Discovering Indonesia

I love word association to test the capacity of thoughts of most people.

Ask them a word such as ‘Indonesia’ and see the results.

Indonesia – Bali

Indonesia – Earth-quake

Indonesia – Tsunami.

Most people THINK that they know Indonesia, but try the same word recognition test on a recently found group of friends of mine and this is what you’ll get

Indonesia – Jakarta

Indonesia - Waterfalls

Indonesia – Miss Padang 2012

Indonesia - Trip of a lifetime

The latter proves to me that not only have my new friends seen a different side to Indonesia the country but that they have experienced the country, not merely heard about it, not merely visiting it, and not just done the normal well trodden tourist destinations.

Indeed the “trip of a lifetime” as expressed by one of my friends, was an unplanned and unexpected event for us all. A request by the Indonesian Embassy in Bahrain and fully sponsored by The Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, to join them on a Familiarisation Trip to experience Indonesia and report on what we found, was out of the blue, a nice surprise but one that had expectations of seeing the usual government sponsored sites and events.

Ten people joined the tour. Ten unknown, unrelated strangers who just ‘clicked’ from the outset, made this trip easy from the start.  Travel can be laborious at times, but accompanied by like minds, friends and enjoyable companions the journey is made easier.

Indonesia 1.01 is this;

-population 240 million people,

-currency Rupiah,

-capital Jakarta with 12 million people and traffic which can congest quickly.

Indeed as per the original word association Indonesia has seen its share of trouble, earthquakes, tsunamis and yes Bali is a popular destination. But to relegate this country to just these issues is not knowing anything about Indonesia at all.

After a week in Indonesia I can tell you honestly and from experience the following ;

Indonesia is amazing, fun and diverse in more ways than I think I have experienced in many countries.

I have now visited 82 countries on this rock we call Earth and Indonesia amazed me like few others. It has everything; ancient temples dating back millennia, provincial traditions retained and honored, modern metropolises and sensational rarely explored wilderness. Whether you are looking for a fast paced stop off, quiet vacation, shopping trip, business trip or eco friendly exploration, you will find it in this country of 17,000 islands.

Our tour visited Jakarta, West Java and Western Sumatra, and given more time we could have spent a week in each and still not seen enough. From the emerald green of rice paddy’s in the low lying sea level belts to the rich lushness of tea and coffee plantations 2000 feet above sea level, craters of still active volcanoes, warm lakes where fish nibble at your feet and walks through the native village areas where villagers allow you to pick cocoa pods from their front yard and share tea with you in their home …this is a country of diversity and unbelievable friendliness.

Like any country it has its areas of improvement but also remember that it does indeed have a hard past from which it is working hard to overcome. Few of us could face earthquakes, tsunamis and everything else mother nature can throw at us, and still be so accommodating, friendly and filled with wonderlust as Indonesia.

If you think you know Indonesia, then think again!

Give this amazing country an opportunity to prove itself to each and everyone of you and in return our tourism dollars will help propel this land of amazing natural and traditional cultural amazements into a new stratosphere of recognition.

Bali may be fun, but the rest of Indonesia is truly magnificent.

Garuda Airlines is set to begin direct services from  Abu Dhabi to Jakarta in December 2012 with flights already being available from Jeddah to Jakarta, other countries and for connectors from Bahrain, consult your local travel agents.

A traditional fisherman on lake Singkarak...From the hectic world of jakarta Indonesia still allows the opportunity to be by yourself, even in a country of 242 million, you can still be the sole person on the lake...Amazing !

Peace and Serenity in the Rice fields of Indonesias Harau valley

With vast beauty the islands of Indonesia also have awe with 150 Volcanoes to visit 75 of which are still active.

Harau Valley will amaze those seeking Eco-Tourism and the chance to get lost in the wilderness and serenity of nature.

Pagaruyun Palace with its traditional shape and design is dedication to the traditions of old. Despite the massive population and the need to push forward Indonesians are proud of their heritage. And rightfully so.

James Claire - The Scribe: MID LIFE - Is no Crisis !!!

James Claire - The Scribe: MID LIFE - Is no Crisis !!!: It’s astonishing sometimes that the clearest things in life elude you for so long. I mean I have heard the famed saying...

MID LIFE - Is no Crisis !!!

It’s astonishing sometimes that the clearest things in life elude you for so long. I mean I have heard the famed sayings, such as “the only thing to fear is fear itself”, spoken by Franklin Roosevelt…But what did that really mean and what have I had to fear ? Seems plenty, as do us all. But that’s changing.

