Distractions

When I started this blog and was talking to Penelope about it, and my desire to keep it travel oriented, she warned me that it would be hard to focus on one specific topic. I was in denial. The more I write on here, the more I want to write and about various and random things. Part of it is because travel holds such an intimate place in my heart, it is hard for me to verbalize a lot of my thoughts. The other part is that it is just inspiring to write! So, in this sense, I am distracted by the plethora of other experiences, sights, sounds, smells I come across daily and therefore feel the need to expand my blogging horizons.

If I were a blood hound, or hunting beagle, I would be put out to pasture. I cannot stay on one scent for very long and find myself constantly wandering off the path, following some rustling bushes, auditory glimpses of a brook or stream, rays of sunlight through the trees, a scampering bunny. Mind you, that is metaphorical for things such as walking up Church St. to pick up a book and finding myself in the camera shop buying film and paper, or the home goods store looking at various kitchen accoutrement. I am the same way at work, yet somehow have never missed a deadline. I bounce from budgets and emails to google and ebay and travel websites.

Sometimes I am distracted by what I picture as a future life (not as in reincarnation, but in the sense of down the road a few months or years). The other day I was on Gumtree (link on the right of my blog), looking through apartment sublets available, choosing which one I liked best. Then I started looking through bar and restaurant jobs and which would fit best. I toyed with the Au Pair idea as well amidst my "job search". Next was the Rideshare link and planning a weekend away to visit friends in Perth or Brisbane. The cars-for-sale link beckoned me for a bit...would I want my own car or depend on public transport and enjoy the unfamiliarity of the coastal bus and/or rideshares for weekend trips? I think I will go without a car for only the 2nd time in my life (the first was my summer in London). I do love to live away from my life, at least mentally, for a few minutes, hours every few days or weeks.

J.R.R. Tolken wrote one of my favorite sayings - "All who wander are not lost." I suppose this can be true of mental wanderings as well.