Ginger for Life

Travel is the perfect opportunity for a bit of introspection, so I thought I'd use the bus ride from Seattle to Portland to start designing my "Life List". You know, those big, lofty goals that you want to achieve sometime in your life.

I'm not particularly good at goal-setting, however. This doesn't mean that I don't achieve things in my life, just that I sometimes have trouble identifying what I want specifically. I guess a lot of it is unconscious processing, solving problems in my sleep, and the direction forward evolving organically.

That is to say, my Life List is looking a bit slim for the moment.

One thing that is on there however, is one day getting a ginger cat. I in no way intend to disrespect my precious current cat, living happily with my parents while I roam the world. But one day, one day, I would like a ginger of my own.

It's funny though, I can't see myself settling down and being able to commit to a cat anytime soon, or even medium-term. I wonder if I'll always be an explorer of the world? Surely the dream of a ginger cat is incompatible with another goal on my Life List of living at least a year somewhere in Asia...

Higher Education

Friends, it has been a really long time since I used my brain powers (for good, not evil). I think I can feel my grey matter turning... grey. Not good!

In an effort to tune back in to the "real world", and prepare myself for an inevitable return (sigh.) I thought I'd look into some learning. Why not take a TEFL course when back in Australia? (for those playing at home, Teaching English as a Foreign Language)


More immediately, and realistically, I have been getting into courses through iTunes University. Astronomy? Yes please! The Science of Happiness? Sure! Calculus refresher? How refreshing!

I'm hoping that downloading these courses - and actually doing them - will stem my inevitable decline...


Have you tried any online learning? Any recommendations?

Time to

More so than before, I feel fragmented, I'm not sure where I am and I never know what's an appropriate time to contact friends.

I'm on the West Coast of North America, and while this is closer to Adelaide time (home!) it also doesn't work out a lot of the time (my middle of the day is their early morning).

A lot of my friends are on the East Coast (of America) and Europe, and my heart is in Iceland.

I haven't been sleeping well/enough.

I'm tired.

I'm homesick.

I think it's time to start making my way back.

Book list

What deliciousness are you reading right now?


I just finished Stephen Fry's autobiography on the train back from Niagara Falls this evening, and then started on Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies".

We could even get a little crazy and add each other on Goodreads - what do you think?

I like...

Well well! It's been a while since I did one of these. (Does anybody else feel that this year is racing to a close?)

I like...

I started reading Arcadia just yesterday, and with so much time in parks and airports I'm almost finished! Enjoyed the dreamy first half perhaps more than the second but we shall see where the story leads.

Salty liquorice. I know it's polarising. I think that Scandinavia (maybe Iceland?!) does it best!

Have started watching Twin Peaks again, (when I have my laptop!)

Chili powder - spices up plain hostel meals!

Burying my face into roses any chance I get. Mmm.

Also been obsessing over hydrangea, ever since overdosing on them in Brittany, France. LOVE their vibrant colours, and how they respond to varying pH of their soil.

LOVE my velcro sneakers - such a smart buy for airport security and hostels that have a slipper policy.

I'd love to hear your current likes (loves?) in the comments below!

A Promise

Before I left for my North American Adventure (Hi Halifax! Hi Montréal! Hi Toronto! Hi Chicago etc etc) I promised myself that I would be organised.

That I would research in advance all the things I like to do while traveling: lovely gardens, secondhand bookshops, weird museums, indie gigs, vegetarian restaurants, libraries, science centres...

That I would book my accommodation well before I arrived.

That I would have all my essential documents printed and easy to hand: insurance, itinerary, useful phone numbers.


Instead, I find myself flying in to Montréal at midnight tonight (not entirely my fault; my flight has been significantly delayed) with a hostel bed booked only a few hours ago (I was just going to roll into town and try my luck, but decided against it due to the late hour) and my itinerary is sitting happily on my laptop hard drive, resting at my boyfriend's place in Iceland.


Will I ever learn? This year of hyperactive travel seems to have made me complacent...