That thing that sends the hair on the back of your neck standing upright.

The cause for the butterflies in your stomach, anticipation and anxiety both cousins of fear.

Fear , the cause of adrenalin which makes us do remarkable feats we otherwise  could never achieve and which boosts us into almost super human potential.

But what if we had no fear.

Well I think I just solved a life long question for many.

I think fear is what life is suppose to be all about, to keep us all in line.

It’s what keeps us going.

Fear of tomorrow, fear of being left behind, fear of conformity, fear of non-conformity, fear of acceptance, fear of not living up to our potential. Fear of debt, of banks,  death, fear of not providing enough or our families, and fear , well, you name it, fear of almost everything.

I’m heading at supersonic speed to a little thing called mid life crisis, but on the cusp of my arrival I believe I may have cracked this nut wide open.

There’s no crisis at all.

And there is nothing to fear.

In fact I believe that’s been the crisis for so many for so long.…

Mid life is when everything starts to spiral, seemingly out of control and we start to question things. Question our purpose, question our role in life, question our choices?

But what if we turned all this on it’s head and looked at it in reverse.

Instead of fearing mid-life, what if mid-life is simply the time of absolute freedom.

A center point in life where you can see the winning post and see the starting line and make your life choice to either go forward and run the normal race, or take another route and get off the rat race.

What if it’s not us, the mid lifers, who question all around us, but that all around us becomes clearer and that others begin to see us differently, question us because we have suddenly differed from the norm. What if what they see is just pure envy and jealousy!

You see it came to me over something quite simple, a car’s travel log that I was supposed to fill out on a daily basis.

You see I’m a stickler for the rules. I’m also pragmatic about doing the right thing.

To cut a long story short, someone else drove my car, moved the log book and both they and I forgot to fill it out.

I saw the log book today after a week. And I looked at it thinking , whateva!!

And that’s when it struck me, this feeling of being unsettled lately.

I agree it is borderline mid-life crisis. But not for the reasons one might imagine.

You see I think mid-life crisis is the period of time when you realize that you fear nothing.

It makes you see the world differently, so differently that you start to act and be different to the norm and thus others call you egotistical, arrogant, strange, weird, rude even or eccentric. But I am really none of these.

I simply have a lack of fear.

What if this is our freedom,

What if this is a higher power setting us free.

You see I’ve seen much, I’ve travelled often, I’ve worked hard and yes along with it there have been financial gains and rewards , as well as pain, loss and tragedy.

I’ve done so much. I’ve written books, been published in dozens of countries, I’ve starred on TV, I’ve done radio, I’ve made incredible sums of money and I’ve spent like there’s no tomorrow, I’ve also felt the phenomenon called love, and known  callous stinging pain caused by loss.

I’ve rewarded for my skills and awarded for my contributions and have been questioned by specialists on my sanity.

And today, looking at that log book, I realized, this unsettled feeling I have is the freedom which comes from having lived a full life and coming out the others side intact.

There is nothing left for me to fear.

I have enough money now, why do I want to fight for more.

On the other hand if I lost everything tomorrow I know that I enough knowledge , skills and common sense to get it again.

I don’t fear aging, for I have lead an amazing youth and look forward to the lessons of age.

I don’t fear love or lack of it. I have loved and been loved and I know there are those who love me too.

Death the ultimate fear is nothing but a portal to the future. So many have died, so many will and at this age one has finally conquered the ultimate fear by realizing that inevitability is exactly that, inevitable!

There is literally nothing left to fear but to accept and embrace.

Mid life crisis, lay not with the person going through it, but with the others looking on in envy and who have not yet conquered all that they must .

People looking on are disgusted at those with mid-life crisis because we are the anarchists. We just don’t care what others think of our actions because we don’t fear being judged, we don’t fear your callous tongues and we don’t fear gossip any longer.

Do what you want, do what you will and say what ever, the fact is I don’t care if you fire me, incarcerate me, kick me out of a country, take my money, take my home, I don’t mind.

I am comfortable with who and where I am and I have no fear. ‘Whateva’ happens will always happen and I have 189 other countries in which to live, choices of thousands of types of jobs, and a brain which makes me both sexy and smart enough to continue on life’s path uninhibited.

In the words of Jim Morrison,” Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free”.

Mid life is not a crisis, it is a freedom from the norm.

