Austin, TX

          'Isn't it funny how the person you think you are, compares to the person you actually are.'
                                               My therapist, to me on our last session.


 One year later and many dreams, arguments, holidays, tears, soul searching and more money than I even knew existed, I am following  my heart and my boyfriends rationale questioning and moving to Austin, TX. I am  also going back to uni (St Edwards)  and trying to find somewhere to call home. 5 years ago I would NEVER have been brave enough to do something like this. I always used to think 'I can't. But 'I can't' can get you out of pretty much anything, I CAN seems pretty scary sometimes but the thing is I actually can...as Sun Tzu said;

                           'Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?'



Everyone seems to want to know how I feel about moving to Austin, am I scared, happy, excited, worried, stressed, terrified, elated, busy? Well so lets just set the record straight. I am all of the above and more and well am OK with that. Its just life.

Apart from the obvious reason of moving to the States as my boyfriend is from there, there are many other reasons for us to move and in my opinion many reasons to move to Austin. Most of the time people have quite a few assumptions about Texas which are less than positive so I thought I would give a few of my own favourite reasons on why I moving to Austin seems like a great idea! (from a British/South African perspective).

1. Cost of living. For our Brixton apartment ( which is not too close to the station) we pay £1200 a month. In Austin you can a central HOUSE for about 1,600USD with two bedrooms, a garden uhm sorry a yard...., and the likeliness of it looking something like this is quite high...What I like to call a 'mini ranch' although I am sure in England we would call it a bungalow...ANYWAY

See that thing out the front of the house? yes my friends, its a porch/stoep. Can you sit on a bench with your dog ( there will be dogs) and read a book? (Yes John, and drink beer, an IPA please) Yes of course you can. See those green things? Yes London people that is a whole lot of trees! Lots and lots of trees.

2. Austin appears to have a lot of yoga and they appear to love it. For such a 'smallish' city ( in comparison to London) they have a lot of yoga studios. Love it when for those couple weeks a year we get yoga in the park? Well in Austin we have the weather too. This place should do the trick...
http://www.yogayoga.com/


3. Austin is HOT, not always a good kinda hot it appears but real hot. Are we worried? not really. How will be survive? We will swim of course! Do we need to go to the gym or the local lido ( the 'lido' might I add is free and saltwater)? Well you could but you could also go here.... Do you get hot and sweaty on the underground on the way there? No...there is no train...Is John going to get a motorbike instead? Yes of course...

BARTON SPRINGS...

 

Yes this is actually in the city. Barton Springs is a man made swimming pool which is sourced by the fourth largest natural Spring in Texas.  Maybe just pop over to JuiceLand...buy a Secret Lover (strawberry • cherry • banana • durian • mac nuts • cacao nibs • date • goji • vanilla • aphrodisiac blend (maca • cacao • mucuna • reishi • tribulus • yohimbe • ho shou wu • damiana • st. john’s wort • cordyceps • ginko • amla • salt) smoothie......
                                            and walk down the banks and see the turtles....
What about the yoga though?! I thought you said we were doing yoga....? 
http://www.sayomsouthaustin.com/say-om-paddle-yoga.html Don't worry you can do that on the lake too.

Need a quick vegan snack?
http://consciouscravingsaustin.com/
Yes its true I am excited about vegan food, even just vegetarian food, they have a lot of that in Austin..

4. You know that shop Whole Foods..? You have Austin to thank for that.
 

I am not expert on Austin living, and for all I know I could get over there and hate it, ( I doubt it).
Austin is no beach paradise, but if you think Cape Town is great well Austin is definately giving it a run for its money...

I will miss my family and friends greatly. But as my Aunt says, what the heck, the odds for happiness tip in the other direction!

“You lose your grip……….and then you slip………..into the masterpiece”         Leonard Cohen

To my beloved boyfriend and the new brave version of me, here is to making our masterpiece.
                                                            xxxxx

                                                                                             Watch this space.....

Or just watch this....Come visit me in 'Bat City'

  


Be inspired,
LB xx

Quiet nights and dreaming

Boulder, Colorado... 

I am trying to figure out what exactly I would like to say about Boulder.

Boulder has the kind of charm you can’t capture in a photo (trust me I have tried) and can’t be put into a funny story.

Life in Boulder is just relaxed. Its quiet, its sunny, and it may sound funny but it gives of energy of joyfulness.

There is no need to lock the doors, no need to lock your car and everywhere you go people are friendly and just relaxed. There are a lot of athletes going around on there bikes and running. I’m the odd one out not having a dog.

There is a creek that runs all the way through the centre of town (with a separate cycle path obviously) right up into the canyon as far as you are willing or able to go, grab a Boulder chai tea  (best chai tea I ever had) and pack a sarnie and you will be amazed! You might even see the wild prairie dogs!

