This Earth

In a moment, in a blink
The present moon begins to sink,
The future sun,
Is rising now
And at it’s head a shining prow.
Built by men to forge a dream
The White Knight waiting
To redeem
The pettiness of human life
As it rises like a knife
Through the clouds and dust and air
To soar to space and to repair
Our hope, our hearts
Our drive and worth
And show us all our place;
This earth.

Backpacking, Wanderlust and Edinburgh

There is, in my view, only one way to see the world. If you travel and stay in hotels and cart around ridiculous amounts of clothes, in cases you could be buried in, you never really experience what travel is all about. It’s about taking the smallest amount of stuff you possibly can, shoving it into the smallest bag you can possibly fit it in and forgetting everything that you’ve left behind.
Travel is about turning up in a city that until that day was just a name, and finding in it treasures you’d never imagined. Travel is about staying in tiny dorm rooms when you have to and cozying up with fellow travellers when you can.
Travel is about things working out when by rights they shouldn’t and things going terribly, scarily wrong and being able to laugh when they do.
I love backpacking and I love travel. The two for me are inseparable. It’s sad that in the past couple years I’ve done so little of it; especially this year, when I’ve had so few commitments.

I went to Scotland first and foremost to see my brother, who lives near the border with England. As soon as I’d booked the trip I realised I needed the break. Staying in Ireland for too long makes me jumpy and cranky. I love Ireland and Dublin but travelling is a passion and wanderlust an infection I’ve carried a long time.

I considered seeing both Edinburgh and Glasgow but on the advice of just about everyone I opted to avoid the more industrial city.

My flight to Edinburgh was due to take off just after lunch last Wednesday, which coincidentally was when my airline, Aer Lingus, had said they’d start flights again after the Eyjafjallajokull ash cloud.

I didn’t expect the plane to take off. So I went through the considerable rigmarole of packing (love travelling, hate packing) without a lot of optimism. I got a bus to the airport, again, expecting the worst. There was a tiny queue to check in, which took a ridiculous amount of time to clear and when I got to the desk I was surprised to be handed a boarding pass straight away.

After that the trip was plain sailing. I spent my time doing what I most enjoy, wandering around a city to get a feel of it, reading books (I bought 6, read 4) and when the urge struck me, writing.

Edinburgh is a really gorgeous city. My hostel was smack in the middle of the Old Town and that meant I didn’t have to see many modern soul-less buildings or wander very far to see the sites.

I went pub crawling with the hostel crew each night I was in Edinburgh and discovered that I am currently a backpacker magnet, although why this is I have yet to decipher. I don’t intend to analyse it too much, lest I break the magic.

My trip south was less impressive. The train from Edinburgh to Carlisle cost me £40 which shocked me a bit, and the terrain in Southern Scotland (the lowlands) is really not as impressive. They did have some awesome castles down there though.

Seeing my brother was great. In the last five years I’ve only seen him a handful of times and he and his girlfriend provided some really awesome meals for me while I was down there.

In all it’s been a good trip. However I’m left with a stronger sense of wanderlust then ever. I want to start an epic trip, drop everything and just keep moving. It’s starting to get higher on my list again. When the marathon is run and the 365 challenge over I think I might take out my backpack again.

Photos in Absence

All the shots I uploaded to flickr while I was in Edinburgh but didn't get a chance to post them to Facebook or Twitter:

Where do the months go?

I started this blog to help me write. It was something I could turn to with random musings and quirkey ideas. Sadly it hasn't worked so far. Instead it's been 20 days since I last updated and out of the 85 days so far this year I've failed to write even a single word on 21 occasions, thus failing my challenge pretty horribly.

So what gives Robin? Why the lack of writing?

I think the problem is my current lifestyle and the sheer amount of things i've given myself to do. ALong with the challenges I have websites to build and a marathon to run. Those last two have been taking up more and more time. Thankfully the current site will soon be done, the marathon however will stretch on, becoming more and more imposing until October.

Most of the writing I have managed to do has been superficial. I did manage the first draft of a short script back in January. I was reasonably pleased with that, but it was but a week's work amongst a sea of self-serving blog posts (like this one) and pretty bad poetry.

This week I did start a new play, but even with a strong initial concept I've been struggling to flesh out the characters and real interactions to push the piece forward.

For good or bad I've signed up for Script Frenzy to try turn it into a proper 100-page play by the end of April. Considering everything else going on at the minute I'll be amazed if I manage that. Still, worth a go, no?

The Beauteous Night

I watch the stars each night,
Stricken low with an empty longing,
Knowing the vastness
That reaches us over a million years
Will drain my soul
And blow it out to space.
Solitude is finite.
Loneliness is endless.
We are but specks in a limitless ocean.
Drifting into contact at the whim of laws
Our minds are still too tiny to conceive.
And yet the sky is beautiful.
And in a way, that is the problem.
The vast emptiness is all too easy
To embrace, leaving behind
All those things that make us human.

Nostrum somnium ero verus.

There is a lesson,
Inscribed on a stone plaque
Carved in my heart.
When adversity faces us
We must not bow our heads,
Or taste defeat in a bitter mouth.
There is no victory in overcoming
A challenge there is no chance of failing.
“Anything can be achieved with hard work and will power”.
From the race to the rise
All things are impossible
Only when we let them be so.

If you must cry
Then shed tears in endeavour
If you must complain
Then do so only to yourself.
If regret is your master
Then you must master regret.
If the burden is too heavy,
Find others who will help to carry it.

Fear is not within us,
It is without us.
The fear of failure is the drive to success.
Bravery is simply foolishness in fancier garb.
Nostrum somnium ero verus.

Photography Bucket List

After reading this article dredged from the mammoth backlog in my Google Reader I decided it was a good enough idea to steal.

So here is my bucket list.

A really good portrait

If you've browsed my photostream you'll see that portraiture isn't my thing. There are probably three photos with people up there in total. This is a shame because I quite like portraiture. So why not go out and get more? Well I hope to. In fact in the not too distant future I may be pestering you with my camera.

That waterfall

Yes it's a massive cliche. I still want one. I've even had the chance a few times, but it's never been exactly what I'm after, which is a lot of water flowing captured with a slow shutter speed.

One of those slow motion coastal shots - Again a cliche but these are just great when done properly. Here's a good example example.

A wild fox - To be honest any sort of wildlife photography would be a bit of a dream. A fox is just the top on the list. They're elusive buggers though and without a super telephoto lens this is probably never going to happen. I'd best start saving.

A studio shoot - Another dream. Someday i'd love to rent a studio out and have the right equipment to do justice to a shoot. I'd probably go for a proper fashionesque model and see what I coud get of her.


Let me know what you'd like to shoot. There are plenty of other shots I'd love to get. I'll probably expand this over the year.