Who we are !
I am Simon mostly an engineer with Kathie mostly a home maker.
We are everyday Kiwis enjoying life a moment at a time. We live in our beautiful Hobby Caravan in New Zealand and we live in our other beautiful Hobby Caravan in England and Europe.
Our daughter Chantell ( Hairdresser)loves life in London and is now married to a very nice English man Simon David Middleweek (Personal Trainer). We call him Simon David for short🙂.
Thats us in the photo above, in Winchester at Christmas. we all seem to get on and enjoy travel. Many times we have met up in New Zealand, England and Europe to celebrate good times together.
We have lived this mobile life since July 2012. Helping people along the way, discovering new things about the world around us and in the process we learn new stuff about ourselves.
Summing it up after 6 years of mobility..I think we make few daily plans except to enjoy all we can today. Living in the moment a little more than we ever have.
Yes we do miss our regular friends and would love to share some of our fun with them everywhere we go. Finally I have decided to create something for all the people who don't use Facebook.
So if you have a comment on a post we would love to read your thoughts. If you don't like to comment, just take a peek once a month. Then at least next time we meet you will have some idea what we have been up to.
Kathie stays in touch with hundreds of people on Facebook (search Kathie Mantle send her a friend request if you like)
I (Simon) am feeling there are many people I would love to stay in touch with. There are many who dont use Facebook and want to take a peek at what we are up to now..so I think a blog is a good way to do this.
I love to think and note my thoughts as they change. This process of travel affords both experience and time to think .. I will try to label the postings as thoughts on the heading so you can skip them if you like the pictures more.
More Thoughts
We are blessed to have this life and the opportunity at this time to experience what we do. I would love to share some of our joy with others so that when we catch up in person we don't have a big vacuum of unknowns to fill in.
Sometimes that feeling of amazement, of wonder about what we share on this planet can be contagious when we see the world through someone else's eyes.
So I don't want the fun of this experience to just end in me.
Any comments positive or negative are appreciated.
With this in mind, we travel. We tread lightly, ask questions, be respectful, be humble, we lead a privileged life, appreciate every moment even those which challenge us.
Its not easy to describe what is good about not knowing what each day will bring.
I think Forest Gump was onto it ..when he said
Life is like a box of chocolates. .you never know what you are going to get😊
We are just like everyone else..we want to enjoy the moment and expand that into our life..It means that each day we have to let go our prejudices about each other and what is happening and be open to the good of today.
When our environment is changing daily I think that our thinking does so as well..so with travel it is a little easier to think and act differently and enjoy what is happening. (We do have some responsibilities like maintaining our income meeting our budget and paying our taxes and maintaining our property, cars and caravans etc so its not totally fun and games)
About 2300 years ago a Greek man by the name of Epicurus advocated we live a Happy life free from Anxiety surrounded by friends.
I feel like not much has changed over time we still pursue this goal but the complexity of modern life has seen us unbalanced by modern distractions.
Fundamentally he advocated living in the moment, Yes he did advocate enjoying good food. I think he consumed his food as he lived life , savouring it a moment at a time ..why do you think we enjoy Coffee or tea so much..yes we stop doing things for a moment. We savour the moment by listening to the taste buds talk while our eyes rest on the lives of people around us..and just for a moment we have a feeling of all the time in the world!
We are just like everyone else..we want to enjoy the moment and expand that into our life..It means that each day we have to let go our prejudices about each other and what is happening and be open to the good of today.
When our environment is changing daily I think that our thinking does so as well..so with travel it is a little easier to think and act differently and enjoy what is happening. (We do have some responsibilities like maintaining our income meeting our budget and paying our taxes and maintaining our property, cars and caravans etc so its not totally fun and games)
About 2300 years ago a Greek man by the name of Epicurus advocated we live a Happy life free from Anxiety surrounded by friends.
I feel like not much has changed over time we still pursue this goal but the complexity of modern life has seen us unbalanced by modern distractions.
Fundamentally he advocated living in the moment, Yes he did advocate enjoying good food. I think he consumed his food as he lived life , savouring it a moment at a time ..why do you think we enjoy Coffee or tea so much..yes we stop doing things for a moment. We savour the moment by listening to the taste buds talk while our eyes rest on the lives of people around us..and just for a moment we have a feeling of all the time in the world!