 I attended a weekend at Naropa University in Buddhist meditation and the happiness in a still, kind, sweet, and sane way was infectious, no one ever appeared to be thinking or doing a thousand things at once, everything was far more gentle and clear. It was like no college I have attended in the UK and much to my delight unlike my studies in the UK the balance of men and women was great. The male intelligence and logic is something that I always value in my studies (as its so different to mine!)

I have never been able to sleep so well, dream so well and rest so well and after the somewhat embarrassing amount of altitude induced nose bleeds have worn off and I feel a little less like I am living in an aeroplane, Boulder is starting to grow on me!  And the fresh air is like no other place I have ever been! Boulder may not have much in the way of culture diversity, or liveliness of other places, but it has calm, it has peace and it has mountains and that’s wonderful in its own way.

From a very relaxed and rested me,

Be Inspired,

LB xx

Nederland, Colorado

  Whilst in Boulder, Colorado (which I appreciate I have been very quiet about) I attended a Buddhist Meditation course and met a lovely lady who very kindly offered to drive me up into the Rockies to where she lives in a old mining town (tungsten) called Nederland (Ned to the locals), so how could I refuse. It went a bit like this...

  The old bookstore, and now my friend’s wonderful Mountain home. The outside of the build is made of tin. Unfortunately due to all the new healthy and safety regulations the bookstore is no longer open but the books are still great!

In Ned there is no rubbish or recycling collection so you need to take it yourself to the local depot. This can either be done by car or our way of choice, 40 mins by backpack and foot through the forests, tracking the elk and rabbit foot prints on our way (we didn’t see any this time!)


It looked a bit like this....

  Sadly due to the economic crisis a lot of the businesses are been sold and been replaced with hotels and kwikmarts, however this used to be the local pottery studio, Magnolia Pottery, the lady who ran it has passed away, but her husband apparently comes back to look after the property.
This would have been my favourite place.

Buffalo Bill's Coffee (although now days they have a liquor licence too)

SO in the town of Ned they have a carousel. Its not just ANY carousel, hand built in Nederland it is the one and only ' Carousel of Happiness' and for 1 dollar, you can be happy too! The animals have been dressed up for Halloween...

 So inviting....















  




but mine was a flying pig....

   
 Nederland is not only infamous for their wonderful carousel but also for the music scene.
The Caribou Ranch which is just on the outskirts of Ned, (on the way to the now, ghost town of Caribou) is famous recording studio which recorded albums for the likes of Elton John, Michael Jackson, Frank Zappa, John Denver, Billy Joel...to name a few and this is where they would come to party at the Pioneer Inn Saloon. So I thought best to go for a beer!
Lets just say this really was a saloon! I met some more locals. 

One guy offered me some recently hunted squirrel meat,  (I never doubted the authenticity, apparently his son also hunted an elk with a bow and arrow) I politely refused along with the buffalo burgers...but the beer was good, apparently they didn’t take too well to the attempt of introducing a bit of reggae music, but I have no doubt that the Bluegrass music and the Mountain hip hop is that happens every night is well worth another trip!

Nothing was always that lovely though...
 Being an old mining town during the 70's the town population boomed when a few hippies started coming to town. During that time there was only one police sheriff and on his death bed he confessed to along with some other locals killing some of the hippies and dumping them down the old mining shafts.

  So just when you thought WOW this town cant get anymore interesting... well this little building here hold a dead frozen guy (don’t worry he has now been moved to a smarter facility nearby)
Frozen Dead Guy was originally from Norway and his son moved him to Nederland (post freezing).
Frozen Dead Guy now has his own musical festival in Ned which is apparently pretty great and you can see Frozen Dead Guy been paraded around town... So if you are interested... http://frozendeadguydays.org/


Whilst waiting for the bus, the only bus, back into Boulder we met a man from Midland Texas, who had come to Nederland, as it was the home of the lead singer of Clear Water Revival, he said he had come to work the day at the ski resort but hadn’t quite made it.
  He was however familiar with the local pub and had a clearly quite badly swollen bleeding lip...I later over heard him on the bus telling some local boys from Ned that he was staying in a homeless shelter but actually in Europe they call them hostels, and so he prefers that. They reassured him that nobody in Ned is homeless; you might not have a home per-se but that Ned will be your home.  I had to stop listening when they started to discuss hurricane Sandy and how this may be connected to the wrath of God.

Thank you Belinda and Stevyn!


Be inspired,
LB xx

You can take a girl out of England but not away from her tea!

Dashnanbe Tea Room, Boulder, CO

If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. ~Japanese Proverb

 

 Dushanbe in Tajikstan is the twin town to Boulder, CO and as a result they donated this wonderful tea-room to them! http://www.boulderteahouse.com/ 

'The ceiling of the Teahouse was carved and painted with intricate patterns traditional of Persian Art. The teahouse ceiling was originally built, carved and painted in Tajikistan. Absolutely no power tools were used in the original construction. The work was crafted by hand exactly as it was centuries ago.
Inside the Teahouse, there are 12 intricately carved cedar columns. These, were sent from Tajikistan with the original gift. No two columns are alike.'