How do you decide where you are going?

This is not an existential pondering, but merely a quick question. How do you decide where you are going on holidays?

Do you have an ideal location? Do you always go to the same place because you know you'll like it?

I have just discovered, I've become someone who goes to where we can get cheap airfares. I have now twice booked cheap fares into Singapore, then looked at where to go once we're there (last time Malaysia, this time possibly Vietnam). I did also spend a few days looking at flights into Lombok and Krabi purely because I could get cheap AirAsia flights to KL, and they were the most appealing options for the 6 night window we had. However, we went with the even cheaper flights into Adelaide...

We are a family of five, so the flights kill our budget. I have become a huge fan of budget airlines, as it's given us a few more options.

I realise it's quite a crazy mode of operation. So I thought I'd ask, how do you decide where you are going on holidays?

Also, the First of the Month Fiction link up is open until Monday, if anyone wants to write a teeny, tiny story.

Linking up With Some Grace for FYBF

First of the Month Fiction - Christmas edition

Seriously, where did the year go?? Last month of the year!

 I have 2 stories this month - one inspired by the Thought of the Day from Me, at My Journey:Are we there yet? She sent this "Every time you are tempted to react to the same old circumstances in the same old way, ask yourself, “Do I want to be a prisoner of the past, or a pioneer of the future?"
I thought of a victim of domestic violence finally leaving her relationship, but that was too hard to cut down to 100 words (I will come back to that idea for a longer story), so it evolved, less satisfactorily into this:

It had been coming for a long time. She looked up and he was fawning over the blonde again. Always the blondes. She wasn’t interested in this Christmas party and she knew it was time to leave. Leave the party, leave the marriage.

A waiter approached.

“I’ve been watching you. You look very sad. I see the ring but I have to say this. I clock off at 10. Do you want to go for a drink somewhere?”

Suddenly she knew that things could be different. She didn’t need to always feel this way. With a smile, she said “Yes.”

 I've also written a second one, because it is Christmas and a time to celebrate with those you love:

Santa always grew a little lonely this time of year. He was busy and stressed. He knew it all came down to this one night – and he had to get it right. There was sometimes an emptiness to his existence.

Later, as he finally dropped into bed, dawn breaking Christmas morning, he noticed a small box beside his pillow, wrapped beautifully and adorned with holly. He glanced over at his sleeping wife and smiled. Everyone else just liked him for what he could give them, but she, and only she, truly loved him for himself. Warts and all, for eternity.

Please join in in the comments below then add your blog to the link, rules here for newcomers.

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT.

Time

When I read the prompt was about Time - I thought I'd repost my What I learnt from Rush. Point 6 is probably my biggest lesson in Time, the importance of Time, and that it can be the best gift we have.

The short version, for those that don't know, is that Niki Lauda was burnt in a car crash, and greatly disfigured. He had countless skin grafts to his face, and at the time (in the film), said he had a face that would always horrify people. Yet he has always been one of the most popular drivers in F1, and judging by the women he was linked to after his divorce, his looks didn't impede him at all.

I want to always remember, that no matter how difficult or painful the current ordeal, time will put it into perspective. So while time can be unkind, or down right cruel as we age, it is also a gift that eases pain, or diminishes drama.

My favourite saying, however, as a convert who lives by FOMO (the good FOMO, not the jealous kind) "Do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of"

And that, as they say, is all that I have Time for!

Linking up with Kirsty for I Must Confess

PS. As for point 4, in the Rush post, this woman was rockin' the 70's hat. I really am going to start wearing one all the time!

10 things I love/hate about the Festive season

What I love about Festive Season:
1. Lots on, plenty of catch ups and parties
2. I get to give a lot of gifts
3. Lots of great food to eat
4. Family get togethers
5. It's the holidays


What I hate about the Festive Season:
1. Lots on, plenty of catch ups and parties (I get tired)
2. I have to think of a lot of gifts
3. Too much great food, and I eat it all
4.Family get togethers ('nuff said!)
5. It ends, and we start all over again.

Happy Christmas to you all, see you on the flip side. Safe travels and enjoy the break everyone!

Linking up this old post with #XmasLinky because we need to remember that there is a flipside to everything we do. If something bad is happening to us, remember there is a positive in there somewhere. If everything is going swimmingly, pause to appreciate it, as the reverse could just as soon take place

What I learnt from The Counselor

For some reason this film fails a little, when it probably shouldn't, given the cast. I think it's partly because there seems to be scenes & characters that have the sole purpose of delivering an eloquent speech full of "Meaning", which makes it all a little eye-rolling. I love Bruno Ganz (Hitler in Downfall), and kept waiting for his character to come back. Then realising towards the end of the film that there was no point at all to his scene, except to tell the "Cautionary" speech. Some one needs to remind Ridley Scott of the Chekhov tale of the loaded gun....

