Aerial Views of Bygone England

In order to visually grasp in one quick swoop the extent of Britain's heavy industrialisation during the 1920s (notwithstanding the fact that the bulk of its Industrial Revolution had already been through by then), seek no other evidence than photographic - and better still the aerial shots! Britain from Above has made this possible, not only for institutions and corporations but also for the general public, by releasing its impressive photographic archive collection (over 82,500 records for England alone!) which provides the tools for a spot of investigative geography and history, right from the comfort of your home. And fascinating it is bound to be to anyone with a connection to Britain and curious to discover the face of its past!

Beswick, Manchester (1927), via Britain from Above

Second to none, Manchester was once my second home; I spent 16 years of my life there. Naturally as soon as I came across Britain from Above, curiosity got the better off me and I sifted through Manchester's photographic records, seeking the familiar neighbourhoods I had lived in and semi-familiar environs which I had travelled through, worked in or visited for one reason or another. Needless to say that present-day Manchester bears little resemblance to its bygone self, bar for specific landmarks: town hall, churches, flagship stores (the Lewis's department store, now Primark), canals, railways, certain roads and playing fields, and the odd pub here and there that has survived the accelerated nationwide 'pub cull' of the last 20 years.

As shown in the Beswick ward above, like elsewhere throughout the working-class areas of the city radiating right out of its centre, row upon row of identikit 19th-century brick terraced and back-to-back factory houses used to be tightly laid out, taking up every inch of available space for cheap low-rise high-density working-class housing - which was turning to slums by the 1920s. Nineteen thirties Manchester was a crowded place; its population had peaked at 766,311 inhabitants in 1931 before steadily shrinking, in line with the collapse of the textile and affiliated machine tool industries, down to 404,861 by 1991, a massive 52% fall in numbers within 60 years! By 1991, the slum clearances and industrial wastelands were lending a surreal urban landscape, especially east (Ancoats to Ashton-under-Lyne axis) and northeast (Cheetham Hill to Oldham axis).

Ordsall Hall Paper Works, Pomona Docks and Manchester Ship Canal, Old Trafford (1929), ibid.

From such a bird's eye view, from such a height, with eveything appearing like distant patterns dotted upon a canvas, it is all too tempting to feel nostalgic and gloss over a time period that was actually anything but kind and sweet. Although full employment was on - except during the Great Depression, it still came at a price, even by 1920s standards: harsh working conditions, long working hours, low wages, poor health, cramped and unsanitary living conditions, not to mention the smog, a deadly combination of smoke pollution (from factory and domestic coal burning) and fog, creating pea soup, which plagued industrial cities with a thick yellowish toxic shroud, bringing asthma and other respiratory ailments and drastically reducing visibility.

Manchester Ship Canal and Partington Coal Basin (1929), ibid.

Furthermore, the nation was still recovering from the throes of WWI, where 23,792 men and women from Greater Manchester alone had lost their lives on the front! Extrapolate this to the number of households affected by loss, the mothers, widow(er)s and orphans, the harsh economic reality of daily life sharpened the grief some more. You can be certain that the photographed households you are looking at are testaments to pain and hardship.

Manchester's cityscape is industrial no more! Photography by Daniel Nisbet, 2008, via Flickr

Further Resources on Manchester and the British Industry:

• Shirley Baker: Snapping the Ordinary to Write Local History by LBM
• City Fizz by ibid. 
• Design Interlude by ibid.
• Chorlton vs. Didsbury by ibid. 
• Manchester, Blackley, part of the At Home in Europe: Europe's White Working Class Communities case-study series, by (billionaire globalist George Soros-owned) Open Society Foundations
• How the 1930s Changed Housing, by Find My Past
• Manchester in the 19th Century, by The British Library
• Unearthing Manchester's Victorian Slums by The Guardian
• Nick Hedges Photography has explored over the last 50 years the reality of life for working-class Britain, via the Slum Housing & Poverty series (late 1960s/ early 70s), showing the impact of sub-standard 19th century housing and economic deprivation. The City That Was explores working-class culture at the turning point of post-industrial Britain, while New Dawns Old Nightmares depicts the depersonalised 1970s utilitarian housing estates that came to replace the torn-down terraced housing communities - the solution to a problem became a problem itself. 
• Grace's Guide to British Industrial History

Reasons to Heart January

There are indeed reasons to be cheerful in January! It shouldn't be dreaded or perceived as the anti-climactic month of the year - especially as it starts on a high note! Ringing in the New Year and its joyful countdown shouldn't turn into a hapless comedown. If you need a little convincing, then this post is for you.

