While flicking through a friend\u2019s photos on Facebook recently I found myself staring quite intently at one particular image with a weird sense of deja vu. It was of this huge old tree which had grown right in the middle of a decaying temple. Forced its way through solid stone and just sat there looking mighty pleased with itself. I felt like I\u2019d been there, I could even imagine what the place smelt like. But this picture was from Cambodia, where I\u2019ve not (yet) ventured. Something about it gave me itchy feet, I wanted to see this thing for real, even though I felt like I already had.<\/p>\n
Then it came it me. I\u2019d spent a good six years of my life falling asleep next to that image. A postcard. A bloody postcard! My brother went off travelling when I was still fairly young (young enough that we he came home from his travels I walked straight past him in the street and didn\u2019t register who he was). Every few months we\u2019d get a voicemail from him, which always lead to my mum effing and blinding that \u201cThe ONLY TIME I don\u2019t pick up the phone, it\u2019s always bloody Phillip\u201d, and soon after resulted in her answering the phone even if she was perched on the loo (a habit she\u2019s not broken yet). I seem to remember getting emails from him occasionally, although I might be imagining that\u2026 my brother\u2019s really old, I think we were still using carrier pigeons when he travelled.<\/p>\n
One time a little package arrived addressed to me. It was battered and covered in customs stickers, and rocked up in about October (not sure whether it was a really late birthday or a really well organised Christmas present). Inside were a few postcards, a little handmade necklace and a gorgeous silk pouch. Some bits came from Vietnam, some from Cambodia, some from Australia. They all smelt very unfamiliar – a musty smell which I now associate with living in dusty hot countries and not bathing for weeks on end (go stick your face in a backpacker\u2019s luggage if you want to know for yourself). I still remember every day looking at that cheesy postcard of Sydney (you know, blue skies, opera house, harbour bridge, I think there were some Olympic Rings in there too) and thinking how awfully far away it seemed. I treasured that photo because I imagined I\u2019d never actually get to see somewhere on the other side of the world. Every time I see the Opera House, I still get goosebumps which cover me from the tips of my toes to the split ends of my hair. I pinch myself on a weekly basis, because it all used to seem so\u00a0unlikely.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i>I\u2019m suffering from a case of the itchy feet at the minute (as usual) – my job is still amazing, I love this city and I love the weather, but I\u2019ve been stationary for a loooong time now. I can\u2019t imagine ever being satisfied with one place for the rest of my life. I start wheezing at the thought of signing a six-month contract, so to sign up for a mortgage or marriage makes me want to run very fast in the direction of the nearest exotic clime and grow some dreads.<\/p>\n
I want to do yoga on top of a mountain, I want to swim with turtles (dolphins don\u2019t do it for me), I want to see REAL snow (not the shitty English slush), I want to ride a horse through a desert and hike rain forests in South America. I can think of nothing more appealing that eating questionable food from a street vendor in South East Asia, or partying in a Rio carnival, or watching some obscure band in a grimy Brooklyn basement. It seems like the more I do, and the more people I meet, the longer my bucket list becomes. So, my darling brother, thank you. What may have seemed like a 50c postcard you ironically purchased after a few too many Vodka & Strawberry Milkshakes (really? So disgusting) actually turned out to be pretty significant. Although I did just get bitten by a mosquito, which wouldn\u2019t have happened if I still lived in Peterborough. So you know, you\u2019re not all great.<\/p>\n
*Yes, I\u2019m aware I could probably have written this all in an email to my brother, but I\u2019m an over-sharer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While flicking through a friend\u2019s photos on Facebook recently I found myself staring quite intently at one particular image with a weird sense of deja vu. It was of this huge old tree which had grown right in the middle of a decaying temple. Forced its way through solid stone and just sat there looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}