Chichester, U.K.- Cathedrals

The cloistered/monastic life-Every day,monks had to go out of their mind in order to come to their senses; time millionaires who choose to "spend" this commodity in contemplation-That's an adventure---the joy in the freedom of having nothing but being everything-To live in this vastness is to bathe in the ocean that mystics call one taste.

Coming into a cathedral, whether it is St Pat's or here in England at Chichester--slows down time, and you can reflect-It's about optimism, love and hope and it inspires all of us to creatively dream, imagine and enjoy what is.

Marc Chagall.

Dear Abbey

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Arundel, U.K. -Castles

A Man's Home Is His Wife's Castle

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Very Gothic and Medieval  today in Arundel

Windsor/Eaton This October

May  2011

There will always be an England, even if it is in Hollywood.  In fact, it makes me think of Monarchs,  all the  knights in shining armor movies and Brothers Grimm tales of  Rapunzel,  princesses, royalty and CASTLES

English castles  are such a common sight in the UK. I wonder what the upkeep on this brick and mortar version is.  If I had that kind of money I wouldn't come to England, I'd send for it.

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Venice- Picturesque Floating City

In Venice, Italy they don't have streets,
 they have canals.Today the water level reached onto the sidewalks-
 and I got some canal cred-

The Boats Of Venice

I got a FB post saying "It’s like  Disneyland", and in fact that was my first thought, and Vegas, the Venetian my next- 

Venice Italy is  however,  a city built on the water, a working, living city, and everybody gets around in boats.
NO CARS! All the traffic is watewrborne-
 All the emergency services--water ambulance , police boats, fireman; garage collection boats, Fidelity armored cash couriers.

All the  delivery-boats that deliver goods of every sort;  and  all  the postal service delivering packages letters.

So besides the stunning photos I took of the architecture and the canals, I was really amazed at the fact there were - I took a few shots-

Venice Cash-Courier Boat

Garbage Collection

Police Boat plowing through the grand canal

Water Ambulance Behind Me,Taxi in Front.  

A Simple Delivery Barge, the most common kind on the canals

Emergency Services

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Venice-Gondola Dreams And Acqua Alta (High Water)

I am older now, (Birthday 2/13)and so is Venice. Yet growing old isn't optional, growing up is-and I feel YOUNG! enthusiastic and vibrant-like a student-a gondola is as far out of reach as a five-star hotel with this attitude.50 Euros for 20  Minutes- No thank you. I'll just WALK ON WATER!

Getting lost in Venice is the only place worth going to

Knowing that you have a finite life creates an urgency to the minutes that you live. Had to go to Venice(once) in the Winter!

My sole currency from their language “espresso”  was already spent. I used it twice.

Many moons ago the dollar was 870 lire and I was twenty-two, I would have only "Done Venice" in the Summer. In fact, there is no other time to visit Venice, then Winter, without the one day instant tourists, aka, the 80%ers who inhabit the lagoon for less than a day via a cruise ship excursion. 

The Venetians on the other hand, have such lovely language for each of  the lanes and streets: fondamenta (along a canal), sotoportico (a covered passage), corte (courtyard), riva (a wide fondamenta along the lagoon), calle (street), rio (canal) and campo (square).




Last year this time, I was in VENICE BEACH

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Old Portsmouth - Unfathomable

HMS Warrior- the first armor-plated, iron-hulled warship(1859)

Admiral Nelson's Ship Victory-the Royal Navy's most famous warship,
hard to believe that you can fit 800 sailors on deck.

The Persistence of Dubai 

Walking downtown towards the Naval Dockyard, Spinnaker Tower is a 560 feet high  landmark  and  the centerpiece of the redevelopment of the harbor

Having just been in the UAE, The design is similar to the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, and I felt like the CAUSE was gone but the EFFECT was still there-like I was seeing a mirage! in the middle of a February day in the U.K.

The Persistence of Dubai -

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UK-London Is Calling

It's The Year of The Horse, and  I am back in The United Kingdom, walking around Mayfair District, I noticed the Saudi Flag, cool.

There is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing-so I have dressed appropriately for the big chill.

Winging it at The Domaine,  in Bahrain last week.
This place has 5 star service and great food

Taking  life with a grain of salt and a slice of lemon
and a shot of Tequilla-The famous El Patron 
 at The Domaine, Bahrain 

Walking on The Strand  on Tuesday, with the English Channel in the background :
"I wanted to fly a  kite but it is over my head".