Sitting on top of the world! Europe from space, photography by ESA astronaut Tim Peake, via Twitter

I heart January for many simple reasons. Here's ten of them, at the top of my head:
 

• The year (habitually) starts on a high note as a festive celebration. Keep it up! Don't get yourself sucked into the bad vibes of the fatalist and the disenchanted.
• Treat the new year as a blank canvas for your projects, ideas. A new start of sorts. Visualise that joy you felt at midnight and turn it into an impetus to get started on a project. It could be anything from rewriting your resume, to turning your balcony into an herb garden, to researching an author or a discipline.
• In the northern hemisphere, days have been getting longer since the end of December, bonus! This makes Winter less drab! If you live in the southern hemisphere, fret not! The Summer there has only just started so there are still many days of good sunny weather to look forward to!
•  Be kind to yourself and don't go overboard with resolutions: keep them few, simple and achievable.
• If you need a little retail encouragement, you have Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day and other landmark celebrations to look forward to, if only in terms of their window-dressing quality and the cutesy presents. Spending cash is optional when you do window-shopping!
• Reconnect with family or friends who you are not in regular contact with. In France we have les Voeux (New Year wishes) tradition, whereby we send cards or give phonecalls to people within our circles especially to wish them a Happy New Year and catch up on the news at the same time.
• Have a couple of appointments to look forward to in January, like a visit to the hairdresser (with a new hairstyle or hair colour to boot), or starting a new class or hobby.
• Go out there and enjoy nature and witness it getting ready for Spring: buds and birds! Even if you live in town, you will still be able to catch glimpses of it in your daily endeavours or by nipping down to your local park.
• Slip into a new healthy lifestyle regimen to shed those extra pounds and feel more energetic. And if you are in the cleansing mode, you may even consider a pre-Spring clean round the home or catch up with any overdue paperwork. Addressing procrastination may not sound like fun but the quicker you get round to it, the more time you will have to enjoy the rest of the year!
• Yet most of all, you should just enjoy life because life goes at the speed of light and before you know it, youth will have morphed into middle age and middle age will have morphed into retirement age... You should simply be grateful for what you have and put things into perspective. Life could be better but life could also be worse. Life is a gift and the start of a New Year is an extra validation of life. It is so good to be alive and this is the number one reason for being cheerful, my friend!

Galapagos Islands, photography by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, via Flickr

Why Donald is No Lame Duck!

Politics do not rock my boat, and American presidential elections are usually the least of my concerns, bar any direct implication of theirs on to the ROW (Rest of World) through any heavy-handed, gung-ho, military-engineered foreign policy that impacts the rest of us (for better) for worse. However one presidential candidate right now seems to have rocked the boat to the point of the storm spilling out of the proverbial teacup. Wait for it, our man is worth more than The Six Million Dollar Man and has more tricks to boot. He has captured audiences with his decision to run for POTUS (*). His views, quick repartees and tight leash over the biased media hoopla, certainly deserve more than a passing comment.

Donald Trump, Burlington, Iowa (21-Oct-2015)

Donald Trump is the stuff of America. He embodies American values of the ambitious self-made man, a rags-to-riches story of sorts, a man who embodies that anything is/ should still be possible in the world at large, and more specifically in that once-avant-garde New World territory that is the USA. Trump also happens to never be short of a trick as a pretty astute businessman. Last but not least in the arena of American politics, he also happens to be charismatic, short of a showman, which always fares well in a country that roughly stretches between DC and Hollywood.

Yet what stands out of the Donald Trump's one-man show is that he's nailed his focus right: he unequivocally puts his country first to make it shine again: 'Make America Great Again!' He wants it to be strong, revitalised, proud, and once again thriving. A hard-working nation glued together by good old American Christian family values taking once again pride of place on the family mantelpiece and the work station. A working America, once again fuelled by a manufacturing workforce and a sense of worth and belonging, and the hard work rewarded. To have a sense of contributing to the country's wealth rather than be a mere recipient of its welfare system, or play the national pastime of aimless shopping, as a passive consumer of planned obsolescence made-in-China shoddy goods, then back to work on Monday, wearing off the carpet of some Office Space, doing some pointless job, feeling worthless and useless, and relegated to an ungratifying lifetime as a member of the working poor. Put this into perspective and coat it in political correctness all your while, but I believe that Entrepreneur of the Year should once again be a captain of industry and their driving force (which includes workforce), not some loner geek that designed a smartphone app.

Down with the allegories. Trump breaks the mould on many levels. First, he is not bound by blood to some political dynasty. Historically, modern America has been built around core political dynasties (Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bush and Clinton, to name only a few). Yet it seems that the continuity principle imposed by such political dynasty arrangements only serve the private interests of the elite class. Yet frankly what is to be expected from the bitter wife of some former President or a third generation Bush?

Cash and a remarkable success story are a sure way to attract jealousy and animosity your way. Yet Donald Trump has spelt it out loud and clear: he needn't be bought out because he already has all the cash that money can buy. This is his main forte and competitive advantage; his strong financial independence gives him the luxury to afford political independence in his views and principles.

Donald Trump painting by Donkey Hotey, via Flickr

Sadly European countries like France have been engineered by decades of Socialist doctrine, crippling bureaucacy, and a much-skewered interpretation of the values borne out of the French Revolution, to believe that too much cash is crass, and that to be rich is either to have been borne into it without asking for it, or to have sold out one's soul. Furthermore, our spirit of enterprise has long been squashed in the process by constant government interventionism into our daily lives and into the conduct of our business affairs, crushing our manufacturing legacy into the ground and overtaxing and rewiring our remaining flagship companies like Air France, under EU complicity.

In a world where Revolution by the People for the People will not be televised, it remains to find it refreshing - as we are searching for second bests - to be once again probed by the idea of enterprise and entrepreneurship, of national pride, of traditional family values, of the importance to rebuild a fragmented, socialised, pauperised nation that once (half a century ago) stood as a beacon of social progress, innovation and modernism, to the ROW.

