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
Hold Your Tongue & Keep it Calm

Hold Your Tongue & Keep it Calm

For as long as I can remember and at multiple moments in my life, I have always had a long line of people eager to instruct me on ‘what’ to do, how something ‘should’ be done and been dutifully chastised when something has not been up to par with their standards.  I think I just...
Being a Tarantinophile - A Cinematic Obsession

Being a Tarantinophile – A Cinematic Obsession

I’ll always remember when we first met.  The setting was the shabby living room of my friend’s house, cat hairs rolling like tumbleweed over carpeted floors, the stale scent of cigarettes clinging to soft furnishings due to the smoke curling through the air from the continual glow of her mother’s Silk Cut.  2 guys face...
A Prodigal Daughter's Philippine Adventure

A Prodigal Daughter’s Philippine Adventure

Six years since my last visit and a journey I do not intend to delay again, a reunion with my family was eagerly looked forward to. There are many perceptions of the Philippines with the principal ideas gained mainly by encounters with the people administering to your needs in hospitals, cleaning your houses and caring...
Food Education with FEAST this Christmas

Food Education with FEAST this Christmas

I find that a lack of social interaction extremely debilitates the mind and spirit, so imagine my glee when I was able to alleviate these doldrums by combining two of my passions in one clean swoop on a chilly but gloriously sunshine-filled Sunday afternoon.  Food and good conversation were the stimuli of choice and the...

Cold Heart Warmed by Daylight

The dawn air swirls like mist from the lips of frozen maidens with romantic stares An Arctic morning brings such beauty Sullied only by youth with ignorant stares   The smiles become a grimace To protect the hearth inside But my heart is warmed by daylight the frost not matching the cold of mind  ...
Ignorance may be Blissful but it is not Bliss

Ignorance may be Blissful but it is not Bliss

“You never know how it feels until it happens to you” This quote could apply to many scenarios in life, but it is one that claims more gravitas since a recent brush with fate.  Before I continue to enlighten you on my ‘call to arms’, I beg to ask, do you know your neighbours? Perhaps...
Tuning into Talent at the London Jazz Festival 2012

Tuning into Talent at the London Jazz Festival 2012

“The combination of sounds with a view to beauty of form and expression of emotion” And so goes the description of MUSIC. Through the utilisation of a staggering number of instruments, as well as incorporating vocal chords to produce the finest food available to the ear, our human existence continually benefits from the endless possibilities...
In Defence of Beard to Tail

In Defence of Beard to Tail

Since I have started blogging I have been inundated with recommendations and suggestions from friends and acquaintances of where to go and what to write about.  As well as my own planned activities, you can imagine the difficulties one can experience when taking such suggestions into account, combining a fear of ‘missing out’ on good...
Baltic Offerings to revisit this Winter

Baltic Offerings to revisit this Winter

It occurred to me whilst perusing recent restaurant articles that there is a lot of information available to the reviewer (and reader) based on NEW openings and NEW places to “be” at.  I share the enthusiasm that abounds from the mere mention of a new eatery and there is an enormous amount of reassurance gained...
From Bean to Cup: where to get a GOOD Coffee in London

From Bean to Cup: where to get a GOOD Coffee in London

We all have preferences for caffeine and various elements influence our choice ranging from convenience to good fortune (lucky you should you reside within reach of an independent supplier). On various expeditions throughout the Capital I have sought out spots to record, as much as a reminder for myself as for your own knowledge.  This...

Is Social Media killing our ‘Social Skills’? It does not have to!

Ponder on the humble telephone.  Once in the form of a land line in most of our homes, ringing senza caller-display/ photo/ ringtone, maintaining it’s mystique due to not necessarily knowing whom was at the other end of the line. Do you remember that feeling? The anticipation of a long awaited call; is it or...
Being Anti-Social: a movie-going mission at London Film Festival 2012

Being Anti-Social: a movie-going mission at London Film Festival 2012

The BFI London Film Festival is an incredible excitement-inducing highlight in my calendar.  This year marks its 56th run and appallingly I’ve only been attending the past four.  A pity.  Had I discovered it sooner, I may have been privy to many more (yet to be seen) motion treasures that seem to join a personal film-purgatory; a...