EPT
I can't wait to see RPF's personal blog: "Tears from the Inside - The Life of a Girly Man"
Just kidding Rob.
Anyhow I pretty much hate the word blog, but I can deal with it. So here is my blog, this is the first ever message, probably going to be the worst too - I mean if I set my standards too high the only way will be down. So if I give some really, really shitty posts for a while then the only way is up.
So hi, my name is Smurg (Graeme), this is my blog - if you don't know who I am around the place then gtfo. Nah just kidding, welcome I'm going to post my random thoughts for the day.
Right now I am sipping on some Spanish white wine, Torres Esmeralda - it's pretty nice I like it. At the moment running through my mind is what I want to do in the near future.
I think for my first few blogs I'll show you where my mind is at, and how I want to live life and all that - also they can serve as something that forces me to recap and share pictures of my trip to Europe which I spoke about a few times on TL.net.
Here.
And here.
Start:
My love for travel started when I was fairly young I suppose. After living in England for a few years after being born there, I moved to Saudi Arabia at the ripe age of 3. I was a child; I didn’t remember my early years in England as such, aside from a few scattered memories. Throughout my life at various points I’ve always thought to myself – “I want to see the world, life is there to be lived” or something along these lines. I figure that life really is there to be lived; actions have to be made that lead to an enriched life as opposed to a life where you progress in a purely ordered way. I suppose it’s never really been my intention to plan my life, and I don’t see it travelling down that course just yet.
The ‘normal’ life that I envision is the plot of the lives of many people; school – university – marriage – kids and a mortgage…the whole lot. I’m not saying that these lives aren’t admirable or something that is bad to aim for or even something that is empty. But in my mind, these lives are emptier than what my life could be. Life can be taken in or life can be lived. I’ve repeated the word life so many times…but it has to be said, I can’t really articulate life with words. This is a sentiment I remember thinking as I was about to board the plane to Italy after having a few beers with my cousin Paul whilst sitting in the bar at Prestwick Airport in Glasgow.
Life cannot be articulated by words! It can be explored and ‘spoken’ about, but the gaps in between words are great, experience needs to be truly experienced. Writing about an experience allows you to relive it in your own mind, your senses will recall the sights, the sounds and the smell of the places you were and your heart will remember the things you were doing and the feelings you had at the time. Life is a collection of moments, some great and some not so great, some wonderful and some too amazing they can’t be described. This is the reason I wanted to travel from an early age, right through until I actually started.
As ex-pats living in the Middle-East, we would often holiday abroad, being as it were, as an ex-pat, financial problems weren’t really an issue – there was no tax and my Dad was working there in a position that ‘paid well due to having to relocate to do the job’. I visited a great deal of countries during this time; England, Scotland, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, America – that is alongside living in Saudi Arabia for three years and Dubai for two years until finally moving to Australia in 1996, when I was 9.
Anyhow, if I was trying to make any point, I’ve become far removed from it. I wished to express, I suppose, that change, new things, places and people are what makes life truly wonderful – routine is what dulls down your day-to-day life, you get so caught up in doing what you’re doing that it becomes a superglue, you don’t think to change anything – you are stuck to the life you ‘think’ you should be leading. Instead of completing that degree right away or settling down too much in one place, you could organise flights to another country and see where the rabbit hole leads you. Don’t go into any adventure with high expectations, but with an open mind and a free-heart. High expectations or defined plans only exist to be knocked down and make you feel disappointed.
Adventure comes from exploring new things and visiting new places, but it also comes from highs and lows, bad and good situations. Adventure may be found in any place, with any person and at any time of the day. Look at your life and ask yourself how you want it to be, ask yourself where you see yourself in a few years time. If you can answer these questions sincerely and without a doubt, then I think it’s time to make a change and realise there is more to life than what you know and you could be filling your life with experience, on an adventure that takes you to places, that initially, you never even began to comprehend.
A sense of adventure is what made me want to travel, and this I suppose is an account of my first travels and what I hope to do next, and some of my aspirations with regards to that.
So next installment of my blog will be the beginning of the Europe trip.
Stay posted TL.net.
Blog shoutouts to:
CoW, Rage & Cpt Obvious...and now of course to Jared, Carnac, Artanis, Nyovne & Fanta.
never knew you lievd such an exciting life, smurg :p