If I were American and allowed to vote in US elections, I would certainly be seduced by Donald's programme, his bold energy, his political uncorrectness, and no-nonsense parley. If however this were all to end up into nothing more than a dream, at least it will have hinted a flavour of what the American dream should be standing for.

(*) President Of The United States

Monsanto: Deadly by Name, Evil by Nature

Would you trust a biotech company that once produced the notorious Agent Orange, a dioxin-based chemical warfare used to defoliate the jungles of Vietnam during the eponymous war, and which affected over three million civilians and servicemen in its deadly wake?

Would you believe a company that has managed to control Agribusiness by consistently investing an incredible amount of its profits in legal and financial teams in order to intimidate and bully governments the world over, buy out seed companies in order to kill off any form of competition and exterminate heirloom cultivars and the riches of the natural world?

A company that drives uncooperative farmers out of business, exploits those who are forced to comply under duress, silences mainstream media, sues corporations... and the U.S. state of Vermont...

(Venus Fly Trap) 'Seed Pods at Kew' photography by Andrew Withey, via Flickr

A company that is an aggressive world supremacist in seed engineering technology, plays God with biodiversity, eradicates traditional seeds, contravenes traditional cultivation methods and promulgates monoculture. It is part of the quadrangle of death and deceit, alongside DuPont Pioneer, Syngenta and Bayer CropScience, other major purveyors of hybrid and GMO seeds and crop chemicals worldwide. Currently No.2 in the world, Pioneer is vying the top seat and contemplating a strategic alliance with Dow AgroSciences that would counterbalance any Monsanto-Syngenta merger. Syngenta delivers crop protection and GE (genetically-engineered) seeds as per its 'More Food from Less Land' formula. Increase in yield and decrease in wildlife are guaranteed. The sharp decline in bees, a direct result of the use of Neonics and glyphosate in the pesticide/ herbicide industry, is incumbent upon the GMO biotechs! Bayer is behind 'Science for a Better Life', and science for death, as manufacturers of poisonous trenches gas during WWI, and later the deadly Zyklon B for the gas chambers (via their subsidiary). 

A company that produces the notorious Roundup, a powerful, highly-toxic carcinogenic glyphosate-based broad-spectrum herbicide that kills off every living organism (vertebrates, invertebrates and vegetal), bar its trademark ('Roundup Ready') crops - how convenient!

A company that is responsible for the vast decline in monarch populations in the U.S. as a result of the above, as wild milkweed (which the butterflies feed on) has been wiped off the face of the countryside!

'Milkweed' photography by Andy Goodwin, via One Eyeland

A company that wants us to believe in the greater good of GMOs, and gets the likes of Nestlé ('Good Food, Good Life') to purport the message, while we are told that Monsanto employees will NOT eat GMO food at the staff canteen...

A company that tampers with genetic codes à gogo, creates Frankenstein plants that cross-pollinate with nature and contaminate it, in effect compromising and irrevocably threatening organic produce...

A company that dispenses with and bypasses the necessary trials, careful research and ethical conclusions that would just put a stop to this diabolical experiment...

A company whose scope of activity spans the 4Fs of food, feed, fiber and fuel. Understand, not only cattle feed and the sinister cattle growth hormone, but also cereals, fruit and vegetables for human consumption... plus the cotton that clothes us (88% of the US production in 2009 was GMO!), and let's not forget biofuels!

'Morning Glory Harvest' photography by Renee Rendler-Kaplan, via Flickr

A company that has infiltrated the FDA to the top, bought out the U.S. government, and is working hand in hand with food multinationals to force-feed us its crap aimed at getting us sick in the long term, for the benefit of Big Pharma... This one's for you, Bayer!

A company whose business activity is nothing but ONE BIG CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, legalised by the governments it bought out, and wreaking havoc with the natural codes of nature and life...

A company that is a huge player in the sinister U.N. Agenda 21 programme that has been designed for us - the populace.

A company that tampers with the natural order is evil incarnate, and the devil's industry of choice. Nothing positive can or will come out of it.

Monsanto has a lot to answer for regarding the shape of things to come, and consumers are in for a bumpy ride! Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Further Reading:

• Who Will Control the Green Economy?, a 60-page report by ETC Group
• Soy Story by CIWF investigates the devastating effects of Big Soy in Argentina. The extensive industrial soy farming monocultures yield cheap animal feed for the worldwide market. They come at the cost of land ownership (land grabs), ruthless deforestation, Monsanto GMOs, destroyed livelihoods and factory farming. More about the 'Green Gold Rush' from the Soy Story Trailer and Soy Story Podcast.
  
