Stuff and sunshine

Hi everyone,

[Insert excuse for a lack of blogging here]

So Britain has been experiencing a heat wave. Now the UK is famous for several things; tea, the monarchy, football but I can assure you good weather isn't one. For this reason I have been as far away from my computer as possible, instead planting lavender, cycling in vintage wear, spending quality time with my man fellow, walking my dog and getting just a tiny weeny bit tanned! I've also completed my first zine which will be avaliable shortly can you guess what the theme is...

Yup that was as fun as it looks!



 Me and my beloved

 Victoria Square, Birmingham UK

 My favourite photo of the day thank-you tall bike!

Rare British sunshine!

I was honoured to win 'Best Ladies Couiffure,'

Ok so maybe this is my favorite pic?!

Cycling through Birmingham city centre

Another day spent outdoors :)

Half way through an (unintentional) 20 mile bike ride with Antonio

Even better I have managed to invite myself along to a surf festival just for girls...who like girls....The tiny insignificant detail of me having a boyfriend will hopefully go unnoticed so I can get salt water in my hair and some much needed surfing done. I am so stoked especially as being land locked means any of the basics I picked up living and surfing in Senegal will most definitely have been lost :/

I may live in a land locked county but my heart is pure ocean <3

Until next time hombres

x

P.s. If you like what I have to say leave a comment, your feedback makes me heart glad!  

His name was Wanderlust.

Success

Is is better to be adored by thousands - or to inspire a few and have a lasting impact?

If many were to read my blog would it validate my words?

Or would reaching just one person, one who perhaps re-reads my musings be a real mark of success?

If your reading this then I am immesenly grateful.

Because the vain aspect of me needs validation, I need to know I'm affecting someone.

Wanderlust

My great Auntie Girly (her real name is actually Christiana but she was one of 7 boys so was only ever called girly), as a young woman in her twenties went alone to Morocco to work as a missionary. I often want to ask why she went, what compelled her to go alone to Northern Africa at a time when women had barely got the vote let alone travelled the world.
The story goes she was there for a while until word reached her of her parents' ill health, so she packed her bags for home and headed back to Worthing, England where she's been ever since.
It saddens me I'll never really be able to get answers for those questions, my Great Aunt is very much alive still, in fact she was still riding a moped well into her seventies, however she's now approaching one hundred and and is beginning to forget, so I don't feel would benefit from having a curious great niece hounding her. I instead rely on my Nan's accounts and wonder if I inherited the travel bug from her.

Sometimes I think wanderlust is more a curse than a blessing. In my head a rucksack is always by the door, like a ghost, waiting for me to swing it onto my shoulders and head out into the next adventure. It makes me listless and a dreamer and my life is on pause until the next trip. If I had to use a methphor I'd say wanderlust is like an ex lover, he taps you on the shoulder and reminds you of the good times, he fills your ears with oceans and hot summer nights. And just when you think you've finally gotten over him he walks past you with a new girlfriend (a new country) and your jealous all over again.

The endangered Griffon Vulture I worked to preserve

This is me aged 17 on a break from working whilst in Croatia
I was seventeen the first time I went away from home, I packed a rucksack, said goodbye to my parents and lived in Croatia at an eco centre. It was one of the best/worst times of my life. I got homesick, I cried, I effectively lived in the mountains and ran out of water frequently so had to wash in the sea. I got lost and found myself.

Ever since then its been hard not to follow that impulse. I'm at an interesting juncture in my life in that I need the stability of a more routine job and I also have somebody I love who needs me to be a bit more predictable but I'm still looking out towards the horizon. I think part of me always will. Travelling is a drug, as bad as any vice there is. 

In the Saltwater Buddha by Jaimal Yogis he talks of his infatuation for surfing and how at one time in his life this passion almost ruined him. You see what I'm slowly beginning to realise is that while its good to have passions they shouldnt rule your life, its all about balance.

Currently I am unemployed, penniless and completely uncertain about what direction to take in life.

- But -

Today I went to the park with my boyfriend and Jack the family dog. We sat watching the world go by, lying on the grass and smiling about silly little things as the sun shone (finally a hint of English sun)!

I am healthy, I have a beautiful loving family, I am with a boy I love and I have potential.  

I am lucky blessed to live the life I have. And well, this is only the beginning.

 I think I'd like to do a Masters degree in International Development this is the big goal. So in the mean time I'm going to become a support worker because caring for other people is my number one priority these days. I'm going to become an intern or volunteer for a charity that makes me heart glad and I'm going to continue to love the important people in my life. I'm also going to save up for my next trip, this time though I won't be fleeing.

I'll do Yoga, drink tea and continue to be creative through my writing and T-shirt designs. 

We live in a time when dreams are hard to fulfill, 
- however -
we should not allow our generation to be defined by a recession. We just need a little patience because those dreams are still ours and are still possible.

Stay merry my dears. 

