DEFINITION:

1. The result of a yearning for exploration, education and enlightenment of the world we live in 

2. an insatiable curiosity which lends itself to an actualisation of existence through communication to others in written form

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Murals, Museums and More in Mexico City

Murals, Museums and More in Mexico City

Growing up in the South of England meant I had minimal exposure to a true representation of Mexico, experiencing instead occasional associations including a toy shop piñata at a birthday party, sporadic meals via Old El Paso Tex-Mex kits from grocery stores, or consuming copious shots of Jose Cuervo with merry friends (followed by multiple pained facial expressions).  Venture into the City...
The Reset Button

The Reset Button

So many guises in our years, Whose to say when it all becomes clear. Signing forms and forming smiles, All the while it still reviles. One door opens; another closes. I press reset for my mind’s repose. And begin again with a fresh slate. A new chapter, A new challenge...
Elevated Splendor: Big Bend Solitude and Terlingua

Elevated Splendor: Big Bend Solitude and Terlingua

“The mountains are calling, and I must go”.    John Muir, Yosemite Valley 1873. These are the words sprawled across the minty green shirts presented by my cousin for her fortieth year celebratory trip at Big Bend National Park, which have lingered periodically in my mind since returning to Austin....
CreativeMornings Austin: A Magical Initiation

CreativeMornings Austin: A Magical Initiation

It’s 7.30am and I’m peddling through South Austin’s winding roads, greeted by the glorious pink light of sunrise.  The cool, fresh air envelops me; a welcome change after the past 6 months, more accustomed to the feeling of wearing a vest of hot coals.  With 2 different lollipop ladies (mind my British, I mean...
Let your Authentic Self be Front Facing

Let your Authentic Self be Front Facing

A TED talk delivered by the masterful David Byrne on how architecture has helped music evolve has sparked deeper cerebral churning.  Byrne went on to quote the American author Thomas Frank, regarding the voting process: “Voters (like a lot of us) assume if they hear something that ‘sounds like’ its sincere, that its coming from the...
Don't let Digital kill the Art of Conversation

Don’t let Digital kill the Art of Conversation

Speed kills.  I’m sure you’re familiar with the advertising campaigns that bolstered our road safety regulations.  Texting whilst driving has also joined the ranks in securing more consciousness for travel in order to prevent unnecessary deaths or accidents. Whether you agree with this ruling or not, the digital and velocity based...
Faith: The Forgotten Motivator

Faith: The Forgotten Motivator

Following a recent meeting of family friends, a waver in self-belief resulted in the calming retort: “Have some faith”. This simple statement came from a dear friend of my late parents, with added resonance because he has known me since youth and through to adulthood. It was not a dispersion on...
Deconstructing ‘The Block’: The Quest for Inspiration

Deconstructing ‘The Block’: The Quest for Inspiration

If you are one of those lucky people that flows creativity from every vein with as much ease as blinking, then stop reading now. If however you are like myself, at times wandering aimlessly both in mind and body to source stimuli for an article or art installation, then read...
Resolutions for Life (and not just at New Years)

Resolutions for Life (and not just at New Years)

As we enter 2015, it seems inevitable that my latest (and overdue) article relates to this existential moment and the thoughts of what it means to have a fresh new year to play with. January 1st is welcomed worldwide through a variety of ways, some of which involve many libations, with...
Longing to 'be' happy? Just let yourself BE

Longing to ‘be’ happy? Just let yourself BE

There are many things to be said about freedom.  One of the most resonant for me though is that it is severely underrated.  And I do not speak on this occasion of the reasons and wherefores for incarceration.  It is more in regards to the personal and work related restrictions...
From Darwin to Digital: A Revolution for our Species

From Darwin to Digital: A Revolution for our Species

Most of us are familiar with the graphic charting the progress of man,from ape to modernity (with variances on the present-day interpretation ranging from obese man to stressed office worker) but who would have predicted the rapidity of man’s digital evolution.  With access to more and more articles documenting our digital history with trivia...
Creative Writing as Therapy: The Gestalt Approach

