The lost art of nostalgia

Remember that time you laughed and laughed until you weren't actually laughing at anything anymore, but in fact laughing at yourself for laughing so hard in the first place! Remember that time...? And how about that holiday you took where you'd never felt happier? Remember that? Of course you do - how could you forget?? Those are the good things! And you know that feeling you get when you recall and recount those memories? It feels good, right? You know what that is? That's nostalgia.

It's a strange word isn't it? 'Nostalgia'. If you go by modern dictionaries, you'll be told it means a "bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past".

But what is it really, and why am i bothering you with it right now? 

Well, I was sharing a glass of vino recently with a friend (at Gordon's Wine bar) and we got to talking about nostalgia and what she described as her "love of nostalgia" and I was struck by the idea; to be in love with a feeling...and I got to wondering about how many of us do this enough...? How many of us revel in the reminiscible...? By my fathoming, nostalgia is the art of celebrating that which has passed but that should not be forgotten...i mean think about it - what are we without our past? Without history and herstory we are simply 'him' and 'her'...not 'us'. Our history is what knits us together - that time we stood in the kitchen at 1am dancing like maniacs to the Beatles even though everyone else was sat down; that time we chased through Columbus Circle after speaking to strangers in Starbucks until the moon rose high; that time we stayed out clubbing in Munich until 7am before rolling back through busying work-a-day streets atop a backdrop of the early morning sun...those are the stories that bind us to people...that give us the spur to pick up the phone and call whichever crazy cat was there with us...these are what best–man stories are made of...hell, these are what friendships are based on! 

So my friends - don't dwell in the past at the expense of living in the present, but don't forget to pay it just mind either - so walk round to your friends house, pick up the phone now, open Facebook and send a message, and catch up with someone you haven't spoken to in a while...because after all, we haven't gone trough it all just to let it slip by...

Just a thought...

Live life, smile everyday. Be inspired.

I don’t know about you, but I see at least one thing every day – every single day – that makes me feel happy. I go out of my way to find something that makes me feel happy. Something that makes me smile. Something that makes me feel excited about the day. Inspired about life. These are the things that are worth capturing, worth saving but more importantly, worth sharing.

Over recent months I’ve taken it upon myself to source a stunning selection of (other people's) incredible imagery, and share them with people at work (whether they wanted to or not). These are some of those pictures.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but these gems that have left me speechless. They are breath-takingly wild and eye-openingly beautiful.

I hope they make you smile, make you happy, make you feel inspired. And if they do, then why not pass them on and help someone else to feel as excited and inspired as you...?

And remember; "Live life, smile everyday. Be inspired."

Just a thought…

 A perfectly symmetrical skyline from Waikawau Bay, New Zealand

 A fantastically fiery lake sunset

 A picture of impossibly perfect serenity at Dal Lake, India

 A ghostily muted morning landscape in Lithuania

 A man in his element(s) combining sun and water in Tahiti

A stunning sunset on USA’s West Coast, Morro Bay

"No one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they had plenty of sleep…"

Man vs. Munich. The verdict.

As you’ve probably seen in the pre-tour post on our Man vs. Munich excursion, great things were planned. 5 British gents were going to embrace Munich and savour all of its varied cultural hotspots – the Town Hall, The Olympic Stadium, the Allianz Arena, the Cathedral Church of Our Lady, the English Gardens, the beer halls, the night life, the traditional cuisine, the Deutsche Museum and BMW World. We were going to do it all.

In short, we didn’t do many of these things.

In short, we got drunk. Very drunk.

You see, there’s an interesting fact about the German people: they like beer. They like a lot of beer.

We visited the Hofbräuhaus where we had our first Stein – a ridiculous measure of beer that would make Hercules – or even Tom ‘the muscle mountain’ Moorer – quake in his boots. We also savoured some of the local delicacies – bratwurst, bockwurst, weisswurst, sauerkraut, Leberkäse  and, in an instance that Mr Euan ‘Conductor of the Banter Bus’ Millard would rather forget, what can only be described as brain soup. Awful.

We met and partied in some of Munich’s ‘top’ nightspots – Milchundbar and P1 Bar (almost) – with some of Munich’s unsurpassably friendly patrons – Pippa, Mike, Ben – and some wildly entertaining and equally as friendly visitors – Andy the Austrian, Paul the pool shark, Federico, Luciano and Federico (of ElectroLatinRock group El Rio) – and we were overwhelmed by all of them. I love London dearly – it’s an incredible city. But when it comes to people skills, we have a lot to learn from Munich. A LOT to learn.

