Email: Fiancé’s birthday. Loves vacations, travel magazines & blogs. (Canada)

Happy Birthday!

Exploring the Philippines 7,000 tropical islands is an awesome experience. A cultural mash-up of Spanish colonialism & South-East Asian tradition make it unique. Explore the ornate San Agustin Church in Manila, get lost in Vigan’s iconic Mestizo District, marvel at the tumbling rice terraces of Banaue. Beaches are among the world’s best. Bacuit Bay is a mecca for sun worshippers with superb diving & gorgeous hidden sandy coves. Discover El Nido in Palawan Island. A paradise. White sand buffering turquoise waters filled with most diverse marine life. Boracay offers secluded strips of silver sand & cliffs. Just beautiful. Caramoan, Camarines Sur is named after a local sea turtle, as scenic as it is secluded. Scuba divers, island hoppers converge here. Complementing the beaches are caves, waterfalls, freshwater pools, underground streams & lagoons. Top surfing island – Siargao. On the Great Santa Cruz Island, pulverised red coral washed up from the sea floor mixes with white sand to produce a pretty pink-hued beach. A stunning experience.

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Email: Partner’s birthday. Loves music, the sea, flowers. (Iceland)

Happy Birthday!

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Charles Foster wanted to know what it was like to be a beast – a badger, an otter, a deer, a fox, a swift. What it was really like. So, he tried it out. Lived life as a badger sleeping in a dirt hole & eating earthworms, came face to face with shrimps as he lived like an otter. Spent hours curled up in a back garden, rooting in bins like an urban fox. 

Being A Beast – Amazon

A passionate naturalist, Foster realises that every creature creates a different world in its brain & lives in that world. As humans, we share sensory outputs, lights, smells & sounds. But, trying to explore what it is actually like to live in another of these worlds, belonging to another species is a unique neuroscience challenge. Also, a literary one. What happens in a fox’s or badger’s brain when it picks up a scent? An intimate look at the mysterious life of animals, neuroscience, psychology & nature writing. A fascinating journey with extraordinary thrills & surprises.

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Email: Grandma’s birthday. Loves flowers, local cooking. (Jamaica)

Happy Birthday!

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We have within us an unlimited capacity for love, peace, creativity & joy. In The Wise Heart, celebrated psychologist Jack Kornfield offers the most comprehensive & illuminating guide to Buddhist psychology. A vision of universal compassion & empathy, a belief in humanity & human dignity, a journey to the highest expression of human possibility & a practical path for realising it in our own lives.

The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology

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Selecting house-plants. Recollections. There’s so much solace & serenity in gardening. Feel a bond, a connection with trees & plants. Something so beautiful, deeply moving about seeing the seeds germinate, bud & blossom or even going back to seed. A real joy to be found in growth or the resilient return of a perennial plant through the soil after a dark winter. Seasonal flows & the wider natural world guide our everyday life. Gardening is truly meditative. A calming & creative pursuit. Whether we have a yard, a grassy corner, a patio, a flower pot or a porch, the potential for beauty is infinite. Butterflies. Earthworms. A garden sanctuary with statues, bells, wind chimes, crystal stones, a stream or a fountain. Harmony.

And, an antidote to that fast & furious digital life. In tending to house-plants nothing is instant. Nothing is guaranteed. A slow, hopeful & patience-testing anticipation. A basket full of special surprises. Hugely relaxing when the rest of our life is so rapidly paced. Gardening is also a form of self-care. In the refuge of brilliant colours, sweet scents & the stillness of our garden, the burdens imposed by a sometimes hectic routine melt away. Any home is more calming with plants in it, particularly in spaces with a lot of hard edges. Makes it so much more breathable, more natural & more tender. City living often leads to a disconnection with nature. But, house plants are a small yet wonderful way to re-connect with nature. Therapeutic. Fascinating.

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A polite note from the Blog’s intern

Blog is currently experiencing upgrades in functionality, new content. Appreciate patience in response to emails. Apologies for the inconvenience for a few days. 

Thank you.

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Email: 15th wedding anniversary. Love travel, art & architecture. (Canada)

Happy Anniversary!

Hungary. One of Eastern Europe’s most beautiful countries. It all starts with Budapest, the town of two cities – Buda & Pest, on either side of the Danube. Home to some of the continent’s best architecture, from the Castle Quarter to the Royal Palace. The Neo-Gothic Parliament, 3rd largest in the world & the Buda Castle, started in 1200s. Gellért Hill offers best views of the city. World class spas are the perfect place to unwind. Central Europe’s largest lake, Lake Balaton, is the backdrop for beautiful, bright countryside. Eger’s charming streets & Cave Baths of Miskolctapolca are most exotic & energising. Budapest’s most scenic park, Margaret Island.

Whether we find ourself in a no-frill kocsma, an elegant cocktail lair or a quirky ruin pub, Budapest’s drinking scene has one constant. An inky, amber-tinted liquid called Unicum with roots that delve back to the 18th century. A most revered national drink, the fruit brandy Pálinka. The concert hall & music academy founded by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt is still Hungary’s most prestigious music school.

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