• Monsanto: The world's poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit by Jeffrey M. Smith, via Natural News
• Health Guide GMO Research by GreenMedInfo
• These 'Hired' Experts are Infiltrating the Media to Confuse You About Food by Food Babe
• GM Crops Facing Meltdown in the USA by ISIS (The Institute of Science in Society)
• GMO Foods Could Be Labeled 'Natural' Under Proposed Law by TakePart
• The USDA's New GMO-Free Label is a Gift to Big Food by TakePart
• Monsanto's Roundup Herbicide May Be Most Important Factor in Development of Autism and Other Chronic Disease by Dr. Mercola
• Independent Scientists Manifesto on Glyphosate by ISIS (The Institute of Science in Society)
• (16-Sept-2016 Update) Banishing Glyphosate, a compelling 90-page scientific study by ISIS
• Nestlé CEO Denies That Water is an Essential Human Right by Activist Post
• Getting Used to Less on Agenda 21 by La Baguette Magique
• The Uncontacted vs. The Disconnected by La Baguette Magique 

Design Interlude - Candy Pink Palaces

This post is a personal design indulgence of mine and a little vanity project in progress, amongst my many areas of interest. I have a thing for good design and more than a casual appreciation for 'olde worlde' interiors, exteriors, homestyles, graphics and the likes. The last time I did a 'Design Interlude' was over 5 years ago, where I featured sublime Cheshire residential façades from my then neck of the woods (Hale, Bowdon and Altrincham). I had taken snapshots of candy-coloured façades, that looked like they had escaped the confines of a 3-tiered tea-time cake stand, and eloped in their delicious robes of custard cream, buttercream fancy, chiffon cake and marshmallow, taking me down a cottage industry journey of delicate mint cake, lemon truffle, deep caramel, old-fashioned violet and rose creams, candied ginger, strawberry truffle, butterscotch, coconut macaroon and vanilla fudge… Are we under the spell of a sugar high or are we not?

(pict source)

When Wes Anderson's critically-acclaimed film The Grand Budapest Hotel came out and its majestic façade rose upon our screens and graced the glossies in its wedding cake strawberry meringue colourings and piped lettering, I knew straight away that I was faced with an art that I loved. Anderson's quirky formula is sublime in my eye: the nostalgia-ladden cartoonesque naïve art visuals in candy pastel graphics and the surrealist art direction which both celebrate vintage to an artform are a great fit to my all-encompassing design passions. I had to extol this proud and loud in my blog, no matter how long it would take me to get round to it, which ended up being more than 12 months after the movie release (eeek how responsive is that?).


Finally the moment has come to be enjoyed, as I am looking at the façade and imagining the stories and dramas and quid pro quos that lie underneath the apparent sober tranquillity and contained gracefulness of the place. Meanwhile I invite you to go backstage and find out about Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel graphic designer, Annie Atkins, via an insightful article by Camille Styles, or how she met the visual feat challenges raised by such a high-profile project brief for a sought-after dream job!

(pict source)

Talking of candy pink palaces, how could I possibly resist other gems, especially if they are no fiction, but rather a sweet and welcome part of our reality? Hawa Mahal, otherwise known as Palace of Winds (Jaipur, India, completed 1799) springs to my mind, as immortalised herein by Studio Yuki in all its intricate beauty and timeless charm:

Hawa Mahal (pict source)

Some candy pink palaces out there in India are crumbly around the edges, like this one in Benarés. We may nonetheless appreciate its fading glory. The top storey certainly looks well kept and - since we are in a sweet-focused mood - I would say that its ornate décor reminds me of some girlie birthday cake decoration piping. If sweetness is bringing you sickness, we'll steer the façade analogy clear of sugar and steer it towards bejewelling instead.

Benarés, India (pict source)

Anyway if nostalgia tastes like a cream cake from childhood baked with tender loving care, I wonder what a whiff of nostalgia would smell like? I shall dispense with a spray of pure musk from L'Air de Panache, found lingering on a bedside cabinet at The Grand Budapest Hotel. Maybe I'll go for a drop of Guerlain instead.

L'Air de Panache (pict source)

Nobody's Girl (Part 1)

Something had to be done. I was down that rocky self-love pilgrimage like I've been for the best part of 2013, when I came to the realisation that Facebook wasn't/ couldn't be a part of my journey anymore and I had to let it go. For the second time - and yes I should have known better that first time around.

Heidi Klum tells it as it is!

Oh, Facebook and I had been in a complicated on-off relationship since 2008. I signed up to it originally under false pretences, namely due to my job in marketing, where the team were encouraged to 'promote' certain causes and raise awareness in our 'me' time and connect with PR/ design execs and marketing affiliates. Work colleagues and personal friends and acquaintances got intermingled on my friends list, sitting side by side on my screen and leaving me slightly unnerved at the 'friend' tag that suppliers, clients, co-workers and bosses suddenly fell under. This 'one size fits all' tag devalued the very notion of friendship - whose value I hold with high regard.

Before long, one of our PR agents was happily streaming her bar-mitzvah photos by the truck-load, while - in a case of unvoluntary voyeurism - I would also witness co-workers' holiday snapshots and their family time intrusion onto my timeline activity stream blurred boundaries further. I think that back in those early FB days, the concept of filtering hadn't reached any of us just yet.

The Blogcademy Melbourne, via galadarling via Flickr, photo by Lakshal Perera

I tried to play it cool and started to pretend to be myself on FB, unveiled the real I beyond the marketing girl, and then exposed my community to my 'likes' and 'shares' and (carefully-written) notes. Problem is, I liked the unlikeable: Courtney Love, Queens of the Stone Age, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, A Perfect Circle, Slipknot, etc. My music tastes weren't obviously gonna cut the mustard as they weren't in line with the company's brand image, core values and product offering - and NO I didn't happen to work for Interscope or Roxy or Converse!

