In Mexico, machismo, or ‘manliness’ is truer to its Spanish roots and gives men the permission to express themselves in much broader, more nuanced ways. It’s the version in which one’s masculinity is not breached when you trade your wheelbarrow of bricks for a crocheted shopping bag, or wear tight sparkling pants and white boots so that you can be part of the scene and play music in the square for a dollar or two.
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Be happy. A cat’s uncomplicated disposition precludes the usual psychological barriers to happiness. Post cat-chow, it’s all just a matter of leaping headlong into the adventure.
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By focusing on the development of our better selves and what’s up to us (our motivations, desires, judgements, reactions) and accommodating those that are not (other people, natural events, our wealth, health, reputation), we are on the path to achieving that peace of mind that is impervious to misfortune and the thoughts and actions of others.
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With flapping tentacles of bags and bottles, and my attempt to keep my hat on, and stay astride the scooter, we are soaring down the hill to the sea. The moment of flight lifts and exhilarates, every thought hushed by the streaming wind.
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It is not just a language my teacher and I are exchanging, it is about exploring the range of what it means to be human, and the joy experienced in uncovering both its cultural specificity and its universality. For while the Greeks may have coined it, I suspect that we are all going for the good!
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Given the urgency of needing a place to stay for the night, I unlatch the gate….but the unleashed and on-the-job retriever doesn’t let me get very far. My scream finally rouses the guesthouse owner, who., with the vacuum-cleaner now turned off, is as alarmed as I at the sight of a prospective, but bleeding, lodger.
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The Barrington Mill in Nova Scotia is Victorian to its bones, its floors creaking and lamplight shimmering as we crept through the washing and carding rooms, imagining the flurried delivery of wool from stage to stage, and the voices calling out to each other over the click-clack of the whirring looms upstairs.
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On Fournoi, you will wake to the sharp glare of the Mediterranean sun and promise of days adrift in an incandescent blue tethered only to a wild coastline, stark mountainsides, and new friends gathered around a table in the village square.
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Sorting out Greek gods and mythology isn’t easy. Join me on this road trip round the Peloponnese where I come to terms with a story that merges a fabulously rich chorus of voices!
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The pandemic brought everything to a screeching halt for me except my daily date with my bicycle. The quintessence of self-isolation in well-ventilated spaces, pedalling through the pandemic also gave me best seat in the house to Canada’s ocean playground: Nova Scotia.
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Cycling across Canada had been a boon for the body; I was hoping a dive back into the academic world would be manna for the mind.
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A fondness for roads that swoop from cove to cove along sun-bleached coastlines, and a yen for the unknown and less travelled. That was the impulse behind my Tirana-Tilos bike trip.
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Your perception of Canada will be dramatically changed if you experience it one pedal, and one conversation, at a time.
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Cycling coast to coast across Canada can be an endless re-run of ‘Forests, Lakes and Tim Horton’s’. Not Quebec and The Maritimes. Farmlands, villages and storybook roads are the order of the day here.
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Why does the repetitive scheme of ‘rocks, lakes and trees’ make for a tedious road trip through Northern Ontario, but fun ride for a cyclist? Read and find out!
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The Red Coat Trail – a secondary route through the Prairies, from Lethbridge Alberta to Winnipeg Manitoba is a quiet ramble through farmland and history for the cyclist.
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When I decided five months ago that I would cycle across Canada to honour my sister and raise personal awareness
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It’s not difficult to think of ten reasons to bike B.C. Our ride for ovarian cancer has slipped
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Personal passion-projects are the reason introverts will risk going public with their ideas!
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I try not to dwell on the outrageous proposition in front of me in just 3 weeks time;
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I am riding to advocate for greater personal awareness and public action for ovarian cancer in memory of my sister, Sheila Rae.
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Fantastical ambitions of a team of monks results in the building of breathtaking castles and communities
in the sky. Visit Meteora to witness these feats of wonder.
Caminos are often pilgrimage routes reserved to those traversing Europe, to sites of sacred relics and religious significance. A long and difficult trip through the Pamir Mountains in Central Asia denotes a pilgrimage on the legendary Silk Road.
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When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts. An e-mail from Lobesa Lower
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The annual Christina Lake Homecoming festival in July welcomes residents and visitors alike to a magical corner of British Columbia.
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A startingly beautiful city, Cape Town is also home to a vibrant street culture and stirring historical past. You will stand in awe of this city and its people.
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Unpacking South African highlights after touring cross-country with Intrepid Travel is not a walk in
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A small cluster of islands in the south-eastern Dodecanese archipelago have a distinctive
dramatic character that is apparent the moment you land upon their shores.
The realities of a popular pilgrimage – The Camino – can sometimes overwhelm the transcendent….
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Travellers in regions of Basilicata and Puglia in southern Italy are treated to an array of unusual homes and vistas.
One of the treasures, the city of Matera, has been designated Europe’s Cultural Capital for 2016.
Bedecked with Bougainvillea: My Tiny Home on Tilos I have always wanted to live in a village. The kind of
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Camino to Santiago de Compostela The Pilgrimage – Sir Walter Raleigh 1604 ` Give me my scallop shell of quiet,
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Hiking in the mountains of British Columbia can’t be done without a lot of love
and a bit of bear savvy. And large ladles of gratitude!
TAKE LIFE ADAGIO AT THE LAKE Summer is the time to slow down, disconnect, decompress and savour the moment, particularly
Read moreVancouver Folk Festival’s backdrop of Jericho Beach, Vancouver harbour and the Coast Mountains
may be considered the most scenic setting for any summer festival in B.C. Until you’ve been to the Christina Lake Homecoming Festival!
Small islands have the tendency to steal our hearts, particularly when
they have not yielded to the scourge of ‘modernism’. Don’t say I didn’t warn you about Tilos!
Greek traditions of honour and hospitality lead to welcomes extended to
refugees and tourists alike. In a perfect world, this would be a compatible mix.
Eventually, Greece Our first destination in Greece is the tiny, rustic and rugged island of Tilos, just offshore Turkey and
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Sometimes premier local events are not in your guide book. Luckily, we took the advice of our agriturismo host
and scuttled up the mountain to take in Bucchianicos annual Flower Festival.
Spring signals change, and our brains respond in fashion. For learners of all ages
this can be a very exciting time of year!
In our ultra-sensitized, politically-corrected world, opera characters’ lives seem to be trainwrecks waiting to happen. Is that why we love them? Is their story our repressed one?
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In true bohemian fashion, our visit to the island of Hydra, southeast of Athens, located great walking trails, Leonard
Cohen’s legendary Greek home, and the once outlawed Rebetiko music.
There is nothing middling about Morocco; prepare to be dazzled, be it the hospitality, the silence of the Sahara, or the practised pandemonium of the medinas.
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