A goodbye but not the last….

What more can I say but London is done and the next chapter begins…. Well it’s almost done, there is still final packing, getting to the Airport and yes… THE WALKABOUT to contend with….
But eleven months of London life is winding up to a close and both Nick and I are breathing a collective sigh of relief…. And then we both breathe in and jump back on the road of endless world travel… Me West him East….. then me East and him West….

When will we see each other again after tonight? I really don’t know… plans are for December…. But this all depends on Nick living through the badlands of southern Afghanistan etc.

What can I say that I have learnt in the past seventeen months with Nick?

Health

I now can do squats and push myself to failure in any gym exercise. I pay attention to the nutritional content of foods I. I value body as well as mind. I have quit smoking and moved to Diet coke. I am not as health conscious as Nick but I am a dam sight better than I was two years ago. Oh I also use moisturiser too ;-o

Rationality

I have discovered the “ultimate rationality”. Something that few would be able appreciate nor would I be willing to share it with them, but something I am sure Nick will understand.

More with Less

I have learnt to live simply and value basic things like a glass of water and a bench on the back of a truck. The road to true sustainable living has become much clearer in the past year and a half….

Love the pain

I have learnt to push all aspects of myself well beyond what I thought I was capable of. From ice walls to moving house on the Tube to zero degrees swims in London winter…. I have found the invigoration that comes from doing something that you normally wouldn’t do…. Embrace the absurdity and do it anyway.

Patience and understanding

Having lived with someone so different to me for so long I have learnt to understand that I may not hold all the possible answers to things and also maybe the way I feel about things is not for everyone…..

Well anyways… It has been a mad seventeen months. And I could list many more things. As for the future I have no idea nor would I want to predict as that takes the mystery out of things… Rest assured things will get far more interesting for both of us from this point….

Thanks for everything Nick! You have been integral in the complete reshaping of my future… Thanks for getting those tickets and getting us the hell out of Canberra! Love you and hopefully our paths will cross again sooner rather than later….

Hasta Siempre Mi Amigo Bueno!!!

Keep your comments to yourself

What a great few days in London town....

As the departure day draws nearer and nearer I find myself trying to fit more and more into the bag of experience that is/was London. Many boxes were not ticked so what better time to do some last minute ticking than now. Wednesday went to see Stomp, a great stage show full of energy and humour. It was like being at a cultural visit at school, audience had many kids and the performers made sure there was audience participation. It was funny at the start when it was only those young members of the audience who would laugh. I found myself even annoyed at first that they were making the noise of laughing, thinking that this took away from the performance. Ha! What a hard nosed old fogey I am becoming... well rest assured my hard nosed exterior melted in due course and I was laughing with the rest of them. Laughing - something I do not do enough of these days.... great medicine for the soul I think.

Then it was Chicago and amazing dancing, singing and quality humour. What a performance.... a mix of sex and violence, pride and ego.... I wish I did dance and acting when I was younger.... Well it's not too late ;-0

Then Massive Attack in Hyde Park..... so so so cool.... Awesome stage show and big spread out crowd.... I was in the middle of London and a million miles away. It's funny how easily you can escape from things if you want to... I guess I have been learning that there was a better life I could have lived in London while here, instead of grumpling about all the bad points I could have been out there experiencing things. I don't just mean going to expensive stage shows (which arent actually that expensive when you book last minute) but just getting active into what is happening here. I mean besides the drunks and crazies on the streets there a millions of interesting and creative people here.... People we could learn from..... Anyways I am leaving in a week so I will just have enjoy what is left and move on....

So anyways to the title of this post....

Farah and I were on the way home on #94 from Piccidilly Circus. We had had a few drinks and hence had decided to discuss all the worlds problems in a logical order and then providing all the neccessary solutions as we saw them.... Something all people do from time to time.. Well by the time we had travalled the whole globe in our convo... This guy (drunk - of course) in front of us turns around and starts to preach about how egotistical and arrogant I am about thinking I know what people need and how I think I am the centre of the universe and have all the answers. So sick have I made him with my talk that he and his friend have to move away from me on the bus.... Well Farah and I were shocked... Had we just broken some unspoken law on what one can say in public (even if it is just between two people)? Well in this guys eyes... yes.... Well the poeple in the back of the bus seemed happy to encourage my freedom of speech rights as I left the bus... so atleast i didnt feel like i had offended everyone... Chance had it, as it often does, that I got off at the same stop as this guy... So I confronted him.... turns out he agrees with what i said in most cases but feels one is not allowed to talk of such things (PC issues) and he just had a shit night and wanted to take it out on someone. Whether he meant it or was too afraid to say what he really thought to me on the street with no others around I am unsure.... Hmmmm... It bothered me I must say, the whole incident... Am I really that arrogant? Does having ideas for "helping" the world mean I am pompus? Am I egotistical to think I can help? Is help needed? Kind of made we want to say.... stuff it why help.... If this is what I get for caring.... stuff it! Hmmm well all I can say is, which was also said by a grumpy pommy guy at one of my childhood cricket games... "keep your comments to yourself". Free speech.... Ha! Provided you say the right things.....

The Quest(ion) and Why does everyone hate Dubai?

