DISQUS

Sell everything and start walking the world.

Hey YOU missie - lord, New York and Belize with friends from Melbourne and London - does it get more exciting than that????

That I've booked my trip to Belize, the cat has stopped chewing the ipod earphones, the bread is rising, I had a sparky date with a guy who doesn't seem to be an axe-wielding maniac, and that every moment of every day there is something new around me. That the sun's out (just venturing into spring down here in Australia - and the winter has been loooooong). That my photos are getting better, I have time to write, and can cook for my whole extended family. God, did I mention the sun??? it's like being reborn.

xc

Grilled swordfish (or marlin, etc, anything) on hot infused vegetables. Actually I am happy with the vegetables alone! And they're great with just about anything....

2 capsicum, seeded and thickly sliced
2 zucchini, sliced lengthways
1 red onion, thickly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
8 kalamata olives
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
¼ cup torn basil
juice ½ lemon

Toss vegetables in half the oil, and char grill or fry. Mix the remaining ingredients together, then toss the hot vegetables in and cover bowl with plastic wrap to allow the flavours to infuse for a few minutes.

As part of our "renaissance group" (kind of a book group but instead of books we do any stuff we're good at - wine, music, fashion, food, languages) I did a night on food you can get on the table in 20 minutes (actually technically within 30 minutes after walking in the door, allowing for taking off shoes, patting dog, pouring wine). Stir-frys, omelettes, cold salads, hot salads, soup (yes from scratch), baked chicken breasts, butterflied lamb, pizzas, pasta, grilled fish, it is really endless so long as you have a basic couple of techniques and some sharp knives. And some food.

Food and the kitchen and the heart and warmth there is such a great thing - if you haven't fully embraced it, surely there's nothing to lose by trying.

And before you ask, I don't have masses of time myself - a full time career with my own firm, the normal pressures of family, friends, a house, travel. But the time I take to cook is worth it.

As if my whole being was a celebration - as if my heart was bursting out and I was spinning around and the world is both bigger ad smaller at the same time because there are people in it I love. I'm pretty close... )

Very simple and thus expensive jewellery. Wine. Living on my own.

That sounds amazing. I travelled in Africa and overland from London to Singapore (making my very slow way home) and to be able to do that and write would be my idea of the perfect way forward...

Thanks for that - I sometimes need to remind myself it is definitely all the right decision - amazing how quickly you forget the tiredness and emptiness that comes with climbing up through those gruelling professional careers. I cook as a pastry cook a few days a week now and the distinction can move me to laughter.

Teach cooking. Keep travelling. Write. Live by the sea at least once and in the mountains once. Feel extraordinary instead of constrained. The thing I'm discovering is that all of these things are right there and possible, and it was myself and my own fear that made them seems so unachievable. Funny - you see the same feelings written down by people who have gone through this process over and over but it's not until you feel it yourself that you really begin to believe it.

Should have listened to myself earlier - teens and twenties were a time of doing what i though would make other people happy/proud of me. Should have listened to gypsy blood earlier. Should have realised that a high-flying legal career was a mask for NOT listening to what I really wanted and to the pain that lay underneath. But, hell, if I was born grown up there would have been nothing to do over the past 35 years. And there's plenty of discovering and loving and changing left to do. I don't cry over the should-haves (so much) any more.

My first ten day vipassana retreat. Silence, meditation, yoga, learning to simply experience now.

My mum. After watching her only girl (that's me) go round the world a few times (and then some) with less time than she'd like with me back in Melbourne, and holding her breath from reports from Sudan and the like, when I announced it was time to start thinking about work in Istanbul or New York, she just looked thrilled and told me how pleased she was. She was lying. But I love her for it.

I know there's polarised difference of views on this one. I just hate putting on makeup and blushers and bronzers - seems like a lot of money and bother for something you can get naturally - and nothing makes me feel better than some time in the sun. Like most of my friends, I get moles checked regularly - our doctors have maps of them! But for sure, no sun between 11 and 2, and 30+ every single day. And being careful with the sun is important advice. Many thanks.

Sunscreen and sun. Sunscreen to save you whilst you get that important touch of colour. Call me a skin cancer sufferer in the making, but you can be careful (and here in Australia you HAVE to be) whilst still getting that glow. I love that glow. It makes you look like you've been on holiday and the sun simply makes you feel happy.

Never let yourself get to a point where the only reason you're staying in a bad job is because you've overextended yourself (this was in a law firm where I was surrounded by partners with two mortgages and loans for the yachts and four kids in private schools...). Best advice I ever got. It has meant that I (largely) avoided that feeling of resentment and bitterness towards money - and that when I DID decide to leave that big firm environment, it was a decision about my life, not the money.

Running away and living from country to country. Meditating. Not wearing shoes. Forgiving.