Holidaze

What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

My favourite holiday was as a kid and I didn’t have to travel far for endless fun. Exploring the hills above our street or the gully behind the house was a magical playground for me and the neighbourhood kids.

The summer holidays seemed to go on for ever. But I wasn’t really aware of ‘holiday’ in the adult definition. It was just escapism. Today of course, we are hyper aware of the potential dangers of gullies and hills but in those days there was always an elder assigned to supervise any excursion.

If it wasn’t the backyard it was the beach. After a long drive we’d arrive at our destination where the river meets the sea. For a couple of weeks we would immerse ourselves in a place that could only be described as paradise.

Occasionally I revisit these places in dreams and while they seem distant and mysterious they remain with me as if printed on my cortex.

Yes, I do the annual holiday like others. South East Asia has become a favourite, especially Thailand as it seems to represent something special for me. The jungle, the temples, exotic aromas, different social practices. I am taken to another place. But travelling never really compares to those seminal experiences as a kid. Nowadays my favourite holiday is to lie in the grass and bury myself in a book:)

Ozymandias

If you could have something named after you, what would it be?

It is unlikely I would have anything named after me but in the event that I could, maybe a charity or a school would be preferable over a city tower or a ship. Pipe dreams. These are merely external artifices, albeit symbols for humanitarian causes. But why the grand gestures?
It’s the human connection that counts. At least it does for me.
Simple is often the way and you can help anyone in need. And this isn’t hard to understand because quite often children show it and demonstrate it.
Does getting older make you more circumspect? Does it make you wiser? I guess I’d like to be remembered for ‘me’ whatever that entails while any legacy is increasingly unlikely.
‘He came, he went and one nanosecond later is forgotten’
Or Percy Shelley..
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

In the money

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?

I could choose to be rich. Having a couple of million bucks wouldn’t be so bad would it? Maybe shove some in a safe if needs be, just in case you need to access a stash. Hey, there’s nothing like instant gratification on a limitless basis. You’re in the money. You’ve won the lotto. Wahhhh, yeahhh!! Stick the bills, they suck anyway!

Go book a holiday. Maybe a cruise somewhere. That should be fun. But where? Maybe I’ll think about it later. Mmm, and with all this moolah I can settle my debts and fix numerous pending issues. But they’re not important anymore because I can pay them out – pay anyone out. Yippee!

Yes, I have a conscience. Why should I feel guilty (sitting around while everyone’s working away)? I can surely help my immediate loved ones and give them something. Be charitable. Hey, plenty to go around. Then again, I should count it up or get a finance adviser or some such. Bonds and securities – that sort of thing. Diverse portfolio. Invest and offset the tax. Yep, they’ll tell me what to do. Why worry about it? It’s just money and with enough of it the compound interest is incredible. Wowwwwwww!! Like a bloody mushrooming cloud. Booooommm!I wish..

Complaints

What do you complain about the most?

I could list my pet peeves but I hesitate to reveal too much of myself in the process. Or is it really to do with offending others? Then again, what does it hurt to come clean once in a while. But why complain at all? Better to take action. Besides, people have enough problems then to hear about mine. I’d like to think I’ve matured and become more tolerant, that one day I will shed my former intolerant self and become truly enlightened. But maybe I’m dreaming (probably). Oh, I have my complaints and they are many – thieving, blackmailing, torturing, embezzling, laundering, deceiving, stampeding, poisoning, cannibalism, nihilism, cultism, sadism, pessimism, extortion, perversion, intoxication, brutalism, contamination, algorithms, death by asphyxiation, telemarketing, trafficking, shop lifting, parole violating, pyramid selling, stalking, forging, roadkill collecting, racketeering, mobile throwing, all forms of provoking..