Category: travel
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Travelling Solo In Middle Age: Why It’s A No-Brainer
But travel doesn’t rate highly on my husband’s agenda. A Cancerian with an abject terror of finding himself more than five kilometres from our suburb – which he likes to refer to as “the safety zone” – I realised that the only way to give him a gentle nudge back into the outside world was…
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It was the small, magical moments during our holiday to Hawaii that mattered most
Forgive me for my recent radio silence, but I’m struggling to get back into real time since our return from Hawaii. No doubt, some of you will be interested to know how we fared, having spent so much time reading about my angst in relation to where the fuck to take an anxious, middle-aged man…
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Flying, And The Criminal Act Of Exceeding Your Baggage Allowance
Last week was not an easy one in terms of anxiety, because I had a flight booked at the end of it. So what should have been a week of relaxation – the first of (for the most part) a two-week staycation – culminated in sleepless nights as I catastrophized about the terrifying superpowers of…
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This Is How A Middle-Aged Couple With Anxiety Books A Holiday
There are certain undeniable factors when two people with anxiety get married. 1. There will be a lot of overthinking, and 2) We can talk ourselves out of pretty much anything. Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash Such has been the marital soap opera created by my decision that we go on a proper holiday…
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It Must Suck To Be A Vegetarian At Christmas
I never thought I’d say this, but for once I find myself in total agreement with my father’s view that political correctness has gone mad. According to The Independent newspaper in the UK, a researcher has proposed that idioms such as “bringing home the bacon” and “flogging a dead horse” should be removed from the…
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When You Travel Back To The Motherland And Feel Like A Tourist
Anybody who has migrated to another country will understand the conundrum of whether “home” will always be the place in which you were born or your adopted country. At this stage of life – the old AF period just prior to death – the question can become all the more poignant with our tendency to…
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The Secret To Surviving Long-Haul Flights With Anxiety
It wasn’t quite the Love Actually airport moment that I had anticipated when I spotted the old man waiting for me at the wrong exit of Sydney airport after my latest grueling long-haul flight, and I wasn’t amused. It seems appropriate to compare the torture of such flights to being forced to a Republican Thanksgiving…
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Sharing Your Fantasies On A Middle-Aged Weekend Getaway
She luxuriated in the fresh white cotton bedlinen of their four-poster bed as she looked up at him. He lay over her, on his haunches, a quizzical look on his face, the muscles of his arms twitching. He was still beguilingly ripped for a middle-aged man. She shivered as she watched him devour her body…
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Anxiety, Stupidity, And Why The Next Time I Leave The House Will Be In A Casket
After what feels like an interminable period of drought, Sydney has been hampered by the kind of rains we usually only see on Christmas Day, at birthday parties or weddings over the past few days. Unlike my British alter-ego, I have come to enjoy the rain here – a few precious days when I can’t…
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Not Exactly Leaving The Nest…But Close
I drove NC to the airport at stupid o’clock this morning. They might not have flown the nest quite yet, but it turns out we have two budding explorers in the family, and from the perspective of two parents that rarely leave the house these days, I see their recent adventures as a reaffirmation that…
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When You’re Still Going To The Zoo At Fifty!
Sydney holds its Vivid Festival at this time of the year – a two-week extravaganza where the city is lit up with, well…lights, and luckily for us, a friend of mine organised tickets for us to celebrate this year’s celebrations at Taronga Zoo. Crikey! Crocs!I I like zoos and the old man could hardly contain…
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Has Western Society Compromised Community For Adventure?
I read this article by Hugh Mackay this morning, and it reinforced my view that one of the main reasons behind the increase in mental illness in the modern world is a disappearing sense of community and isolation. The accusation that perhaps we’ve got our priorities wrong in terms of our lifestyle choices makes perfect…
Louisa Simmonds 