Javier is brilliant, and probably the most complete character in the film. Which makes the whole film seem odd as the main character is little more than a stick figure. (Sorry Mumabulous) However, probably still worth a watch and here's what I learnt from it:

1. A masher is a man who attempts to force his attentions on a woman - I had to google it, and will now start using it at every available opportunity.

2. 'You don't really know someone until you know what they want'. I had never thought about this before, but it is actually quite valuable advice. We walk around thinking everyone thinks like us, with the same values and beliefs, but it's worth looking a little deeper into the motivations of people sometimes.

3. Lastly, and most importantly, 'If you think you can live in this world and be no part of it, all I can say is you are wrong'. They were meaning it differently, but consider our consumerism and it's costs,  consider our impact on the environment and all the other issues that our daily actions impact upon. I love this quote. It is the argument against those that say "What can I do? I'm only one person" or "Why should I worry about it when all the other countries are using more energy/causing more pollution etc".

Lastly, I have to ask, why do Americans spell Counsellor differently? Where does that come from?

Linking up With Some Grace for FYBF?

Joyous (Cartwheels part 2)

I set myself the challenge of doing a cartwheel, in order to show my daughter how to do them. I was terrified at the prospect of this, thus added it to the Torschlusspanik list here.

So the afternoon came and we headed to the backyard. I tucked my dress into my undies (as I learnt to do as a kid with my school uniform - it was pre-skort days). This in itself was astonishing for my little tot to watch and induced a barrage of questions.

Then came the moment of truth. I did one. I didn't smash face first into the ground. Nor did I dislocate my shoulder. There was a stretch in my inner thigh, in a muscle that has not been used for quite sometime, but other than that, it was easy.

And fun.

My daughter gave up after a while but I stayed outside and did a few more. It had been a really awful day that day, with niggling irritations, and little things going wrong, so I was in a fairly dark mood by the after school period but a few cart wheels in, and my bad mood dissipated. I was suddenly joyous.

That's what's got me wondering. I understand it's the chemical release, and the silliness of the exercise that caused the carefree joy that ensued. Why do we stop doing something that makes us feel good? As little kids, we do them all the time. In high school we stop, but why? I don't remember actively thinking that I wouldn't do them any more, I just didn't do them.

The older I get, the less I understand the human aging process. We replace everything fun and joy inducing with mundane, soul destroying tasks. This is celebrated as becoming an adult. What a waste of existence.

So, take my advice, if things are getting you down, head out to the backyard and try a few cartwheels. Within minutes you'll be overtaken by a wave of joy.  Go on, try it!

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT. Also linking with the One New Thing a Week Challenge, over at the Mystery Case.

What I learnt from The Butler

This is a little different to the other 'What I learnt from...' series, with a little less frivolity and silliness. I saw The Butler by default, as the Chinese movie I wanted to see had finished, and so had apparently Percy Jackson. So I went to The Butler because it was on at the right time - I really liked it, though it didn't show me much I didn't know, except maybe that Bobby Kennedy was a little more influential than I realised. I'm not going to talk about this shameful historic period of time. The biggest thing I learnt from that movie, is that human beings have so much potential to be truly supreme beings, and yet we are still routinely doing horrific unthinkable things to other human beings.

And I mean here. In Australia.

Think of our current stances on Marriage equality, on Refugees, on a myriad of fund cutting the services for lower socio-economic groups, our blind-eye consumerism and the list goes on. I don't really have a solution, but I'm pretty sure twenty years from now, we'll be embarrassed by what we currently considered acceptable.

There is a line in the movie, 'We turn a blind eye to what we do to our own, but sit in judgement of the rest of the world'. I think that is the nutshell of human nature. Perhaps we need to pay a little more attention to our own behaviour. I don't know how we start change, but I know raising it to the consciousness as a problem has to be the seed of thoughtful living. How to make that seed take root and grow will take time, but it is definitely something worth considering.


PS The other thing I learnt is that I totally LOVE Oprah - I don't care what anyone says, her heart was in the right place with that show. (and yes, I did nerdily take that photo in the cinema like a weirdo)

Linking also with I must confess - head over and tell Kirsty how you feel.