The Sun - NASA
So, yesterday was the summer solstice (in the northern hemisphere at least), an important-sounding and fairly random point in the calendar for pausing for breath and catching up. Back in February, I wrote my New Year resolutions for 2010 (It was the Chinese New Year. I wasn’t late. Oh no.)
Yesterday, I thought it would be fun to have another look at them and see how quickly I abandoned them I was getting along.
To my surprise, I’ve actually been doing fairly well. This must be what happens when you finally grow old enough to realise that there’s no point in adding “go to the gym more often” to the list.
Unusual Journey Interviews
Inside the Travel Lab’s Unusual Journey Interviews have got off to a great start, featuring international choreographer Laila Diallo and adventurous sportsman Rob Forbes. Forbes swam, cycled and ran his way from England to South Africa to arrive in time for the World Cup and did it all for charity. Look out for more inspiring stories coming soon…
Charity
Speaking of which, Inside the Travel Lab has covered a few good causes since the chilly dark days of February. Forbes’ trans-continental journey to raise money for Re-Cycle was one and Tripbase’s Travel Secrets book to help provide drinking water for developing countries was another.
Spreading the Word About CPR
A third involved a cause very close to my heart: the importance of learning CPR. Ten friends completed the Paris Marathon in honour of a friend who died last September of Sudden Cardiac Death. If you’ve read this far, then please, please, please make sure that you (and the people you travel with) know how to do basic CPR. It doubles the chance of survival during cardiac arrest.
Travel More & Have A Lot of Fun
Because, well, we only have one life. Some of my favourite moments from 2010 have been the surprise beauty of Tenerife, the olive harvest in Andalucia, the sunset over Mont Blanc and my stay in Zafra castle. Also the hot chocolate in Krakow and my first ever via ferrata in the Dolomites thanks to dolomitemountains.com…
More of a Red Light for Viajes Verdes
Steady but rather slow progress on delving deep into green travel and how we learn languages. A few surprise bonuses in 2010 added scraps of Polish and Ladin to my rusty repertoire, plus the emergency resurrection of fragments of school German. It can only get better, I suppose!
The Next Adventure
I’m packing my bags later tonight for a Blog Trip to Valencia to take in the Formula One Grand Prix. It’s certainly an experiment for me, I’m not known for my mastery of sporting trivia, but then, that’s the fun of trying something new. I may just find I love it after all…
Ye gods, lady. I’m knackered just reading that list. Good work.
Strength to strength, Abi.
Thanks for the encouragement, Mike!
This is a great list! Traveling is having fun while doing it for a cause! Very inspiring!
Cheers Angela – hope you’re managing to have fun while travelling for a good cause as well.