Off the Couch & On the Road

Off the Couch & On the Road

“I have never been a runner,” says guest writer Tom Bailey who is on a six month journey from the couch to a 12km/7.5 mile race. “I have weak ankles and have always hated running because it hurts.” Long ago I decided that losing weight and getting in shape would be nice and was important for my health, but that was nowhere near as motivating as having an event/goal and...

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Man’s Continued Evolution

Man’s Continued Evolution

“Is selective ignorance the next step in man’s evolution?” asks guest writer Darren J. Roberts. It’s funny, evolution, I mean, it’s not like we know as we sit around Googling things which of our current skills and attributes are going to advance the species.  Sure, we can identify what might get someone ahead in business or at school, but when you talk about the evolution of...

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Learning to Live with Myself

Learning to Live with Myself

Guest writer Jennifer Lyn Olson writes with incredible honesty about the insights gained during a recent meditation course. When you learn to live without, you have the opportunity to discover what’s within. Last year, I enrolled in a 10 day Vipassana Meditation course in Southern Washington State. It was an incredibly transformative experience; I emerged from the experience a changed...

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A Dinner Party with a Difference

A Dinner Party with a Difference

Here’s a novel suggestion for your next dinner party (particularly if, like me, your cooking skills are limited to making toast and preparing cereal – which I do very well I might add!) : Invite your friends to your house and ask them to cook. Before you race to judge my dinner invitation as inhospitable and selfish, let me explain: I’ve never quite understood the traditional dinner party....

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Toilet Talk

Toilet Talk

Why talking about your bowel movements is common conversation on the road – and how I narrowly missed falling into the toilet! Fingers crossed, but I think I may have just bested my second stomach bug here in Guatemala. Round Two: Winner MSW. My first, when I was here in early December, gave me a beating I will long remember. It was a knockout; one that had me glued to my ringside seat day...

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Oh Happy Day!

Oh Happy Day!

Today I reached my goal! First it was my unfitness, then it was this altitude’s lack of oxygen, then it was the cobblestones, then it was the cold morning air, then it was a stomach bug that slowed me down BUT still I persisted with my (every other) morning run up the mountain to the lofty heights of Antigua’s Cerro de la Cruz, with its spectacular view over the city. (I took my camera up...

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A Thought Provoking Question

A Thought Provoking Question

Which is better: To be a boat adrift with no form of locomotion (paddles/ motor/ sails) or to be able to move but have no known port or destination? What’s your...

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The Importance of Making the Bed

The Importance of Making the Bed

I’m not naturally a Bed-Maker. In fact, I’m more the “Defend-My-Right-To-Not-Make-The-Bed” kinda guy. (Or at least I was.) I lived with a Bed-Maker for some time and without fail whether it was first thing in the morning or what seemed like the last thing at night – just when I’d think I’d been successful in my anti-establishment campaign to leave the sheets and covers askew for...

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Generational Differences

Generational Differences

What’s that do-hickey called? You know, the thing that they used to put in the centre of the records (45s to be exact) to allow you to place them on your record player. I saw one on a radio station advertisement recently and immediately thought “How clever?!” I didn’t have to think twice about the music the station played; that ‘do-hickey’ immediately conveyed a time and place in the...

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Saying Goodbye (vs See You Later)

Saying Goodbye (vs See You Later)

Knowing when to say ‘See you later’ can ease the pain of saying ‘Goodbye’ Two newly-minted friends left town today. And I’m a little lonelier as a result of their departure. In fact it is an unfamiliar feeling for me. Not the loneliness, unfortunately that’s one I’m all too familiar with as a lifelong vagabond bouncing from place to place. But usually I’m the one saying goodbye...

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Reclaiming My Fitness (Back to the Gym)

Reclaiming My Fitness (Back to the Gym)

This week I got back to the gym for the first time in a long time … and it felt great! It felt great to get back in the saddle – even if that saddle promised to make me sore (and it did!) – but more importantly it felt good to be back in control: Control of my health, control of my body, control of my ability. There’s no question that it’s been a challenge. A challenge to find the...

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Waiting for the Repair Man

Waiting for the Repair Man

It’s not so much the waiting as the total disregard for my time that has me ranting against those that are chronically late. Why should Guatemala be any different when it comes to waiting on a repairman? Foolish of me to think that it would be. Antigua, where I am presently living, is not a big town. With a downtown area of roughly 8 square blocks you wouldn’t think the demands on the...

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