- X - 


  

Aropa

A friend recently asked what I deemed femininity to be and in all honesty the question perplexed me.

The 21st century woman is much like a Swiss army knife in that she is multi-faceted and expected to solve all your problems. Meredith Brooks best coined our conundrum with the lyrics

'I'm a bitch I'm a lover, I'm a child I'm a mother, I'm a sinner and a Saint...'

You see women don't really know what we are anymore.

In surfing their are two distinct tribes of surfer girl; the charger and the bikini.

The charger dominates the waves with masculine energy, she is one of the boys and plays down her femininity in order to be taken seriously. The latter on the other hand emphasises her sex appeal and uses the advantages of her physiology to get what she wants i.e. waves, endorsements, sponsorships. She is not however outlandishly provocative she is merely aware of her assets and plays up these attributes.

Real women have surfboards.

Real women have curves and surfboards has always been about Marge Calhoun the housewife and mother who learnt to surf and won a world title. That being said my good friend Rosie highlighted that this statement may exclude women who do not in fact posses curves. An hour glass figure does not define a woman which is why for my t-shirt business I'm having a rethink.

Admittedly I'm attached to this name, its like a house plant I affectionately water and certainly as a curvaceous woman myself the title resonates. My aim however with my business and ethos is to empower which is precisely why I'm back to the drawing board.

Aropa.

Aropa means love and compassion for your fellow human being, its a word which has importance in the Anuta tribe who live on an isolated island in the South Pacific. If I'm having a grey skies kind of day, I reach for my Bruce Parry 'Tribe' box set and pop on series 3, episode 4 - The Anuta. 

The Anuta people fill my heart with sunshine and have made me ponder whether 'Aropa' is in fact the name of my business. 

What do you think? 

The delectable Bruce Parry with the Anuta people courtesy of theguardian online (Sept 2010)

  Bristol with the man fellow.



You know what I love most about the UK? The fact that you can drive from one side to the other in under 24 hours. Despite our lamentations we actually have good public transport which is why Antonio and I found ourselves merrily travelling 2 hours down the motorway for a day trip to Bristol city. 

Ant is not only drop dead gorgeous, talented and hard working he's also a really great guide, give him five minutes and he'll have a city sussed out in no time. He's great in developing my creativity and since being with him I've enjoyed dipping into the arts world by gallery visiting and attending strange but wonderful events his friends tend to host.

Despite my hogging of the camera Ant has published very few pictures of himself (or us together for that matter) so I apologise that these mostly contain my ugly mug. 

World please tell Antonio that he is beautiful and people like to see him in photos even when he poses!

THINGS I'M GRATEFUL FOR THIS WEEK

1) My bbathroom shelf herb garden

2) Lime and soda water

4) Meeting new interesting people

5) Dog walkers who encourage your running.

6) Dogue De Bordeauxs' who jump up you

A face only a mother could love (and me)! This is the dog I am saving up my pennies for (to rescue of course)!

Until next time...

The story of the technophobe

I'll begin by acknowledging the hypocrisy of this post and reiterate that I am most definitely not a technophobe. I don't shy away from technology and find that it is very much ingrained into my everyday, in the same way brushing my teeth is part of my daily routine.

That being said I'm finding myself increasingly exasperated with social media. Perhaps I'm being exuberant in my disdain but I'm beginning to think it interrupts life as opposed to enriching it. As aforementioned this is a somewhat hypocritical statement being that I use it to keep in touch with people and certainly do the whole 'show boating' thing when I upload pictures. Nor, for that matter, can I describe myself as being a private person when I write a blog. So I ask myself, why do I do this? Why do I take pages of my life and display them for all the interweb to see? Do I need clarification, is it that I'm seeking validity from you my anonymous peers? Is it simply to allow my far flung friends to see what I'm up to? Its hard to ascertain my motivations, it started because of surfing and the more I'm unable to actually go surfing the more I seem to write about it on here.

Facebook, twitter, myspace all these things in my opinion should be like a side dish, its nice to have them there in the background but the main meal is a life lived outside of a monitor or a phone screen. I sometimes feel that experiences are overshadowed by the need to document every moment, a quick post here or a tweet and suddenly you've stopped experiencing what it is you were originally there for. Social media is a breeding ground for envy, I know myself I've often looked at friends in exotic destinations and felt the bitter pang of jealousy, why aren't I in Thailand/Australia/some gorgeous tropical beach?

In many ways social media has been a vector for change, its brought us closer together and provided a platform for politics and campaigns to speak out. On the flipside it has also made us into a twitching society, one which updates and tags at every moment.

I suppose like anything, its all about moderation.  

Surfing has been called an addiction, a passion, a way of life. It can be a completely selfish pastime and with anything has its downsides. That being said when your bobbing in a line up, looking out at the sunrise the feeling is indescribable, something which can never be summarised by a wall post or a tweet. 

Thank God.