Stay Thirsty My Friends!
"God grant me the coffee to change the things
 I can or give me the Guinness to endure the things I can't"

English Leather-After a close shave

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The Geography of Bliss

When you revisit the past, make
sure you come back in time 

“You should  write a book”  I rather  shoot a movie, with Sequels.  A  Show rather than Tell-All.

How can I compose a story big enough, deep enough and broad enough to encompass the reality of my life? When I’m at sea, immersed in action, I am the protagonist,You can't create experiences like this, you undergo them.

The power of narrative comes forth  when I am engaged in the telling.(or selling) of these accounts.

Jumeriah Beach

Don't Stop Believin'

 There are 3 versions, First, the edited “inside version”,  Secondly, The story I tell the world, and Thirdly, my created self- or RL Real Life (story). Depending on my audience, my motive, or my mood at any given time. . . The countless possible versions of (my story) can vary widely.

Bucket Listed

“Whoever authors your story authorizes your actions.” 

Enter Sand Man (Dubai)

When we tell our own story—and write our own autobiography, we truly begin to live more consciously and unfold our own myth---with  us as producer and director, going out to sea , in an infinity of hope, it's life's coming attraction, where we have final cut. There is, indeed, the uniqueness of inhabiting our own life when we follow our bliss and tell our own story. I think that the majority of people never get inside their own lives.   Read More Here

That is the difference between living mythically (The American Dream)  and living autobiographically (The  YOUniverse) where your wishbone becomes your backbone. 

"That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best – make it all up – but make it up so truly that later it will happen" Ernest Hemingway 

The Year Of
Magical Thinking

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Write? Right!

A One-Man-National Geographic on that everywhere trip.

Yangoon-One Hand Clapping

The earth school kills all of its students. Life is like rowing out to sea in a boat that has a hole in the bottom. Have as much joy and fun and  fulfillment- because success without fulfillment is failure. This is known as Present-Moment Hedonism; conservative risk-averse types call it PoiZen. Traveling, is like shaving my head-if I'm not doing it everyday I start to feel like a bum.  I use traveling  as a medicine to feel differently. Traveling is a drug that gives me  a fix when I'm  down and  turns feeling normal into a buzz 

Unlike retail therapy that  ends up  being  buyer's remorse, the cure  IS the poison, and  the  fool, who persists in his folly, becomes wise. The  pressure of modern life  (or as it's also known, being lucky enough to be born in the USA) seems tiny compared to some of the beauty in the world. Seeing it all at the slower  speed  of nautical miles, magnifies it 10x, to the nth degree.

Action Plan

Doing  the right thing at the wrong time equals pain- Someday, the busiest day of the week, is the wrong time. It is never about the claim to finite resources..."not enough time, money, opportunity". It's about resourcefulness.

Long Term Travel

If travel is your dream, then live your dream now, not your back up plan. I would recommend that everyone who wanted to travel, do it immediately. Sooner  rather than later. Gather no moss. Time Marches  on. Start Now.The winds of grace always blow for us but we  have to raise our sails and just go. Read More Here

Consciousness Is Wireless

Proust decided he’d done enough living by age 30 and decided to spend the rest of his life processing the life he’d lived in a book called Remembrance Of Things Past.  I do not suffer from the "dis-ease" of more, but I still see myself traveling by cruise ship in the present perfect tense- as in: "I will have booked another world cruise by age 60."

Hooked-My Life
Based On A True Story

The  reason why I haven't written a book, is because I'm still processing it all! Looking forward to the day when  I have more PAST than FUTURE, and my experience catches up to my imagination, as the quotidian, intimate and overlooked aspects of ordinary day  become more extraordinary.

Narrow Road to The Interior

Everyone's life is either a warning or an example, but nothing is so irritating as a good example.  Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the people. Hell is other people and you usually meet them on a cruise ship---I write my own rules for nautical success: continued enthusiasm despite failure after failure.  

The Accidental Sailor

Despite the undoubted camaraderie, the laughs, the jollies and the sense of tribalism that attends any cruise contract or  project, the profession remains a notoriously lonely one. FriendSHIPS are intense but brief; when the gig ends or the curtain comes  down, you can soon find yourself back home staring at your cell phone and wondering if any of it really happened. Memories are short, time moves on, "fame" is transitory.Read More Here

Everyday Epiphanies

You Do What On A Cruise Ship?

Los Angeles-To London in 110 Days-

 Let The Orinoco Flow- One Year @Sea

Tranquility Base-The Ego Has Landed

Further Up and Further In

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in!"    C.S. Lewis

 Around The World In 3 Ideas-I Myth You

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