What a year this has been, up, downs and even the occasional sideways/off at a tangent thing.
Life for me in 2009 has been exciting, boring, surprising, disappointing and brilliant in fairly equal measure, but the good always outweighs the bad, the last half of this year was beginning to look like the end of a long line of disasters, that would never stop, then, with a bit of persistence and a determined nature, things suddenly changed around. I’m not out the woods yet, but can see a clear path.
Next year is starting to look really exciting, for Ruth and me, we have big plans to travel around the world, we want to see places that interest us, before we get to old to enjoy it.
I have travelled quite a lot when I was a bit younger, I loved it, seeing new places, meeting new people, trying new foods. The world is getting smaller all the time, soon anyone with a bit of cash will be able to invade the most remote places, I want to be able to see some of them, before people start throwing their rubbish on the floor.
We are not getting any younger, almost every month now I hear of someone who has died without doing anything with their life, this morning was no different, an old acquaintance from school, not a friend as such, died over the weekend, he had lived most of his life in Battersea South London, as far as I am aware he never left England in his 56 years, always went to Devon for his holidays, fair enough if he was happy with that, but I’m not,
I want to experience the scenery in New Zealand, which is as far as I can go from where I live now, and still be on this planet. I want to see where the Indian and South Atlantic oceans meet, I want to ride the train across Canada, I want to ride a motorbike across Europe again and see how the ride would have changed in 20 years.
I want to watch the sun set on foreign lands, I want to see it rise again elsewhere, I want to understand this planet that we live on, I want to feel it.
Hopefully next year we will do this.
I hope you all will be able to follow your dreams too.
We love you all!
Merry Christmas
Jake and Ruth.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Safe, safer and safer still...
Has life passed you by? Do you feel that you have missed out on something?
A few days ago I was chatting to a bloke at work, he has spent his life working between Edinburgh and Kings cross, yet has never really gone outside of the stations. He is in his late 50's, he lives in Stevenage, goes on holiday to Torbay and thats it. He has never been out of the country! While seemingly happy, he did say he feels that he has missed out a bit, a bit?
When I suggested he try going abroad for his next holiday he changed the subject, muttering something about not like foreign food, so you wont be going on the curry night next week? Oh yes he will, he loves curry. Go figure. Ruths daughter Amy is 19, so far she has been to India, Germany, Australia and next week flies to Canada for 3 months, all on her own. She has seen more of the world than I had by the time I was 25 and I like travelling! We cant say that older people get set in their ways, I know loads of people of retirement age that travel all over the world. Many years ago I offered to take my father to Canada (he was Canadian) to see his fathers grave, he refused to go because my mother would not go, I know this upset him a lot, Mum totally refused to leave the shores of england, we never did find out why as she would not talk about it, I think it had something to do with the war. My dad was in the army and was one of the few who was abroad for almost the whole 6 years, he travelled everywhere ending up in Burma.
I do not understand why some people these days do not travel, its perfectly safe these days,
anywhere you want to go will have some sort of package deal
The downside of this is that there is no new lands to explore, where are the modern day explorers, 50-60 years ago the world was full of explorers, on this planet and the moon.
One of my ambitions was to set foot where no other human had stood, not much chance of that now, have we got to a point where it is easier to take a package holiday to lands which were once inaccessable to ordinary people, than make our own way? Health and safety has made places that were dangerous, nice and safe, we are wrapped in cotton wool and herded around in cosseted little groups, I hate that, I ride a big fast motorbike because I want excitement, I want adrenaline. I could not live in a closed off little world.
We are slowly being pushed into a world where rebellion is rare, where conformity is the norm, where to do something different is seen as unacceptable. And what a sad world it is.
A few days ago I was chatting to a bloke at work, he has spent his life working between Edinburgh and Kings cross, yet has never really gone outside of the stations. He is in his late 50's, he lives in Stevenage, goes on holiday to Torbay and thats it. He has never been out of the country! While seemingly happy, he did say he feels that he has missed out a bit, a bit?
When I suggested he try going abroad for his next holiday he changed the subject, muttering something about not like foreign food, so you wont be going on the curry night next week? Oh yes he will, he loves curry. Go figure. Ruths daughter Amy is 19, so far she has been to India, Germany, Australia and next week flies to Canada for 3 months, all on her own. She has seen more of the world than I had by the time I was 25 and I like travelling! We cant say that older people get set in their ways, I know loads of people of retirement age that travel all over the world. Many years ago I offered to take my father to Canada (he was Canadian) to see his fathers grave, he refused to go because my mother would not go, I know this upset him a lot, Mum totally refused to leave the shores of england, we never did find out why as she would not talk about it, I think it had something to do with the war. My dad was in the army and was one of the few who was abroad for almost the whole 6 years, he travelled everywhere ending up in Burma.
I do not understand why some people these days do not travel, its perfectly safe these days,
anywhere you want to go will have some sort of package deal
The downside of this is that there is no new lands to explore, where are the modern day explorers, 50-60 years ago the world was full of explorers, on this planet and the moon.
One of my ambitions was to set foot where no other human had stood, not much chance of that now, have we got to a point where it is easier to take a package holiday to lands which were once inaccessable to ordinary people, than make our own way? Health and safety has made places that were dangerous, nice and safe, we are wrapped in cotton wool and herded around in cosseted little groups, I hate that, I ride a big fast motorbike because I want excitement, I want adrenaline. I could not live in a closed off little world.
We are slowly being pushed into a world where rebellion is rare, where conformity is the norm, where to do something different is seen as unacceptable. And what a sad world it is.
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