I’ve reached the point in my life where life can truly begin. I don’t have to listen to petty threats for I have enough to fall back on, personally, professionally and emotionally to go through just about anything without fear of the results.

Of course this cant be the norm for all of us, or the world would turn to anarchy. Mid life crisis will come and go.

Eventually you hit and older age I guess and fear the future once more, the longevity of it all and the solo existence as others depart before you.

Right here , right now. I’m just happy to be center stage on the act of life.

Throw at me what you will.

Today starts a new and so does the way in which I live it.

One Regret ....

If there is one regret I have in life, it is not that my parents could have been richer, could have been better or could have been nicer…they were all that they could have been…no…the only regret I will carry to my grave is that I could have been a better son.....

To my parents.

Time gives us eyes for the truth and a sense for reality.

I love you both 

x

THINGS IN WHICH I NO LONGER BELIEVE

We have all heard of “Happily ever after!”…but was it ?

No body ever wrote the trilogy to Snow White, the Three Little Pigs or Red Riding hood.

Back in those days they were all just one hit wonders, in a time when audience naivety was strong.

They believed the story line and they believed what they were told. If the wolf ate grandmother then so be it, if seven dwarfs lived with a gorgeous blonde, no one asked who paid the rent or how ?

But do any of us believe in fairy tales anymore?

What else do you not believe in as we approach the 22^nd century at a blistering speed.

Author JM Barrie stated…”The moment you don’t believe you can fly, you cease to ever be able to do it”.. perhaps that’s true , as I know I can’t fly anymore already.

I’m not riding on cynicism this month, I purely want to relate those things in which I truly just do no longer believe to be good for us or to be fact any longer, and remember these are just my personal view points, I don’t expect others to agree with me, but I am putting my thoughts out there so if you feel you wish to berate me for my personal views, then go ahead. That’s what life is all about. Freedom to think and to say what we want.

Happily Ever After…it’s a fairy tale ending and doesn’t exist. “Ever after” is a long time just ask Kim Kardashian she could last 72 days with husband Kris Humphrey’s and these days there is just so much that can happen. Perhaps centuries ago when people travelled no further than the edge of their village, before big government stepped in to help us all, before technology and globalization began, the world seemed to be able to live “Happily Ever After” between wars and faction fighting. I think out of seven billion people on this tiny planet there would be few remaining who believe that this is true or a plausible eventuality any more. And if they do then they probably still believe they can fly also!

Big Government.

Government was a force to be reckoned with, when countries where smaller. Today Government employees realize what we all do, that there are so many billions running through the coffers that no one will miss a few million. Senators and politicians worry about themselves first and the general public second. Government will not protect us , they will not care about our pensions , medi-care or welfare systems until after they have given themselves a healthy dose of life long retirement packages, great after government positions and free flights.

Countries, populations and the greed of humanity has changed politicians to be like most of everyone else who look out for themselves first and worry about the others second. They are supposed to be public servants, but their service to the public runs pretty short much of the time.

A Pot of Gold At the End Of The Rainbow…Up their with “Happily Ever After” and “Once Upon a Time”, and about as cliché as wicked witches, evil step sisters and princes who are charming. The fact is , gold or any fortune comes from hard labor. Chests of the stuff can not be found on idyllic beaches hidden by ancient Carribean pirates, and it certainly has not been left at the end of a rainbow by a leprechaun or any other pint sized creature. It’s a nice thought, but first year out of high school this one was lost to the fairies.

Drinking Water From A Tap; As a child we did and thankfully so. In our town they heavily fluorided the water and gave our generation amazing teeth. Today the thought that others can put things in the water without my knowledge, scares me.

I no longer believe in drinking water from a tap, pipes below ground where once the modernizing revolution of a new era, today it disgusts me to think about drinking tap water from pipes laying below ground for 20 or 30 years that can not be accessed or cleaned or checked for whatever else is down there. I barely enjoy showering in water from taps with water from underground, I much prefer tanks from rain water. We are worried about food contamination in an era when most people are well informed about hand washing and food handling, yet we considering drinking water from whence it comes we have no idea. I like to see my water in a brand name container and not in a four gallon tub filled from the back of a dirty truck in the middle of the street.

The United Nations; I no longer believe in the United Nations….a group of overpaid beaurocrats who stand by and watch millions killed and the only thing they do is to impose sanctions ( oh my goodness another sanction) against the governments who are killing their own people… Waste of money at the highest level. Use the money for mercenaries. I say.

