“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page”
In the words of Saint Augustine…
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A Prayer for Tourists
Spotted in the beautiful, historic church in Richmond, Tasmania.
How tricky Language can be..
Travel writer Frances Wilkes lives in Penang, Malaysia. She relates how the charming young man at the hairdressers invited her to “lie back, and I’ll refresh your bottom”.
Her dilemma: how to explain, tactfully, that ‘roots’ might be a better term…
What’s the word for….
The English language has more words than any other, partly because it has borrowed words from many other tongues. But it doesn’t have a word for everything! So I vote that we add a few more to fill a few of the gaps.
How about ‘hyggelig’ (Danish), meaning ‘comfy, cosy, intimate and contented’?
Or ‘sombremesa’ (Spanish), ‘after-lunch conversation around the table’? which might however sound less interesting if you are experiencing ‘abbiocco’, the Italian for ‘drowsiness from eating a big meal’…
I think the most useful word we could borrow, though, (can be applied to all sorts of situations, from relationships to organisations to politics), is the German word ‘verschlimmbessern’ – ‘to make something worse when trying to improve it’…
(With thanks to the excellent website babbel.com – check it out if you want to learn a new language! The clever,?multilingual people there have started to collect unique words from around the globe).
What do the US, Liberia and Myanmar have in Common?
Can you guess?
No, I couldn’t either.
These are the only three countries in the world that do not use the metric system.
So now we know.
I wonder what this means?
Maybe it’s something very profound…(By the pool at a hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand).
Yogi Berra on Travel
The late, great Yogi Berra is forever associated with the New York Yankees. As well as baseball, he’s famous for his memorable turns of phrase. At one level they don’t make sense, at another they are profoundly true (I think so, at least!)
His remarks range from the practical: “Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel” and “When you come to a fork in the road, take it”, to existential warnings: “You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there”.
But my all-time favourite? “If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be”. Can’t argue with that….
I know what they meant, but…
On a (British Airways) flight recently, I watched three short videos. Part of the airline’s ‘well-being in the air’ programme, they were short, mindfulness-based meditations. I thought they were very relaxing and very good.
The first, pre-flight, one made me smile, though. It was described as ‘a meditation that helps you stay grounded’…
Wombat Wisdom
Happy International Bassoon Day!
11 October is International Bassoon Day!
The man behind the project is Laurence Perkins, principal bassoonist for the Manchester (UK) Camerata, who wants to reintroduce ‘this beautiful, expressive and versatile instrument’ to new generations of players.
Check local ‘what’s on’ websites or http://www.laurenceperkins.com – on 11 October, in public places all over the world, bassoonists will play Mozart. So far the site lists events, most of them free, in Rotterdam, Mexico, Chicago, Moscow and sites around the UK, and more are being added. If you’re in London on the day, go along to the Royal Festival Hall and you’ll be treated to a performance from the steps by what Laurence describes as ‘Massed Bassoonists’. As (I think) it’s quite rare to see more than two or three bassoonists performing together, this should really be something!
And another one for the diary, various dates, various venues, is ‘Bassoon Voyager’, a concert of music inspired by travel…
Oh, and in case, like me, you weren’t sure you’d recognise a bassoon if you saw one, this is a photo from Laurence’s website:
Enjoy!
travelling frogs 