I find myself continuously questioning people about Dubai and I keep being faced with the same responses: “Interesting place to visit, but would hate to live there”. Whether it be rampant consumerism, urban sprawl, insufficient amount of affordable property for tenants, non-existent public transport system, dark underside of mistreating women, drugs, and sex workers from eastern Europe and Russia, lack of democratic process in government add on top of this oppressive heat… Well I begin to question why on earth I am going there.

I mean as I look back at the past three and a half years of my life (my post University time) I seem to picking more and more unpleasant places to exist. I mean living in Canberra for two years, which I described as a ‘soulless town, that had a very itinerant population’ by this I was referring to how the public service took in fresh faced uni grads and churned out hard nosed neo-cons, who two years after starting in Canberra were off to Sydney, Melbourne or London to continue the spread of Economic rationalism and a individualist contract based work ethic…. So my time in Canberra pushed me towards running away…. Which I did and spent a lovely six months travelling in South America, which along with my time in Nepal, was probably some of the best times in my life.

Then there was the London, I won’t say England, as I don’t know the place, barring a handful of trips to the countryside I have spent my time in the concrete confines of Zone 1 – 3… Wow. What can I say about London?

Well: I have not gone a day in the past eleven months where I have not walked past both a crazy person and a drunk… yes everyday… I see them. Now I am a pretty compassionate person, but really everyday… even I don’t care anymore. Generally all I feel now is a feeling of distaste and a mild form of sadness when I am confronted with this during my daily routines. I think London has taught me that we are heading for drastic problems if we continue on the urbanisation of our daily landscape, which I think is a timely lesson to learn as the human race becomes more urban than rural. Living in cities is unhealthy for body, soul and mind – this London has taught me.

So then I ask myself: Why Dubai? Like why work out that cities are bad places to live and them move to the worlds biggest city in construction?

I guess I am fascinated with why we chose the wrong path… To me Dubai is what is going to kill the world (I could just as well be Shanghai or Seoul, but hey in Dubai they speak English a lot more than they do in those cities). Dubai is a perfect example of what emerging economies think is the way out of poverty, a way into meaning something in the new age of globalisation, a way to get a seat at ‘the table’ for when some of the big decisions are made at a global level (rather than in the Oval Office, which is currently the case). And my question would be two fold: Why do countries sell out so easily and what does it cost them in terms of culture, society, environment and sustainability AND are there other ways to have a voice and develop and/or does having a voice and developing really matter?

On top of the development debate comes the religious one: Dubai – Have you given up your values and customs for a buck, or is this what you want us to think, whilst you get as much money out of the west as possible…. And the Middle East as a whole, particularly Saudi Arabia – “okay the west is getting it wrong on the meaningful, sustainable life thing, but are you getting it any less wrong, given your lack of freedom and generally low levels of development and high levels of ignorance amongst the vast majorities of your populations (I will ignore the fact that this is often the case in the western world, noting that at least in the western world people have access to the info, whether they choose to read up about it is another thing)?”

And as I start this quest my travel companion will be getting his hands much more dirty into the sands of many a desert from Turkey to Iran to Afghanistan (http://hoist-the-spinnaker.blogspot.com/ ). We both have many questions, some similar, some different….We both have many ideas on what is true… a couple similar and many different… But we both know that something is wrong and that something HAS TO BE DONE if the human race is to survive…

Will the year be able to uncover some truths for us? I hope so.

13 days left....

Amazing to think that I am this close to ending such a big chapter in my life. I get nervous knots in my stomach when I think about what lays ahead of me:

1. 30 June - Finishing work here in the UK
2. 2 July (morning) - Leaving friend/travel+fighting partner/roommate of 16+ months on 2 July,
3. 2 July (afternoon) - Seeing mates from home after 16+ months
4. July - Meeting Farah's family
5. 8 July - Going on bucks night in Toronto
6. 15 July - Seeing Crouchy getting married
7. July - Go to NYC
8. 28 July - Say goodbye to my love for undetermined period of Time
9. 28 July - Fly to Uk and kill a day
10. 30 July - Meet my confirmed "in mid-life crisis" Aunty and travel to Norway
11. Aug - Meet relos in Norway, swim in Artic Circle etc
12. 10 Aug (morning) - Fly back to UK
13. 10 Aug (afternoon) - Fly to Dubai
14. 11 Aug - Start life in Dubai predicted weather - Sunny and 45C and humid :-)

Wow.... busy but exciting..... but to tell you the truth I would almost trade it all to be back in a hammock on a beach in Cuba... But it is time for a new challenge and this is the one that has come my way.

What can I update on? Well went to Roma a week ago... Amazing... It is a must see as far as I am concerned. The most beautiful city in the world thus far for me... and romantic too... check out photos: http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/Italy . Farah and I had a great time... saw lots and ate lots, and what more can you ask for? Not much :-)

Rapidly approaching the joyus finding new roommates part of our stay... oh yeah... fingers crossed it does not end the way Canberra did. I am sure Nick is thinking the same, but more about the "winding up at the walkabout" night for him ;-)

Fancy leaving London when it is at its best? Long warm sunny days.... something I could not believe existed in this part of the world... Well I guess it will be nice to end on a high note....

And anyone reading this please spare a thought and a prayer for my parents who have recently lost a dear friend, Tony Yarum. My love goes out to them in these times of mourning.. hugs M & D!