Voting System…Pretty much up their with Big Government but the votes of numerous countries have proven what we all thought for many years, that it is rigged. Even if it’s not, is it worth the while. The American presidential candidates spend billions of  dollars of campaign funding to get elected, for what, to end up being led themselves by the party hard liners behind the scene. Let the fictional do-gooders elect who they want to lead, none of us really care any more anyway. Use the billions spent on marketing the candidates to us, for real things like infrastructure, medical and educational services or just give us good roads on which to drive and the basic necessities and stop taxing us to death and we’ll be fine. Government is like any big business these days, worried about themselves and not the customers.

The Weather Forecast… Like going to the astrologer , palm reader, crystal ball see-er or reading Nostrodamus and buying lottery tickets based upon any of their findings, the weather forecast is about as reliable as well.. the weather forecast.

Unless the weather man is telling you in real time what is happening outside the window in which he is standing in front of, you be assured he is going to get it wrong or only partially correct. If weather were predictable , if storms could be foretold the planet would be a much safer place, but sadly the information never gets to millions of us until it is too late. Give the weather forecast funding to those who seek Extra Terrestrials in outer space, I think there is a far greater chance of finding the truth out there than here on earth. Mother Nature is a woman of unpredictable tolerances and rage and is not letting the Weatherman know her secrets for a long time yet.

Churches…. Don’t confuse the word church with religion. I believe everyone has the right to pray and believe in what ever it is they desire. We all need to have faith in something after all in hard times. But faith is within us, not only within the towers of expensive real estate we call cathedrals.

What I no longer believe is that a church is required for it. Sure keep a few, but is the goal of a church not merely to give faith, hope and to console, to distribute food, care, faith and finances to the needy. Then in this case why do we need so many churches of any faith in which to do it.  In medieval times and before that we had no manner of transportation, and so one church was required to be in every village or town and city. Today we can travel if we must visit a church. Would it not be wiser to sell the majority of the churches which in most cases reside on prime real estate and distribute the wealth to the those who are homeless, penniless and truly of need. I see many churches empty except for a Sunday , is this realization then of a resource being put to best use on prime realty territory !! Today we have cars, trains, buses, car pooling, one church per 2-3 million people is enough and if they truly believe the words they are speaking then surely a covered car park, a tin shed or a basketball court would suffice. God does not judge us by where we pray to him, the importance is just that we do ! I have travelled the poorer areas of Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, South America and other poorer countries and I see the faithful praying in the open air, under canvas shelters, in rooms supported by timber and corrugated iron. Does the faith and prays of these folk,  have lesser weight because of where they pray and in which ramshackle building they show their faith ! I think not. They still believe in the religion even though the church has not found it good enough to build them a cathedral wrought with marble and other beauty in which to pray. It is us who need to have faith 24 hours a day and seven days a week, 365 days a year, not only when and while we are on hallowed turf. Faith is within us as individuals, not only present in the cathedrals of cash that dot the thousands of cities of this planet, while the homeless sleep on the warm air vents outside them try to stay warm and begging for scraps.

The Justice System

Innocent until proven guilty unless of course you are tried in the public court or tried by media in which case you don’t stand a chance. Of course as much as you might be innocent and yet still proven guilty by the media or public vote you can also be guilty these days and get off completely free depending on how much money you have and can pay for the right representation. If you are a little man fighting a big company in the legal system forget it. Loopholes, court dates moving and trickery will have you bound up for years until you go broke and you wont even appear as a blot on the financial sheets of the company that wronged you. No my friends the Justice system is most definitely “blind” but those scales of justice are tipped in the direction against you…unless you are rich or powerful.

Equity.. Is there fairness in the world or are we just all too jealous and greedy to see true equity in the things of others. Is equity only in the thoughts of dreamers?

A cup made from a potter, his masterpiece, something he has labored over for countless hours or days, a magnificent production by a time honored craftsman. But does anyone pay for that anymore. The labor of love, devotion and craftsmanship or have we been so beaten down with junk from china and third world countries that we fail to see the intrinsic value in such items any longer, too savvy to pay the real value, just wanting the next bargain?

People might hope for Equity but are we honest enough any more to give it.

In relationships too, every so often feelings fade, a mere “I love you too”, just does not suffice any longer for one who’s heart believes they have given more to the relationship than to be replied to by a throw away line.