I love to be amazed at what Nature can do.
Probably I love most to be amazed at the good mankind can do when he wants to. It gives me a confidence in our future .
Travel is not all fun and games, it leaves us vulnerable at times. On one occasion we took advantage of a special deal to cruise the waterways of Hamburg at sunset followed by a tour of miniature wonderland. Well we found ourselves lost in the middle of Hamburg at Midnight. It was nothing short of a miracle that we were home by 2 am. We caught 2 buses and 2 trains, we were lost 3 times, each time people helped us because we went where people told us we had no idea where we were in relation to buses and trains and our car. It was their knowledge and compassion which helped us. It was an incredibly humbling experience, throughout Kathie did not panic (she may well have been petrified but she didn't show it)
This kind of thing fills me with a confidence in humanity, and a confidence to further our travels .. but organise the trains and buses at a better time 🙂
So it is we live our lives through other peoples eyes..being kind to others helps us feel good about what our own life is about.
Epicurus advocated living in the moment..which says you don't have time for the anxiety around the future or prejudice about the past in ours or someone else's life.
I think this is our challenge today..how do we live our own life and enjoy it. Doing what we think our life is about. Recognising where we are thinking our own original unique thoughts and when are we acting on the thoughts and beliefs of the many important people who influence our thoughts and actions.
Most of our life we accepted the beliefs of teh important others as being functional . we did not recognise that we ever had a choice in this ..
until we find ourselves denying ourselves choice and living with the consequence.
I think it is all a bit much to think this stuff out,
I feel the best we can do is decide who we want to become in character, then find all the ways that will facilitate that.
My favorite quote is "Its not so much what you achieve, but who you become"
I recognise that having goals to achieve things is vital to the process of who you become because the process of achieving the goals teaches us things about ourselves and we are changed by this process.
Intention is everything.
The outcome of any of life's events is unknown and not predictable but our intention is something which can be pure and we have reason to feel good even when events turn foul , and even when people misinterpret a motive . We can feel good through the whole process when ones intention is pure.
PS I think Shame is a concept which belongs to the old testament. We have evolved to be more responsible and honest with ourselves so that we learn and progress through teh many challenges life throws at us
Probably I love most to be amazed at the good mankind can do when he wants to. It gives me a confidence in our future .
Travel is not all fun and games, it leaves us vulnerable at times. On one occasion we took advantage of a special deal to cruise the waterways of Hamburg at sunset followed by a tour of miniature wonderland. Well we found ourselves lost in the middle of Hamburg at Midnight. It was nothing short of a miracle that we were home by 2 am. We caught 2 buses and 2 trains, we were lost 3 times, each time people helped us because we went where people told us we had no idea where we were in relation to buses and trains and our car. It was their knowledge and compassion which helped us. It was an incredibly humbling experience, throughout Kathie did not panic (she may well have been petrified but she didn't show it)
This kind of thing fills me with a confidence in humanity, and a confidence to further our travels .. but organise the trains and buses at a better time 🙂
So it is we live our lives through other peoples eyes..being kind to others helps us feel good about what our own life is about.
Epicurus advocated living in the moment..which says you don't have time for the anxiety around the future or prejudice about the past in ours or someone else's life.
I think this is our challenge today..how do we live our own life and enjoy it. Doing what we think our life is about. Recognising where we are thinking our own original unique thoughts and when are we acting on the thoughts and beliefs of the many important people who influence our thoughts and actions.
Most of our life we accepted the beliefs of teh important others as being functional . we did not recognise that we ever had a choice in this ..
until we find ourselves denying ourselves choice and living with the consequence.
I think it is all a bit much to think this stuff out,
I feel the best we can do is decide who we want to become in character, then find all the ways that will facilitate that.
My favorite quote is "Its not so much what you achieve, but who you become"
I recognise that having goals to achieve things is vital to the process of who you become because the process of achieving the goals teaches us things about ourselves and we are changed by this process.
Intention is everything.
The outcome of any of life's events is unknown and not predictable but our intention is something which can be pure and we have reason to feel good even when events turn foul , and even when people misinterpret a motive . We can feel good through the whole process when ones intention is pure.
PS I think Shame is a concept which belongs to the old testament. We have evolved to be more responsible and honest with ourselves so that we learn and progress through teh many challenges life throws at us
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