I got tired of being pigeonholed cos of likes I was supposed to dislike and dislikes I was supposed to like. I wasn't gonna play games anymore. I had the outcome all mapped out in my head. One night, I unfriended each one of my 'friends', painstakingly unliked my likes, deleted every post I'd written, every comment I'd added, until I got my FB page to its bare bones. Then I deactivated it.

'Pangolin!', photo by BTphotographic (Benjamin Tupper), 24/03/2013, via Flickr

Roll forward four years. Surprisingly in the interim FB had still managed to seep into my inbox, advising me from time to time about a friend who wanted to 'friend' me. My account was deactivated - not closed. In late Summer 2012 I gave FB another chance, mainly in order to keep easy contact with a couple of friends from overseas - without the costly phone bills or hassle of email.

Then my circle widened up to co-workers, exes, former friends and about everyone and anyone. In my quest for popularity and to bridge that void within, I threw caution to the wind and went for quantity over quality! Besides I seized the FB opportunity as a channel to broadcast wildlife and animal welfare causes close to my heart - and this really resonated with my value system: charities and NFP organisations, environmental foundations, business networking groups... Shark-friendly advocacy communities... Cool fashion and lifestyle brands like Roxy and Billabong... Amazingly I made 'friends' with some cool dudes whom I had never met in real life. So then, what was gonna bring me to end it with FB? (to be continued)

Further Reading on the Adverse Effects of FB: 

• Lifehack: 18 Timeless Secrets of Happy People
• PLOS ONE: Facebook Use Predicts Decliines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults

Total Recall - Love & Be-Love(d)

Can you believe we're already halfway through our Total Recall week? Time flies when we're having fun! Today, Day 4, comes on as a flutter: heart-shaped, light-hearted, sincere, heartfelt, footloose and fancy-free, handed over on a silver platter, elusive, or even downright unrequited and unwanted...

Blue Kite Photo Blog, via Flickr

Love is simple yet some of us make it complicated. It is only four letters long and it can feel heavy like 'hurt' and 'pain' and 'lack' and 'hate', but it's potent like a magic potion. Don't get me wrong, I adore 'love', but all too often the noble cause it represents may be misunderstood, misused, abused, and/ or taken for granted. Yet without love there is no I, there is no us. The lack of true sincere love is the ultimate heart disease in our self-centred, sexually-liberated, pleasure-seeking "package culture" modern societies. And it's time to remedy this:

• Inspire Aspire - Be True to Romance (15/08/2013) >> No game playing here, this is an ode to love as it should be: pared-down, pure, sincere, honest. Coming from a place of honesty and trust, being in tune with your true self, realise that with truth of feeling and an open heart, you may conquer love and be conquered by it!
• It's Complicated (03/09/2012) >> A slight variation on the above, or how in the name of self-preservation against potential rejection or emotional trauma, we hide behind excuses and pretence. Danger is that when we start lying to ourselves, we lie to the other person too.
• Sweet Valentine (09/02/2012) >> There is a sweet and lovely ode to romance over at our sister blog, Mirabelle Design Inspiration and we couldn't resist it!
• Lessons in Love (01/02/2012) >> Grass is greener, right? When you are single, you wish you were coupled up, and once you are coupled up, you wish you were single all over again... Hmmm!
• Tickle, No Work and All Play (26/09/2010) >> Not just humans deserve a bit of love and affection, by the way. If you are familiar with La Baguette, you'll be aware of the fact that I have a pet mascot, yay!, by the name of Tickle the Jack Russell Terrier, a lovable bundle of joy! I promise to post new photos of Tickle in the next couple of weeks!

That's it for now, peeps, but I sure will see you again tomorrow for our 5th installment of Total Recall. Stay tuned!

P.S: Click the link for more lovely wedding and engagement photos from Blue Kite Photo.

Total Recall - In a Travel State of Mind

On Day 3 of our Total Recall, I'm taking you down a physical journey that is akin to a personal journey, since I firmly believe that travel or living in another country for some time is an important component of personal development. And by travel, I rule out those expat lifestyles cut out from the reality of their host country, or those on luxury cruises who'll boast that - say - they know Singapore, purely because they were on an 8-hour stopover there. Travel is a state of mind, and you'll capture some of its essence in our following posts:

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, photo by twoGiraffe, via Flickr

• Plan A (21/11/2012) >> OK, so I didn't stick to those 2013 travel plans that I had made at the back end of 2012, but maybe I wasn't quite emotionally ready for the big leap yet... In the meantime there is no harm in dreaming, and yes somehow the frustrated armchair traveller in me does realise that my personal fulfillment includes travel. I have no intention of spending the rest of my life in the place where I am currently living and, after a 16-year stint abroad, the appeal of foreign lands beckons more than ever!
• An Acute Case of the Wanderlust (12/09/2012) >> From a young age I ambitioned to quit my small town life and hit the road less travelled to places as diverse as Guatemala, Brazil, Kenya and Bhutan. When the girls in my class were dreaming of a shopping city break in the preppy French seaside resort of Deauville, my lofty ambition was that one day I would get the opportunity to land upon the infinite sand stretches of Baja California, Mexico, and embrace its coastal biodiversity.
• The (Late) Lowdown on London (05/09/2012) >> Welcome to my light-hearted travel guide to Central London in a few pointers and snapshots!
• The American Soundtrack to My Life (28/08/2012) >> This post captures the essence of travel and free-spiritedness, via an American traveller I befriended in Corsica: venturing to places off the tourist radar, volunteering in environmental projects, staying in cheap hostels, living like the locals and befriending them, speaking their lingo - and leaving that travel guide on the bookshop shelf!
• Ill-Fated Journeys (08/01/2012) >> Not all journeys in life are geographical, some are metaphorical, and as with geographical travel, they're not always mapped out as should be...