If you give 100%, someone always wants 110%, and a heart break is soon to follow.

Is it greed or is it that social networks, internet and globalization has made everything so close at hand, that more caring person across the miles seem closer than they truly are, that if we aren’t happy , then people seem as disposable as a razor. Once was a case people married for life. Once was, marriage certificates and marriage vows actually meant something. Today fariness and equality inside a relationship is a daily struggle to maintain and someone always feels they suffer on behalf of the other to get it.

The Words “Trust Me…..At face value I doubt these words if they are even spoken. To me they seem to be the warning signal that someone is truly NOT trustworthy. A trustworthy person is trustworthy by their actions, they don’t need to tell you so. They answer the phone, they call you back if and when they say they will, they reply to text messages and they are on time to meetings and functions, they are where they say they will be on time and perhaps earlier. A trust worthy person makes an effort for others, wary that others time and life is just as valued as his/her own. A conversation is exactly that, a conversing of facts and  things that happened, not a fictional apparition which occurred only in the mind of the speaker and with which facts do not check out.

Trust is a value I respect highly, the truth may hurt, but there are no doubts remaining after ward if everything is based upon hard factual truth….Trust Me !

Cynic in life perhaps, but I just think some things have outlived their believability within my lifetimes. WC Fields perhaps put it best…”You have to believe in something, so I believe I”ll have another drink !”

Some things , therefore are believable !

Two words rarely spoken - "MY FATHER"

I don’t write often about my father.

Millions of words written and yet so few of the man who made me what I am today. 

Unfair , perhaps.
Sometimes it makes me sad, other times I realize there just is not that much to say.

He was a deep, silent complex man.

Typical really of his era.

The men don’t cry type. 

Ask him how his day was, he’d say “fine” and wander off.

Ask him what happened at work and the answer was always, “nothing”.

He worked hard, and my sister and I needed for nothing, so I’m not about to slam the man.

Truth is he and my mother both suffered terrible childhoods. 

Both were abused physically and mentally and both were not raised by their own parents due to the times, the era , deaths or separations and the stigma in those days surrounding children without parentage was not a kind one.

That they grew up wanting to have children , did,  and raised us,  is testimony to them both.

For many years now I’ve actually tried to understand my father.

To forgive him his negligence of love and sympathies and to forgive me my disrespect of not understanding what made him the man he became.

Of those things I remember the most are these.

He was fixated on the Second World War, Vietnam and Korean wars. It was like he wished he’d fought in them, just a year or two shy of being able to, he never made it past the Reservist Army.

He loved the movie Apocolypse Now. He loved hard cover books and especially first editions and I don’t think I ever saw him cry. Not one tear.

He retired at 40. He had worked hard for 25 years at that stage.  Within a decade he attempted suicide and following that decades of psychosis, mental anguish and truly troubled times lay ahead.

When he was just my dad and before all his troubles, he lost him self within books, he wrote like the wind  and was a perfectionist in everything he did. Doctors say it was this self-imposed stress that made him so troubled later on.

For many years I tried to tell myself I would never be the man he was.

He never showed love or gave hugs, so I loved and hugged everyone.

He read books, so I refused to.

I worried that it was what lead to his troubled mind, and so for decades I never touched a book .

He wrote, I refused.

He was the quiet silent type who found no fun in anything, I became loud, riotous and laughed always making light of everything.

He married , I did not.

I tried so hard to not be him and all I ended up doing was missing out on so much.

I wish daily now that I had married; someone, anyone, I really want children but find at 43 I’m alone, fearful of being him so much that I am now worse off for it.

But the light of my plight truly dawned upon me a few days back in Mall whilst shopping for a gift for a special friend.

I found myself in a bookstore looking at all the titles and feeling in awe of the opportunities, the stories in which to get lost and to imagine other worlds and adventures. It was a candy store for the brain. I bought my friend two books and could have emptied the shop had I had the time. I can’t wait to return and to buy a few more.

Was it this escapism my father adored so much of books. I feel it was.

And the similarities did not stop there. The love of books made me think.

Of writing, well, lets just say what lay within me for many years waiting to be let out, finally has. Today I write like the wind as he did. I use a laptop thankfully, he used pen and paper and I still remember the pages under which he wrote. His penmanship so hard and firm and tight that he left an imprint three pages deep of everything he hand wrote, but so too does mine.

You see what strikes me as funny is that I have spent 40 years trying not to be my father and yet still I have turned out very much in his shadow..

