Mental Migration and Substance Reads
LIFE
My week finishes the way it started - in a hotel room with a view in the city.
I'm seven floors up with a view of traffic, city lights and Hotel Jen.
I find myself once again resisting the heralding call of the mini-fridge with all its sugary splendor and delight. Instead I will tell you about the books of substance I have been reading.
I have been reading I Am Malala. Its a really courageous read about a young woman and her family striving to make a difference in a world that is falling down around them and campaigning for girls to have proper educational opportunities while experiencing set-backs under the eye of the Taliban.
What I learnt from this book is resilience in the face of adversity. To have faith in God when you cannot see beyond the next moment.
And having strong conviction with no compromise.
The next book is called A Year Of Living Danishly when a London journalist and her husband have an opportunity of a life-time to move to Denmark.
Its like having a coffee-date with a friend who is regaling you in a constant monologue about their awesome over-seas adventure and you are sitting there silently saying 'Jelly, jelly, jelly!" And let me tell you, there is some tummy-crunching stories in there! I have giggle-snorted my way through chapters. Reading this book made me want to pack a bag with A. in tow and go somewhere - just pack the essentials at a moments notice and go to the air-port and get a plane to Singapore - then Singapore to anywhere. A couple of years ago before The Accident A. had just got home from spending Christmas and New Year overseas and told me. "I'm thinking of doing something - would you be up for living overseas for awhile?"
I wanted to. I really did. Still do. It just hadn't been the right time. I had people depending on me and to be honest, I was afraid of the unknown. Still am.
I think sometimes the 'me' in my mind is so much braver than me in real life!
Last Sunday night, A. came back from Sydney - it was shy of 11:30pm and I had just started reading A Year Of Living Danishly. "If you could live anywhere, where would you go?" I asked him.
"Guess."
"London?"
"No."
"Scotland?"
"No."
"Tell me?"
"Guess."
"Ireland?"
"No."
"Just tell me!"
"No."
"Italy."
"No."
I considered my answers more carefully.
"Japan?"
"No."
"Malaysia?"
"Close."
"I'm tired! Just tell me!"
"We talked about going there, remember?"
Then it clicked. "Seoul!"
"Yes!"
Seoul. South Korea.
The guessing game was over and I went to sleep.
I have spent the few days mentally migrating between Denmark and The Swat Valley.
Oneday I'll go for real. I googled the Swat because I was curious about where Malala had lived - it looks like heaven on earth.
When I was in my late teens I saw this movie called Cake, a rom-com about a foot-loose travel writer who came home to face her roots and I thought "Travel and writing." That sounds like my cup of tea!
With my 10 year high school graduation anniversary looming like a vulture, I read the words of my seventeen year old self in the journal I had kept. What seventeen year old me did was make a few fashion felonies, fell in and out of love with an internet relationship and basically changed her mind constantly about what she wanted to do to fill on the 9-5 slot on weekdays in the real world - a counsellor, a sex-therapist (because Barbara Striesand made it look so awesome in Meet The Fockers and back then I was kicking New Age rage), I wanted to be a free-lance writer and volunteer for Unicef - yep, seventeen year old me didn't have a clue!
And twenty-seven year old me can look back and laugh at it now. And thats the blessing about time, it goes faster so that you can look back with grace and appreciation for what was so that you could be in this very moment.
LOVE
Today was my first day of annual leave.
A. got the day off so this morning we got an Uber into town, dropped off our bags at our hotel room and walked the short distance to Queens Street Mall. We ate lunch, went to IPlay and spent an hour milling around the arcade finding games to play and we tag-teamed and faced off. As we walk across the road A. says. "Lets get drinks before we go to Time-Zone tomorrow!" I picture myself drinking a Rum & Cola. "Hell yeah!" I say and we high-five before we hit Dymocks - I love that store because I can smell the fresh scent of new books. A. makes himself comfortable on a one-seater couch and I prowl down the crime genre aisle until I find what I am looking for which is Kathy Reichs. I read the blurb on two paper backs and decide I can't leave without either of them.
Death Du Jour and Break No Bones.
A. said he couldn't believe I was so quick - I am known to make book shop visits drag out with indecision but when a book series catches my eye I want more, crave more, get more.
And Kathy Reichs is awesome - thanks to her and Temperance Brennan I won five points for trivia!
& THE EVERYDAY
I am caught in the thrall of The Gilmore Girls craze and am halfway through Season 7. I don't know whether to be happy or sad. Happy that after seven long seasons that its ending or sad that I'll know the ending of something great.
But with Gilmore Girls complete, I can turn my attention back to writing. Its been ages since I obsessed over a story of my own creation!
So the next four days will be pretty chill, relaxing walks, watching the tide drift in and out at the Gold Coast and a sea-food buffet! I have been craving mussels, prawns and oysters for weeks!
Beach. Food. Two of my favourite things rolled into one lovely package!