Creative Writing as Therapy: The Gestalt Approach

Writing, like so many creative arts, is a discipline that needs constant attention and a variety of stimulus.  Whatever you write, you need to consider its composition, its flow.  You need to articulate its story with prose or poetry, using words as colour to activate imagination in the mind.  There may be...
A Romance Continued: Returning to New Orleans & Tasting the Deep South

A Romance Continued: Returning to New Orleans & Tasting the Deep South

It’s a beautiful thing to build a relationship with a City.  Guidebooks can offer up suggestions, multiple apps help seek out hidden gems and there are always online recommendations (incredibly useful when in dire need of feeding), however I always find my best experiences are gained by seeking out and...
I Smile at Mirrors

I Smile at Mirrors

  (Dedicated to my Mother)   The scent of your perfume fades from memory Until a stranger passes by, then I smile Closing my eyes to remember your face As I breathe in deeply   I stare at stories in the dark Illuminating the empty seat beside me But I...
Getting Older & Embracing your Age

Getting Older & Embracing your Age

How do you react when you are posed with the question “How OLD are you?”… Do you wince, mumbling the wretched number under your breath?  Perhaps you state it proudly, with the enquirer following it up with a welcomed “but you don’t look it!”.  Or do you simply change the...
A Sense of Independence in Palawan

A Sense of Independence in Palawan

There is much to be said for a woman travelling alone in the world, in my case the Far Eastern side of the planet to the Philippines.  As a demi-Filipina, one might assume I have a distinct advantage in navigating around the 7000+ island culture, versus the typical ‘tourist’ trip...
Soaking up New Orleans: My NOLA Inauguration

Soaking up New Orleans: My NOLA Inauguration

Aside from Austin, Texas and a weekend in Las Vegas, I have had no other experience of the US of A until recently, when the fine opportunity to celebrate New Year’s Eve in “N’awlins” presented itself. I am sure like many others before, I speculated upon what NOLA had to...
Stoicism: The Key to Modern Day Living?

Stoicism: The Key to Modern Day Living?

During the throes of modern life, it is easy to lose ourselves in our daily chores, occupations and moments of liberty.  The demand for our time as we get older becomes ever more engrossed by what we are expected to do but these expectations are usually projected onto the situation...
LISBOA

LISBOA

  Your children departed briefly Only to return swiftly Enticing me with their journey of smiles So much affinity Though we never met Yet And then we drank in the skies With each other’s eyes In contemplative adoration Of this feeling of elation   My feet tread upon your cobbled...
REVIEW: Prawn on the Lawn

REVIEW: Prawn on the Lawn

It occurred to me recently that I have never stated prices or budgets for restaurants that I’ve written about.  This is not an intentional disservice to the reader, I simply think it is a little tawdry to overcast the splendidness of a meal with a quotation.  Much like when I...
No Questions to Ponder

No Questions to Ponder

  There is something serene In the gleam of your eye it calms the internal chaos   No more questions to ponder as I only grow fonder of a now, somewhat altered status   As I drown in your lips Hands pressed close on my hips swaying gently in sync...
Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain

Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain

There must be many moments we re-live, whether due to failure to learn from experience or the bittersweet nostalgia of familiarity.  I raise this topic as it is one I notice within many people, including myself upon occasion (although I would also like to say a tad savvier now).  We...
Epicurean Expeditions: from San Francisco to Austin

Epicurean Expeditions: from San Francisco to Austin

Although primarily to reconnect with family and friends, my other purpose to visit the United States was to explore further cuisines and navigate the restaurant and bar scenes.  Aside from the travel itself, an integral part of the journey for me is what and where I feed.  This break in...
The Need for Sexual Revolution

The Need for Sexual Revolution

Sex: a subject historically known to raise hushes and cause blushes whether in regards to your orientation or the reproductive (although sometimes unproductive) function has had a shift.  We live in a world where previously abhorred inclinations are now becoming increasingly socially acceptable and depending on where you live (in...
Latest entries
The Ritual of New Year Reflections: Let's make every moment count