I am positive you will enjoy this little travel selection of mine, and don't forget to join me tomorrow for our Total Recall Day 4!

Inspire Aspire - A Blank Canvas

Sometimes this is all we need: some thinking space, a breather, a moment to ourselves. We need to recharge our batteries so we get our ideas in order. We need to slow down so we catch our breath, evaluate a situation, get on the right footing that will get us into gear so that we reach our cruise speed again - and keep to it.

We need to do a clear-out so we rediscover our physical space, challenge that final frontier and choose to fill it with meaningful belongings and objects of desire. We need to paint all the walls white before we get bold with colour again. We need to go pared down and minimalist, so we appreciate accessories. We need a good haircut so we grow our hair back, thick and vigorous.

Sometimes we need to declutter our lives from a clique of doppelgangers, toxic acquaintances, fairweather friends and possessive relatives that are depriving us from being us.

Tabula rasa is indeed a good thing.

(via This is Glamorous)

(Pict source)

(via We Heart It)

(Pict source)

(via Snippet & Ink)

Plan A

OK folks, so here's the deal! Sarawak - Australia - Hawaii - California. 

I had to call this Plan A because each of those idyllic destinations contains at least two letters 'A'. My rationale was that  Plan A would give this trip project a forward-thinking dynamic vibration! Secondly, as much I would like to be able to explore other avenues and travel opportunities, this is currently about the only tangible Plan there is for me. So to paraphrase that great M&S campaign, we call it Plan A because there's no Plan B!

'A Morning View', photo by Rana Simhan (cknara), via Flickr

All going well, kick-off for Plan A is Spring 2013. Ideally I would love to get one or two of my adventure-enclined friends involved in this combo but so far they either can't or won't commit, for reasons their own. As a result, it looks like I am solo-bound. Not an ideal situation for the gregarious, people's person that I am, but honestly I could still be waiting an hypophetical number of years until a seemingly 'ideal' situation presents itself... And I've learnt the hard way that you have to compose with what life offers you, not rely on others and build your future on dreams, promises, illusions, fantasies and waffs of hot air... If I want something, I'd better roll up my sleeves, architect it and build it myself!

Now don't believe for one second that I'm in control and I know what I'm doing. I am absolutely daunted by the prospect of solo travel to places I have never been (bar California). I am no seasoned traveller either, I have never travelled on my own outside a few carefully-chosen European destinations, am generally more used to glamping than camping, although once again does sleeping in the great oudoors or in one's car count as camping and roughing it?

Escape to... Baja Mexico, by Santa Barbara Chic, photo by Patrick Moyer

If you take out the Sarawak bit and just concentrate on the Australia - Hawaii - California trio, you would be forgiven to believe that this is part of The Beach Boys repertoire, that I am bound for an Xtreme Sports Channel surfing competition, or a long vacation! Besides although it might sound like I've done the fun easy bit by picking up juicy destinations, it wasn't as random and carefree as it appears. Sarawak has been on my radar for the last 12 months via The Great Orangutan Project towards which I have secured a deposit as a (paying) volunteer on an orangutan conservation programme based deep in the Bornean jungle. From there I thought I might stretch it down to Australia, why not?

After a relatively 'hardcore' start with Sarawak, I thought it best to enjoy a breather and play it safer and cooler for the remainder of my Pacific odyssey, on an open return, heading first for the Australian Gold Coast (forget the outbacks and the dirt tracks!), then across to California (a soft spot for the Santa Barbara region), via Hawaii (a late addition to the trip, after admiring paradisiac views on Pinterest!). I intend to work (most of) my way through and line up a few contacts before leaving Europe!

Polynesian Knot Statue

Meanwhile a few practical matters have started nagging me lately, as they do... I have been putting strange video requests on YouTube in the name of research, watching the best creepy-crawlies each of my stopovers has to offer, and both Sarawak and Australia deserve gold stars! Ideally (as we know there is no such thing as 'ideally') I would like to avoid Australia's spider season if I can but it looks like I will be hitting the Gold Coast head on in the Australian Autumn... in time for a good face-to-face with those dreaded Huntsmans. Now we haven't even started on the tarentulas yet, have we?

As I am gonna get ready over the next few weeks, I warmly invite you all to follow my pre-departure adventures and check on those pre-trip nerves, via La Baguette Magique. Hopefully once I'm out there I will be able to provide you with regular travel updates. In the light of this, I'm gonna look into those sleek lightweight nifty Tablet/ Notebook devices that I can slip into my yet-to-be-purchased backpack! And here's another one to jot down the To Do list! Talk soon and meanwhile please don't hesitate to part with your advice, recommendations and suggestions, very much welcome!

P.S: Check out my 'Poolside or Seaside' Pinterest board for some Australian, Hawaiian and Californian coastline inspiration!

