only place we have.
What does all of this have to do with the blog you may ask. I am just taking stock and reflecting, and looking forward to the next 6 months of stories. I left you with a tale about my first trip to Laos in my previous post under the Thailand track, and I took you as far as Cusco in Peru and a beautiful, quiet plaza bathed in evening light, with the city spread out in front of me. I suppose that vista is a suitable point for this entry, as that view left me mesmerized, and reflective. At the same time, the swing into Laos marks a new direction for stories from and about Thailand. My Thai language editor told me, “no more cows, weird animals for food, khao man gai or khao kha moo; write something interesting!”
I will try my best!
