17 days before our cycling adventure in China, my random thoughts:
One of the thing that traveling taught me, is how to enjoy our world, and the people in it.
I believe that by nature, all people are kind, and only when feeling nervous, rushed, threatened or provoked, do they resort to bad behavior.
Even if you catch somebody on a bad day, if you do not take it personally, but instead stay with your own inner joy, and smile at him, or engage him in something useful, his own innate good nature, will surface soon enough.
During extended travel, you get plenty of opportunities to let others shine.
It is easier to see while traveling in less developing countries... But the principles are still the same.
People invited us to see their homes, their temples, their rituals.
When you point your camera, people will run to bring out their new born baby, all bundled up in fabric from head to toe....
Kids will bring out their beloved piglet pet, or their favorite brother....
I also have to admit that I love being a tourist.
I never try to blend in....
I like to see places and people with fresh eyes...
I even like to do this in places where I live....
I like to imagine that I am a tourist, and to have NEW experiences....
I felt the urge yesterday, to have a NEW experience.
It rained for most of the day, which usually means that I spend the day in the studio painting....
But I needed to shop for groceries, for a dinner, that we will be having tomorrow with friends, so we decided to take a drive.
The sky was misty and the whole day felt moist and hazy....as if you were walking into a cloud...
The town we usually shop in, is about an hour and a half drive, away from our home, on a narrow country road which twists and turns between diary and sheep farms, and along impossibly green hills.
On the outskirts of town, there is a winery which we did not visit before.
They have a lovely restaurant on the premises, overlooking a lily pond, and a vineyard.
We decided to try their lunch menu and to taste some of their wines.
We wanted to select some wines for our upcoming Passover and Easter dinners.
If possible, I do like to try new wines before I buy them.....
But it can be a bit tricky, to buy wine from a small winery....
If you taste their wine, but do not like it...... they look at you with sad puppy eyes and feel rejected.....
But this time, they had a nice choice of reds and whites, and we admired the color against the light from the window, smelled, twirled, tasted, swallowed......... and since it was lunch time....and we still needed to shop and to drive..... We pour the rest into the nicely shaped stainless steel spittoon.
Lunch was great.
It was a nice treat and better than expected, for a small little winery in the middle of a growing region, in the Far North region... of a small country called New Zealand....
I believe that by nature, all people are kind, and only when feeling nervous, rushed, threatened or provoked, do they resort to bad behavior.
Even if you catch somebody on a bad day, if you do not take it personally, but instead stay with your own inner joy, and smile at him, or engage him in something useful, his own innate good nature, will surface soon enough.
During extended travel, you get plenty of opportunities to let others shine.
It is easier to see while traveling in less developing countries... But the principles are still the same.
People invited us to see their homes, their temples, their rituals.
When you point your camera, people will run to bring out their new born baby, all bundled up in fabric from head to toe....
Kids will bring out their beloved piglet pet, or their favorite brother....
I also have to admit that I love being a tourist.
I never try to blend in....
I like to see places and people with fresh eyes...
I even like to do this in places where I live....
I like to imagine that I am a tourist, and to have NEW experiences....
I felt the urge yesterday, to have a NEW experience.
It rained for most of the day, which usually means that I spend the day in the studio painting....
But I needed to shop for groceries, for a dinner, that we will be having tomorrow with friends, so we decided to take a drive.
The sky was misty and the whole day felt moist and hazy....as if you were walking into a cloud...
The town we usually shop in, is about an hour and a half drive, away from our home, on a narrow country road which twists and turns between diary and sheep farms, and along impossibly green hills.
On the outskirts of town, there is a winery which we did not visit before.
They have a lovely restaurant on the premises, overlooking a lily pond, and a vineyard.
We decided to try their lunch menu and to taste some of their wines.
We wanted to select some wines for our upcoming Passover and Easter dinners.
If possible, I do like to try new wines before I buy them.....
But it can be a bit tricky, to buy wine from a small winery....
If you taste their wine, but do not like it...... they look at you with sad puppy eyes and feel rejected.....
But this time, they had a nice choice of reds and whites, and we admired the color against the light from the window, smelled, twirled, tasted, swallowed......... and since it was lunch time....and we still needed to shop and to drive..... We pour the rest into the nicely shaped stainless steel spittoon.
Lunch was great.
It was a nice treat and better than expected, for a small little winery in the middle of a growing region, in the Far North region... of a small country called New Zealand....