Smells Like Free Spirit (Part 4)

"Not all those who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings first volume, The  Fellowship of the Ring, 1954

I am convinced that no matter their age, free spirits are young at heart. Their outlook, their stance, their attitude, their drive, mean that they remain young and radiate inner beauty. They won't turn into those bitter old prunes that make ageing look like a disadvantage. Rather they will embrace the past, present and future, take experience in their stride and still look on the bright side of life, a glint of mischief in the eye and marvel at the ready, their skin sunkissed and their footstep light and airy!

By Studio Wonder, via Cargo Collective

Believe you me, the world needs more of us free spirits! The vast majority of us are not on this planet to cause trouble and start revolutions, we just see the world differently and want fairness. I'll just take one example. I am a lifelong devotee to the animal cause and became a vegetarian after years of being pressured by my peers (starting off with my parents) into the carnivorous diet. I one day decided I was lying to myself and this had to stop! I will happily discuss my vegetarian reasons to whoever is keen to listen, and maybe suggest that they compromise and give it a try, if only for once a week, but I will not force my views onto anyone! And since you're asking, ironically most - if not all - of my friends aren't veggies, yet they have somehow curbed their meat-loving ways after I gave them some food for thought!

My industry sector (sustainable agriculture and preservation of old cultivated varieties) is prone to attract a good number of free spirits and 'affiliates'. The fact that I live on a holiday island adds to the attraction. Meeting those gals and guys from different walks of life and corners of the world has been enlightening to me and I have utterly relished the experience! It has broadened my own perceptions of life.

'Lemonia philopalus', by CraftyPip (Philip Heinzl), via Flickr

The free spirits I met travel light, head for the roads less travelled inland and will rarely settle down. No, they don't all physically look like hippies, some of the cool dudes I met might feel slightly insulted by the connotation! Meanwhile I am still trying to work out how some of them guys manage to sustain a living, being nomadic 'no-strings-attached' types with no fixed employment or abode for that matter, sleeping in their cars, on friends couches, in disused buildings or on the beaches in Summer... There is a sense of community amongst free spirits as I found out, and those with a roof over their heads will open their doors to the less fortunate. We end up bumping into familiar faces across the island, sharing similar experiences and hanging out together...

Despite not having regular employment, and only surviving on fruit-picking, pastoral activities and the odd building job, some of them can somehow afford to travel on to faraway shores like Thailand, without (seemingly) a money care in the world, while Corsica has either become their homebase of sorts, their stopover, or gateway destination to the rest of the world... Corsica gives them a taste for adventure and trampolines them into the wider world! Some are here today, and who knows where they'll be tomorrow!

'Male Rufous Hummingbird', photo by cdbtx, via Flickr

Some of them, skilled or unskilled trade guys, head for ecovillages as wwoofers to experience a new community spirit, contribute to the common good and hopefully learn a skill and make friends. Some others, after years of wandering about, end up settling down on the island, and they do so in their own terms, while staying true to their own principles: on the cheap, building environmentally-friendly tippees on either rented, lended or purchased land. Some push the boat further, and unite with a common dream of building alternative rural communities based around permaculture and made out of ideas and ideals, makeshift and hard graft, without compromising on the good life (beach parties, music festivals, and yay more parties)!

Some have landed from continental France with a skeleton or two in the closet and I have become good at picking the vibe. No questions asked, no comments passed, if they want to confide, they know where I am and sure I'll lend a sympathetic ear. Their experience will help them grow, sharing it will help them understand it better and the listener will benefit from it too. Meanwhile everyone is entitled to second chances, everyone has the right to want to escape their troubled past and start over, or at least kick-start a process that will take them onto a new life journey.

'Ceremonial Textile (Sarita)', Indonesia, Sulawesi, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Herewith I have ambitiously attempted to share reflections on free spirits, and the journey has turned more personal than I thought it would. It has amplified my travel wanderlust, made me yearn for vast unspoilt territories, and when it would have been easy to get critical over the lifestyle choices of some of those free spirits, it actually helped me understand them better.

In the history of La Baguette Magique, this post is the longest I have ever written, and the first to be spread over four parts. Yep this is telling something... I'm on the verge of a personal discovery and it's all good! Thanks for reading this personal odyssey of mine, and I hope it will have transported you to new territories and you will have found it refreshing and inspirational!

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Smells Like Free Spirit is a 4-part series:  Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4

Smells Like Free Spirit (Part 3)

"I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion." - Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957, Part 2, Ch. 4

How do I do it as a free spirit, I hear you ask? For starters, being labelled a free spirit is a revelation because I never thought worthy of such a privilege! I never saw myself that interesting! Now that I am taking this on board, I'd better live up to it and that might take some adjusting, after years of the 'obligated' conformist lifestyle, following lines of conduct, business protocoles and abiding to company mission statements, flirting with the upsides of capitalism and suffering from its downsides too.

Via We Heart It

Pretending to be someone I wasn't and looking for answers in all the wrong places, feeding off the fleeting buzz off a new material purchase or upscale social event, I was lying to myself and in those late-night blurs, in my darkest minute with caked-in make-up around teary eyes checking my reflection in the bathroom mirror, when suddenly hit by the solitude of it all, it would briefly dawn on me that this lifestyle would never satisfy me, my soul, my spirit, my heart.