I still have a better sense of humor I think, but I’m a perfectionist and can’t stand things that are not right. I’d prefer to walk away than to suffer something not as it should be.

He wrote, I write.

Fifteen books and counting actually in addition to millions of words in blogs and magazines articles every year.

He read. I read today like there’s no tomorrow.

He was the silent type, I love nothing more than being by myself and just watching life go by.

I have worked so hard to try and understand the man all these years that I have in fact had quite the learning experience myself. I have watched Apocolypse Now on DVD almost fifty times. Ten of those in French. to find what it was he needed to see. I think i get it now.

I have read much and watched much on the Second World War and I have learnt to read and write for my own living.

In the end , by learning about my father, I have learnt to be a better person. A better educated one and a more tolerant human being, one that sees both sides to many issues and writes about them.

I am not the man he was, but extremely close in many ways.

These are different times and thanks to him and my mother I had a happy child hood, not perhaps with him, but because of him.

He may not have been the teacher of all my lessons but through him and because of him I have learnt much. It has taken forty years to understand much of that , but I am glad now that I have and do.

If I could change the world and shift time and space and right the wrongs done to others I would clear history’s record and give my father and mother enjoyable childhoods, much like mine and my sisters.

We knew nothing but love and happiness from people who knew neither.

If evolution of happiness is to continue and the world become a better place,  then it is I who must forward on this knowledge and gift it  to a son or daughter of my own so that they lead a better more fulfilled life, leaving their legacy to the next generation and so on.

Parenting can not be easy.

My father certainly seemed to make it very hard, but in the end despite his silence, his emotionless manner and his lack of hugs, his psychosis , paranoia and rage , he created a child who found the answer to everything needed in life to make it a success.

I have been blessed with lessons good and bad and those I’ve had to seek to find.

And for that my father must be thanked.

To my father ,who’s life was never easy; you did good Dad and I love you so much for it.

xx

Quote this !!!

In my first career it was always better to share a recipe than to hang on to it. There were chefs before me and after my brief time in the kitchens, galleys and commissaries of the earth there will be others. 

I rent the recipes for the decades I cook, I do not own them.

I also have no need for a thousand recipes for chocolate mousse when one perfect recipe does the job. 

So SHARE and we all get to eat good mousse !!

As a writer I believe the same. Some times my words are eloquent, sometimes funny, sometimes thought provoking so why not share the best bits. I don't really know where they come from , the words just enter my head. The quote of yesterday which entered my head as I walked the boundaries of my pool, exercising was so true that I wanted to give it to the world for it is how I felt and do feel so often. Crying frees the mind and the fingers merely tap the thoughts onto paper, “Words flow on the back of tears.”, is just so true. So may times when the heart opens and the tears release , words flow like never before.

Here then as a way to share to all future writers are some of the best quotes from the blogs so far. Just like a good recipe all I ask is that you give me the credit of being the originator of the writing,

…quote James Claire (1969- ) thank you

“As humans we tend to overdo things; over work, over eat, over achieve, over act, over react, over think and over talk.

Sometimes we need to make others and even our children for their betterment in the future, understand  that LESS IS MORE…

Sometimes if we do less….we achieve more!

If we speak less – we have less problems!

If we thought less – we’d have less stress and less paranoia !

If we decorated a plate less – we’d have food that was far more attractive !”

“You see those who joke that I’m going grey, do not realize that as a child I was a pure blonde haired cutie…I’m not going grey, I’m aging backwards and about to enter my second youth…”

“One planet, so many cultures and so many borders and I really would love to see them all, shake the hands of some one from every race and talk to someone from every country that inhabits the singular entity on which we all live..

Big task, small ask I feel.”

“Instead of running away, instead of considering my self as a nomad, a close friend actually put it all into perspective for me in a recent email

I keep saying that I’m running away …but he proposes that I’m not .

I’m coming home……..one country at a time.”

“True citizens of the planet, not of a country with borders. Our borders are the limits to which flight can take us off this rock and the limits of gravity and the atmosphere, not man made borders on its lands.

We have no need for a passport of a singular nationality, we detest being branded within the borders of any nation and we see no sense of multiple currencies.

In my country, Earth, we are all one.”

“What if… what we want is really the one thing we should never have desired at all ?

What if its all a con? Or a test ?”

“Is love a need or a want. Do we need love for survival or do we want it, only for our own self gratification, our selfishness of not wanting to live alone or do we need it for survival.”