The Ritual of New Year Reflections: Let’s make every moment count

Last night, a small gathering of friends made wishes before blowing out candles on a cake.  We were celebrating another revolution around the sun for planet Earth.  The desire for a new year to begin and for 2017 to end seemed an almost unanimous outlook for many friends and family that I had encountered over the past weeks.  Resolutions were...
The Altruist Activist: Why we must learn from each other

The Altruist Activist: Why we must learn from each other

In the early hours, the birds by my window drown the skies with their dawn chorus, a daily ritual which regularly lures me from the sanctuary of sleep. Their morning call is an essential part of their existence, which mostly comprise of males who sing to compete and attract partners, as well as stake their territory. Those that sing...
You are not Immortal: Modern Life Mindfulness

You are not Immortal: Modern Life Mindfulness

It is someone’s birthday today. The fourth of May was cause for celebration of 4 friends and almost every day I get a Facebook reminder of whom to ‘help’ celebrate their day. The overall year of my friendships has October containing the most birthdays and April the least. The more friends I acquire, the more...
SXSW 2015: Music lovers need apply

SXSW 2015: Music lovers need apply

Are you calm under pressure with the ability to multi-task? Consider yourself skilled at project management? An excellent researcher with a ‘can-do’ attitude? Then you are perfect South by Southwest material. This Austin based multi-media festival (abbreviated to SXSW) which began solely as a music conference is a 28 year old institution and can somewhat...
Blue Lights ‘til Sunrise

Blue Lights ‘til Sunrise

  Ominous sounds ring around As the city pounds the street (There are mouths to feed)   Harbingers of mortality, distract banality Of weekday repetition (we daren’t make the admission)   A regular sight, from morning light Blurring beacons with night skies Wailing sirens provide the cries   A dying youth, a drug-fuelled plight More...
A Dive Bar of Creativity: 125 Church Street prepares for launch

A Dive Bar of Creativity: 125 Church Street prepares for launch

After the closure of a long-standing cocktail bar ‘White Rabbit’ in Stoke Newington (and not to be mistaken for it’s twin by name in Dalston, a recommended eatery which I wrote about during its advent), mutterings and shifty glances have been made whilst passing by the premises due to the masked windows covertly named ‘125...
The Gift of being Creative (& why you MUST liberate it)

The Gift of being Creative (& why you MUST liberate it)

Do you have a ‘rage to create’?  I adapted this description from an article I recently read in regards to a ‘rage to master’ within us.  I reference one story of a young boy and his incredible artistic abilities, combining colours and shapes on an obsessive level, working on each of his drawings for 1...
Long & Lost Family

Long & Lost Family

I gaze at the memories forming before me (which happens quite frequently) It’s no less lovingly Fleeting moments that I never let pass by   I ingrain your habits in my mind Although they rile me I turn my eyes blindly Because they make you smile (if only for a little while)   Only visits...
Gender-Based Woes

Gender-Based Woes

  We gloat in our tribes As though superior Judging the exterior (But this makes us inferior)   It is curious to see So much animosity But we create this Not trying to placate this   These gender-based woes Cloud our souls Searching for What? A fantasy of expectations Lessen the relations We perpetually seek...
Judge Less, Connect More

Judge Less, Connect More

Do you ever find it difficult to love other human beings?  Not in a romantic sense, that would be a whole other subject matter to explore, more inclined for the therapists couch perhaps than my blog posts.  I simply mean whether you encounter internal struggles to rationalise the actions of another individual, based on their...
A Week in the Dark: The 57th BFI London Film Festival

A Week in the Dark: The 57th BFI London Film Festival

The nights draw closer and the official end of British summertime approaches, which times perfectly with the arrival of the BFI’s 57th London Film Festival.  This time of year never fails to excite me, particularly with a programme that ever widens with a delicious celluloid chocolate box to pick and choose from.   I proclaim myself...
The Emancipation of the EGO

The Emancipation of the EGO

During a conversation, do you often find yourself waiting to talk?  In your last exchange of words, did you really absorb the speaker(s) stories or were you too eager to regale your own news? We all have different styles of engaging with others, none of which are necessarily with any intention of doing any disservice,...