Requests?

Years ago when people were heading overseas, others would put in an order for duty free perfume, top shelf booze and any other item you could buy in the duty free shop on the way out and back. It was a time when getting a bit of tax knocked off the price and an extra 250mls in the bottle (DF sold 1 litre and not 750mls) was worth the traveller adding extra baggage and carting the stuff across the world on behalf of their envious friends back home. In that act, they remained connected to their friends and family. They sometimes even arrived home with the bottle unopened!!

For those of us who have been fortunate enough to have incorporated regular overseas travel in our lives there is no gloss left in duty free shopping. Well I can only speak for me, there is no gloss left in duty free shopping. But what does remain constant is the need to still feel connected to those you love back home.

In picking up on my last posting, I am taking requests, but this time for things that connect me to my loved ones long after the 1 litre bottle of Cointreau has run dry. I would like to take a photo for you. I am not a professional photographer and can't even guarantee that the final product will be something that hits the wall but it will be personal. It will mean that you would have been in my thoughts at that time and that shot was taken with only you in mind.

To provide a starting point, I will share two key points. I will be travelling through the UK in a Campervan for 1 month. There are very few set plans and while out of character for me, I am just going to wing it most of the time and see where the breeze blows. I do know there will be scones with jam and cream and English tea. There will be green hills in the country, pebbly beaches and misty forests. And there will be gin. And I suspect, plenty of it.

Part 2 will be a very different scene. At the end of July I will arrive in Kenya to start a 4 week safari through natures playground. It will be a time to come back to basics. 4 weeks in a dome tent, dirt that no matter how hard you scrub will stain your skin and being grateful for a single stream of cold fresh water coming from a rusty pipe to wash you clean and ready to do it all again the next day. It's all about the animals, the scenery and the people who live a very different life to me. A reminder of how lucky we are to live where we do and have the lives we have, even though we lose site of that sometimes.

So, I had my first request yesterday. Tranquility. A friend has chosen that I take a photo of tranquility for her. Immediately an image came up in my mind but I don't want to get ahead of the game. I will know when I am there, that I am looking at tranquility because I will also feel it. And I sincerely hope that feeling can be captured in the photo. Even if it isn't, she will know she was there with me at that moment.

For those who would like the same experience let me know your requests and I will do my best to accommodate them and for those who are happy to just join the ride then that's ok too. It doesn't mean I won't be thinking of everyone back home, while I am off resetting.Read more