I felt trapped. I kept thinking: 'Is that it? Is that all there is to life? To make money and to spend it?' Then I would brush my doubts off, get up and go back to where I had come from, the office, the long commutes, the airport lobby, the party, the fakes and the doppelgangers. I had to because questioning my choices at that pressured moment in my life would have been to admit I had been wrong all - or at least most of - the way, and it takes courage and a certain form of abnegation to get to admit that! The timing wasn't right. I had spiritedness as a state of mind but at that moment in time I couldn't liberate it and be myself.

'Sleeping Angel' (Highgate Cemetery), photo by Ben Jeffrey, via Flickr

So then for the sake of research, can we capture the essence of a free spirit? Or is it too rare, unique, evanescent and elusive to be bottled into an eau de parfum? Well, you can say that again! Actually if you described it as 'a little je ne sais quoi', you might get close to a definition. But if you're not happy with that, I will venture a few reflections. A free spirit stands out with their views (and for their views!) and their ways of thinking. They stand up from the masses and sometimes they stand alone. They do not tend to follow the herds, which is why seasoned marketers and advertisers must have a field day trying to 'sell' them the coolness of their brands!

Via Pinterest

Free spirits do not (cannot!) care too much about what everyone else thinks about them. You have to let go of prejudices and be tolerant, respect differences, be more detached or you'll get sucked back in; yet having said that, this apparent carefree attitude doesn't mean you don't care as a free spirit! The ones I know care too much for their own good! And as for one I am incredibly sensitive and passionate, verging on the compulsive dramatist at times, just ask those closest and dearest...

Free spirits are not necessarily creative, however their thinking is creative! On the other hand, being a creative doesn't warrant free-spiritedness. I know some creative types with regimented organised materialistic lifestyles who would never contemplate the more Bohemian aspects of a free spirit lifestyle, and who try to instill 'some sense' into my life. And that, I'm afraid, will get them a buh-bye from me! (to be continued)

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Smells Like Free Spirit is a 4-part series:  Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4

Smells Like Free Spirit (Part 2)

"A prayer for the wild at heart that are kept in cages" - Tennessee Williams, Stairs to the Roof, 1941

Free spirits come in all shapes and forms. I firmly believe that we are all free spirits at heart. We are born that way, although education, social codes and expectations, the class system, the structured work environment, financial pressures, life changes, and other externals will send a reality check down our way, crush those youthful ideals and shackle most of us to our 'lower base needs', i.e. a lifetime of relative servitude, rewarded by a stack of material possessions, and vaguely comforted by mirages and second bests.

'Clinging to the cliffside', Route 1, Big Sur Coastline by Jeff Swanson, via Flickr

Most of us will find some sort of contentment within our shallow lifestyle, while others will be kept awake at night by the intrinsic wonders of life, puzzled by the actual meaning of it all, and tortured in their waking hours by that urge to finally break free from the rat race but without any clear-cut master plan in mind, yet sane enough to not fall prey to any sort of "turn on, tune in and drop out" counterculture psychedelic buzzphrase, or any form of sectarian idolism!

Nonetheless a handful of us will remain true to our core values throughout, stand the test of time and the trappings of the modern world to move to the next level, to seek the meaning of happiness and engage in its pursuit. Pursue the quest for wisdom, a purpose to life, a fit in society, via worthwhile charitable causes, faith and religion, and/ or travel. One will facilitate the other. Some will embark upon a journey of self-discovery for a while, maybe even through a career break or 'adult' gap year, then come back when satisfied enough, hopefully with a role, a purpose, a vision, a mission, a line of conduct. Some will be back with no clear purpose, but will be enriched by experience, a taste of freedom and new-found knowledge in a multitude of areas.

Via All That Glitters Is Not Gold (Tumblr)

Others will be in it for the long haul, devoting a lifetime to the self-discovery cause, yet with no guarantee to find answers and/ or to contribute meaningfully to society's welfare via their alternative thinking and doing. They might get lost in the process and turn into those 'eternal' travellers, those drifters living for the moment, who lost their roots and foundations, and are of no fixed abode.

Philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and sociologists have devoted lifetimes to the fact that man is naturally good and needs to break free from society's coercive and corruptive hold. With this in mind, some of us free spirits will take to the road looking for ourselves, seeking answers, musing about inspiration, searching the truth, our own truth, while enacting our own version of the Jack Kerouac road trip.

Via Le Croissant d'Argent (Tumblr)

Not all journeys are necessarily geographical. Some are inner/ introvert journeys, through spiritual awareness, meditation, contemplation, philosophy etc. At the other end of the spectrum, some journeys start, happen or end down California's Silicon Valley. The valley is full of original free spirits, techie by nature, but also outside-of-the-box thinkers wearing Converse sneakers and that Che Guevara tee, who juggle algorithms and streamline open source so the rest of us can benefit from the latest web 2.0 advancements. Free spirits are not necessarily ascetic nor are they bound to be cash-poor and devoid of needs.

The definition of free spirit is difficult to pinpoint as such. Free spirits are free thinkers, truth seekers, open-minded, open to the world and to change, open to the possibilities of a better world; they see things from a different perspective. They have a fresh approach, with a hint of optimism and idealism; they are passionate lovers of life (despite sometimes contesting it), almost carefree and not as confined by social restrictions as the conformists. (to be continued)

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Smells Like Free Spirit is a 4-part series:  Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4