“The two and three day weekend…. Life’s little orgasm for hard workers!”

“Our philosophy was, that in life what we “need” is not always what we “want”, and the same goes vice versa, what we “want” is not always what we “need”.”

“There was once, about 100 girlfriends ago, when I felt that I wanted to settle down and have a house for the future. I bought it, filled it with furniture and regretted it every day thereafter. For almost ten years all that furniture sat in storage. I eventually owned one of the most expensive sofas in the world thanks to that decade of wasted storage expenditure.”

“You see, there is more than “Needs” and “Wants”; there is also “Challenge”, the unstated human element .

You see , ask yourself the following questions;

Do you want to fall in love…not really !!

Do you need to fall in love…who says ..right ?

So why do we?

Partly it’s because of the challenge of it all. To see if we can in fact woo another party into our lives? To see IF we can live together? To see if we really make a couple or just two people cohabitating with each other?”

“Complacency is an easy evil to befriend. “Challenge” on the other hand, is a friend we should all seek out and find, to remind ourselves that we are infact “ALIVE”. Challenge in life heightens our senses and reminds us that we can indeed do anything that we desire.”

“A + X = Y

A equals Perfection plus X equalling flaws equate to Reality Y

whilst

A (Perfection) – X (Flaws) = Z (Fantasy)”

“One day..... you may desire to come back, when you finally feel that "bump" in your own highway of life, when the cosmos vibrates upon your soul disturbing the equilibrium of your previously placid existence.”

“All friendships have some benefits, secrets kept, things borrowed, others loaned and shoulders on which to cry.”

“You see, we are all the same!! No matter what we have, we all seem to want something else.”

“If you do not love yourself, if you are not comfortable in your own skin, if you can not look in the mirror and be proud and content, then how are you ever suppose to love another or be loved.”

“True love is to look past someone’s pitfalls and to see the beauty inside of the soul. That’s why perfect partners are often called “soul mates.”

“Stuck in the center of my own imploding universe until yesterday I was unable to see all of this.”

“I suffer now from what you might call, “Humpty Dumpty Syndrome”, no-one can ever put me back together again , after her.”

“Perhaps inside us all, we have only a certain number of words to express, once we have penned them, then we are done”.

“to have never fulfilled ones own desires of self , is to hate the self which is unfulfilled.”

“Perfection  was this angels name. But as a friend wrote today on Facebook, "if you are not on the same page, perhaps its time to shut the book."

Well the Angels book has been closed and stored on the growing library of my life.”

“You can not make people love you. You can not make people believe you and it is pointless asking some one to stay when they have doubt.”

“Me… is sitting in an apartment 26 floors above reality looking out on a vision of blurry dreams.”

“Whoever made us, decides our fates.

It’s the days in between that are up to us.”

“All that I write about, actually happens or happened to me at one time or another.

The emotions are real, the tears are salted and the grief forlorn.”

“..Just because you love someone and are injected with a passion of a thousand suns for them, just because you can not breathe when they are not with you, just because when you are with them the world feels whole, complete and at peace, unless the other person feels the same, it means nothing toward the chance of a relationship.”

“I feel love, I feel loved therefore I say I love you.”

“You who question me, have never stood in the shoes from whence I see!”

“Music is not just entertainment value, it truly transcends our souls and the music we love, (it differs to us all) can elevate our lives, calm us, transport us to happiness or nirvana or chill us out when we need it the most.”

“Good music fills our ears with joy, great music sets our souls free among the clouds.”

“I know how fast a love can be gone, life extinguished, hearts broken. In these instances love can be taken within seconds. A blink of an eye can change your universe for a eternity.”

“Some times in life, when we meet the right person, the planets align, the sun shines brighter and our hearts open up and engulf our brains.”

“Words used correctly can leave a far deeper cut than any sharp edged blade.”

“When did I start understanding, “Quantitative Easing”?

Oh my god, How old am I ?”

“A healthy imagination is the basis for a life of achievements.”

“Success can be many things to many people. For me, it is to be able to write and be read. Full Stop.”

“What you feel is really what you are.......I feel happy, I feel strong and I feel satisfied, I feel love and adore to be loved and I do not feel scared to shed a tear in happiness or loss. In essence I simply feel comfortable about who I am.”

“What I am.....WHO I AM.....Is what I feel!

My cover may look like many other books, but the content is uniquely me.”