Skip to main content

A New Year...IZ says it all....Remote Islands and Manners....

King Kamahemeha Day Parade , Hawaii 2008  (photo the author)

It’s a new year.  And when I was preparing for friends to visit today I listened to  IZ Somewhere over the Rainbow He was inspirational…and has now sadly passed.  I hope, as you enjoy the first day of 2012 you also enjoy this inspirational clip.

I have spent many months of my last few years with my companion traveling around remote islands while he researched them for his books.  To be able to live with and enjoy and learn from the people of these islands  has been an unexpected gift for me.
These buses were everywhere...feeding the  participants in the Pipeline Competition 

While the remote islands of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island, Yap, Palau, Norfolk Island and more have intrigued me, when I  went back, through IZ's music, to the time when I was travelling with my companion in Hawaii in 2008 I found my memories just there.   And here I share some photos.
"So, did you leave me some coffee?" (the gecko in our house in Hawaii photo the author) 

Happy New Year…please don’t forget to dance as if there is no tomorrow….and to remember to be kind, considerate and genuine.  To yourself, and those you love.  It’s all about the manners…
The island of Molokai...and the resting place of Father Damien  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Boyfriend, Manfriend, Partner, Companion…a new word required….

Dance "partners" (microsoft) I read a really interesting article the other day written by a Generation Y male lamenting that his girlfriend no longer referred to him as her “boyfriend”, but in an overheard conversation as her “partner”.  He took exception to this expression writing: “I must have missed the memo on my sexless new categorisation – I would certainly not have approved it.  A ‘partner’ is someone you twirl around at a barn dance”. (Andy Jones, Grazia magazine) I have had a business partner;  there are partners in law, stockbroking and accounting firms. And so to refer to my personal life-sharer as a partner was not comfortable for me. But despite the fact that the English language is alive and evolving, there is not a word or an expression to reflect the status of one’s “life companion” whether in a gay or straight relationship if not committed to, or already married. The word “companion” actually applies in both French and Italian. Although in Engl

Bali…Bogans, Tattoos and the Ugly Australian…

Balinese temple (photo LP 2010) I have returned in the past few days from a holiday in Bali, Indonesia, with my sister.  Unlike my trip in 2010 when I stayed more remotely in the north west at Pemuteran  and  the north east at Amed, this visit was to a five star resort in Legian. What a difference!  The streets of Legian were very busy, the locals almost outnumbered by the Australian tourists.  I heard very few languages other than “Aussie” spoken and it reminded me that when I travelled with my French boyfriend to the northern part of Bali, I was told by the Europeans I met that they tended to avoid the tourist hubs of Kuta, Legian and Seminyak because of the loud, rude and crude Australians…yes a generalisation about the Aussies, but unfortunately, as I was to learn, a correct one. A friendly local trying to sell us a toy (photo LP 2012) It is difficult to write this post without appearing a “snob”.  But having canvassed my ideas with friends, acquaintances, col

Friendships...gold and silver...real and virtual...priceless!

My 21st birthday dinner...Oh so formal then! I was talking with a friend the other day about friendship.  About how it impacts on our lives, from childhood and teenage friends, to becoming friends with boyfriends’s friends, husband’s friends and their wives, parents of other school children, social club friends,  friends after divorce or death of a partner, passing friendships, acquaintances…and now virtual friends. It’s complicated. And I am finding in my “middle” years that my need for friends has reduced…not that I don’t value and cherish my friends, but my actual need has lessened.  Why, I wonder?  I used always be a “People who need People” (with apologies to whoever wrote the song made famous in  Funny Girl ) sort of a person.  I was always out and about, making sure that I saw my friends, knew all that was going on with them and theirs.  Afternoon tea for the girls...with bubbles! However, as the years have moved on, my children have become independent