Adios.
- Sarah x
My week finishes the way it started - in a hotel room with a view in the city.
I'm seven floors up with a view of traffic, city lights and Hotel Jen.
I find myself once again resisting the heralding call of the mini-fridge with all its sugary splendor and delight. Instead I will tell you about the books of substance I have been reading.
I have been reading I Am Malala. Its a really courageous read about a young woman and her family striving to make a difference in a world that is falling down around them and campaigning for girls to have proper educational opportunities while experiencing set-backs under the eye of the Taliban.
What I learnt from this book is resilience in the face of adversity. To have faith in God when you cannot see beyond the next moment.
And having strong conviction with no compromise.
The next book is called A Year Of Living Danishly when a London journalist and her husband have an opportunity of a life-time to move to Denmark.
Its like having a coffee-date with a friend who is regaling you in a constant monologue about their awesome over-seas adventure and you are sitting there silently saying 'Jelly, jelly, jelly!" And let me tell you, there is some tummy-crunching stories in there! I have giggle-snorted my way through chapters. Reading this book made me want to pack a bag with A. in tow and go somewhere - just pack the essentials at a moments notice and go to the air-port and get a plane to Singapore - then Singapore to anywhere. A couple of years ago before The Accident A. had just got home from spending Christmas and New Year overseas and told me. "I'm thinking of doing something - would you be up for living overseas for awhile?"
I wanted to. I really did. Still do. It just hadn't been the right time. I had people depending on me and to be honest, I was afraid of the unknown. Still am.
I think sometimes the 'me' in my mind is so much braver than me in real life!
Last Sunday night, A. came back from Sydney - it was shy of 11:30pm and I had just started reading A Year Of Living Danishly. "If you could live anywhere, where would you go?" I asked him.
"Guess."
"London?"
"No."
"Scotland?"
"No."
"Tell me?"
"Guess."
"Ireland?"
"No."
"Just tell me!"
"No."
"Italy."
"No."
I considered my answers more carefully.
"Japan?"
"No."
"Malaysia?"
"Close."
"I'm tired! Just tell me!"
"We talked about going there, remember?"
Then it clicked. "Seoul!"
"Yes!"
Seoul. South Korea.
The guessing game was over and I went to sleep.
I have spent the few days mentally migrating between Denmark and The Swat Valley.
Oneday I'll go for real. I googled the Swat because I was curious about where Malala had lived - it looks like heaven on earth.
When I was in my late teens I saw this movie called Cake, a rom-com about a foot-loose travel writer who came home to face her roots and I thought "Travel and writing." That sounds like my cup of tea!
With my 10 year high school graduation anniversary looming like a vulture, I read the words of my seventeen year old self in the journal I had kept. What seventeen year old me did was make a few fashion felonies, fell in and out of love with an internet relationship and basically changed her mind constantly about what she wanted to do to fill on the 9-5 slot on weekdays in the real world - a counsellor, a sex-therapist (because Barbara Striesand made it look so awesome in Meet The Fockers and back then I was kicking New Age rage), I wanted to be a free-lance writer and volunteer for Unicef - yep, seventeen year old me didn't have a clue!
And twenty-seven year old me can look back and laugh at it now. And thats the blessing about time, it goes faster so that you can look back with grace and appreciation for what was so that you could be in this very moment.
LOVE
Today was my first day of annual leave.
A. got the day off so this morning we got an Uber into town, dropped off our bags at our hotel room and walked the short distance to Queens Street Mall. We ate lunch, went to IPlay and spent an hour milling around the arcade finding games to play and we tag-teamed and faced off. As we walk across the road A. says. "Lets get drinks before we go to Time-Zone tomorrow!" I picture myself drinking a Rum & Cola. "Hell yeah!" I say and we high-five before we hit Dymocks - I love that store because I can smell the fresh scent of new books. A. makes himself comfortable on a one-seater couch and I prowl down the crime genre aisle until I find what I am looking for which is Kathy Reichs. I read the blurb on two paper backs and decide I can't leave without either of them.
Death Du Jour and Break No Bones.
A. said he couldn't believe I was so quick - I am known to make book shop visits drag out with indecision but when a book series catches my eye I want more, crave more, get more.
And Kathy Reichs is awesome - thanks to her and Temperance Brennan I won five points for trivia!
& THE EVERYDAY
I am caught in the thrall of The Gilmore Girls craze and am halfway through Season 7. I don't know whether to be happy or sad. Happy that after seven long seasons that its ending or sad that I'll know the ending of something great.
But with Gilmore Girls complete, I can turn my attention back to writing. Its been ages since I obsessed over a story of my own creation!
So the next four days will be pretty chill, relaxing walks, watching the tide drift in and out at the Gold Coast and a sea-food buffet! I have been craving mussels, prawns and oysters for weeks!
Beach. Food. Two of my favourite things rolled into one lovely package!
Adios.
- Sarah x
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