Case in point – on our last day, we’d been for a couple of steins before the airport and had heard about a pub we should check out before we left. So there we are, 5 dishevelled delinquents (still drunk from the night before (and the night before that)) bewilderedly gawping about speaking English in Marienplatz, when a girl – probably 19 or 20 years old, but not a day older – approaches us out of a sea of people and asks us in perfect English whether we are OK and “do we need any help finding somewhere?”. We were shocked at first, but after we told her where we were looking for, she explained where it was, and then walked us pretty much to the doorstep to make sure we didn’t get lost any further.

Now, this might not sound like much – there were no lives saved, there were no over-sized cheques exchanged in front of red-ribbon, but how often would this sort of un-provoked charity happen in London? If you saw a group of drunken German tourists standing about looking lost, would you go and ask them if they needed help? In perfect German? Probably not. Would I? Probably not. But people in Munich do. And this was just one example of their warm welcome we were offered while we were there.

We made countless acquaintances on nights out from people who wanted to come and ask us about England or what we thought of Germany or just to practice their English. And to be honest, it made us all feel embarrassed. Embarrassed that we, as a nation, seem to have lost the desire to learn a language other than our own, because let’s face it – the entire world speaks English, so why bother?

Well after meeting X number of 18-26 year olds who all spoke better German, English, French and Spanish than I speak English when drunk, it gets a little embarrassing.

So, we might have failed to enjoy all of Munich’s highlights – we did actually make it to the Olympic Centre, the Town Hall and a few of the most widely touted beer halls and we embraced the Munich nightlife by clubbing until 6am – but the cultural highlight for me was manifested solely in the girl on the street in who helped us in Marienplatz.

Because – and listen up London – we need to learn to be friends again. Munich’s doing it, and is thriving on it. San Fran’s been doing it since the sixties. Christchurch has got a degree in it and Madrid’s all over it. But how good at it are we? Hhmmm…I’m not so sure. We’ve become noticeably separated. We need to become friends again, or at least we need to become more than strangers.

Just a thought…

Man vs. Munich

Ladies and germs, I stand before you a man on the brink – the brink of destiny.

How many of you and how many of the men you have known have stood where I stand now and have either realised their true colours and turned tail, or have marched onwards, never to be heard from again? I already know the answer - too many. But where others have failed or fallen, I will succeed. This is not by divine right. It is not by some ancient, worldly secret garnered from wizened Tibetan monks...it is because I stand not alone. There are four other brave souls who are facing this destiny with me. Four other soldiers of fortune. Four other champions of the world.

There is – in alphabetical order – Dan 'Dan he's our man if he can't do it then there’s no way that a mere mortal like you can do it’ Whiteford; Euan 'We were at the Volley playing pool, that much is trrrue' Millard; Sam 'If it's got an engine, I can drive it' Leach and Tom 'I'll say when I've ******* had enough!' Moorer...and together, we stand on the brink of destiny...of glory...of legend.

I am of course talking about our hotly anticipated trip to the motherland – Munich. I'm sure you've read about it in the press, but this is the real 'scoop' straight from the lion’s mouth:

Why are you going?

Because we are men. And men travel to (not so) faraway lands in search of life and to conquer new challenges. Look at Christopher Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh and Dwayne Johnson – it's genetic. It's what we do.

What will you do there?

Conquer (re-read point one if this is unclear).

How will you 'conquer'?

We will eat copious amounts of traditional German food in our homage to the all-inspiring, Man vs. Food series (Man vs. Munich). We will display our sporting prowess for all to see - men, women and children will flock from far and wide to witness 5 sporting superstars spray laser after laser (this is the technical term for long range passing of a football-ball) across Munich's silky soft turf. And we will drink Munich dry. Because we are men.

What awaits you if you return?

Glory. Legacy. Immortality.

How confident are you that you will all return?

Personally? 100%.

Everyone? 50/50 – Munich has claimed many a better man than I before, and when you go full throttle, you have to be prepared to accept the potential repercussions. We’re all fully aware of what we’re getting ourselves into.

So there it is, come Thursday morning, the cry will ring out – Gentlemen, to bed! For we rise at 9:30…ish. And we will wake, we will drink, we will fly, we will drink, we will eat, we will explore, we will drink, we will eat, we will explore, we will drink, we will conquer, we will fly, and then – and only then – we will sleep.

We might return, we might not, but let me close by quoting the much-revered Hunter S. Thompson: “So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?”

Just a thought…

Today is a good day...

Today is a good day...

The day lasts longer,

the sun shines brighter,

the birds sound happier,

the trees stand taller,

the clouds look lighter,

the air tastes crisper,

the wind runs softer,

dreams swing nearer,

water tastes fresher,

grass feels softer,

the tube runs smoother,

sugar tastes sweeter,

people look friendlier,

smiling is easier...

 

Today is a good day...