When you’re struggling with something, look at all the people around you and realize that every single person you see is struggling with something, and to them, it’s just as hard as what you’re going through.

DEAR JOHN, NICHOLAS SPARKS

"It is a bit of a cliche to characterize life a a rambling journey on which we can alter our course at any given time - by the slightest turn of the wheel, the wisdom goes, we influence the chain of events and thus recast our destiny with new cohorts, circumstances, and discoveries. But for the most of us, life is nothing like that. Instead, we have a few brief periods when we are offered a handful of discreet options. Do I take this job or that job? In Chicago or New York? Do I join this circle of friends or that one, and with whom do I go home at the end of the night? And does one make time for children now? or later? Or later still? 
In that sense, life is less like a journey than it is a game of honeymoon bridge. In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions - we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played on out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives fore decades to come." 
- Amor Towles, Rules of Civility

"I hoped we never had to realize all the opportunities we missed in this life."

The YEAR OF PLEASURES, ELIZABETH BERG

People never explain to you exactly what they think and feel and how their thoughts and feelings work, do they? They don’t have time. Or the right words. But that’s what books do. It’s as though your daily life is a film in the cinema. It can be fun, looking at those pictures. But if you want to know what lies behind the flat screen you have to read a book. That explains it all.

A WEEK IN DECEMBER, SEBASTIAN FAULKS

The traveler sees what he sees.  The tourist sees what he has come to see.  ~G.K. Chesterton

“You put up a tent to make a space you can deal with. You know the whole night’s still out there – the land, the sky and every creeping thing – and you understand how thin the fabric is, what a pissy pretence you hold to, but with your tent blown open you feel more exposed than if you’d laid down on your mat beneath the stars. You can’t see what’s coming.” Tim Winton, Dirt Music

"she was old old old. she said she'd die one day. but, see, how did she make the food hot? and how are you supposed to know what should be hot and what shouldn't? 'cos sometimes we had ham. cold. and sometimes we had bacon. hot. and when you buy it they don't tell you which one is which. i thought they would. i've been buying it, but i don't know what to do with it. what about lettuce and cabbage? what about hot chicken and cold chicken? and i'm sure we had cold potatoes once, but they're not like the cold potatoes that you buy in the shop. they were horrible, the ones i bought. i think i bought hot ones by mistake, but they were cold hot ones. i get muddled. i got muddled when i ate them and now i get muddled when i buy them. i feel very muddled." 
-nick hornby, how to be good. 

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience.  The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him.  He goes "sight-seeing."  ~Daniel J. Boorstin

Traveling I only stop at exits

Wondering if I'll stay

Young and restless

Living this way I stress less

I want to pull away when the dream dies

The pain sets in and I don't cry

I only feel gravity and I wonder why

-nelly furtado 

I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full.  ~Lord Dunsany

Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

HARPER LEE

overheard at the bar: "stupid americans. the same animal cruelty goes into making a bacon & egg mcmuffin as foie gras."

But this road doesn’t go anywhere,” I told him.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“What does?” I asked, after a little while.
“Just that we’re on it, dude,” he said.

LESS THAN ZERO, BRET EASTON ELLIS

“A mother's love is a blessing

No matter where you roam.

Keep her while you have her,

You'll miss her when she's gone"

-- Angela's Ashes.

Mum left Australia's winter to go to Ireland's summer. I cried when she arrived, I cried when she was here, I cried when she left.* For whatever reason she claims to have come here for, whether it was because she missed me (duh), was worried about me (perhaps), was scared about my spider bite incident (I'm ok), wanted to go on a vacation across the world (you know Sheelagh!), was craving a meal of native kangaroo and Australian shiraz (obviously), or just came to bring me out of Perth (most likely), I am grateful for all of the above and for the opportunity we had to experience Australia together. Maybe it wasn't on the cross-country train like I had imagine my Western Australia departure to be, and maybe it wasn't as touristy as it could have been and more about finding a new home for me (re: the 'most likely' reason above), I hope that she thinks it was as worthwhile as I appreciated and enjoyed her visit. Although I wish mum could have seen more of Australia, we did see a lot and the country is so unbelievably huge that it would have been impossible to see and do it all. I don't think she'll be back to see the life I've created in Melbourne (it's still in the works...) like she did in Perth, but who knows where this "australian adventure" will take me to.

Love you and thank you. 

*i may or may not be crying right now.

Who's coming to visit me next???!!!! 

“This is not a good-bye, my darling, this is a thank-you. Thank you for coming into my life and giving me joy, thank you for loving me and receiving my love in return. Thank you for the memories I will cherish forever. But most of all, thank you for showing me that there will come a time when I can eventually let you go.” ― Nicholas Sparks

Don’t ask for guarantees. And don’t look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore.

FAHRENHEIT 451, RAY BRADBURY

The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.

DUNE, FRANK HERBERT

"worry is like a rocking chair it keeps you busy but gets you nowhere" Hayden Classen


brisbane, sydney, melbourne...
london? dublin? 

I told her tea bags were just a convenience for people with busy lives and she said no one is so busy they can’t take time to make a decent cup of tea and if you are that busy you don’t deserve a decent cup of tea for what is it all about anyway? Are we put into this world to be busy or to chat over a nice cup of tea?

‘TIS, FRANK MCCOURT