First Tattoo

So this seagull tattoo was a combination of inspirations. It started a couple of years ago when I read "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse. In it the title character goes on a quest from his parents house and the life he'd known as the son of a Brahman to find meaning in his life, he goes through a series of lives from studying religion in a large following to living as a kept man with his wealthy lover to living as a ferryman by the river and as I remember, he made reference many times to the bird in his breast, the voice of joy and his sense of life. Sometimes he thought it was dead and other times it felt alive and gave him hope. I really liked that symbol, it jumped out to me and stuck with me ever since. I knew someday I would get a bird tattooed on my chest somewhere in honor of the bit of myself I see in Siddhartha.

Then a few months ago I read "Johnathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach. This was about a seagull who wanted to learn to fly, to really fly, not just for the sake of getting to food fastest like the rest of his flock but for the thrill and the challenge of flying with excellence. So he was shunned by the great flock because he refused to be one of the hundreds squabbling over scraps of food and because he insisted on flying better each day than he did before. He got hurt over and over pushing his limits and still continued. Eventually he reached a higher state of consciousness and found a sort of seagull heaven where other seagulls have gone, only the ones who fought for perfection in flight, and so he learned from his teacher and from the other seagulls and was eventually able to get back to his own flock, the one that cast him out, to encourage other like-minded seagulls to keep fighting for what they want to learn. Then I decided that the bird on my chest would be a seagull.
Clearly it is a seagull in flight and if you notice the the silhouette of this bird is a bird changing course. One wing up and one wing down with eyes always on the ground (the blacked in silhouette though makes it impossible to tell which direction it is going). It is also facing left, towards my heart. So it is that the tattoo is the Johnathan Seagull in my breast, drawn to be forever changing direction and forever following my heart.



Myriam Fallon is the wonderful photographer to document my tattoo session. Happy? :-)


Update 4/13/2017: I lost my job just 2 months ago. The day after my crushing defeat of being fired, I realized this bird has been silent for many years. Here's hoping I can make him sing again.

The Girls are back in town

Myriam returned from her month long stay in France on Monday night with a million and one tales of idyllic life on L'Ile de Brehat and last night Amber took the train from London. It's like old times to have the trio back together again. Though with a bittersweet taint, Myriam is leaving for the states on Sunday and Amber returns to the UK on Friday, so our moments together are numbered. So while I'm so happy we all have lives to continue on living in our separate directions, it would be nice to not part ways again.

Well my month long holiday is over, sooner than I expected. Courtney's visit was great fun,, we saw soooo much stuff while she was here which was really cool. I think she'll be limping for a few weeks yet from all the walking we did, but I think she'll get over it. haha
The return of the family though means that my year here is almost over! I'm starting to get my ducks in a row for New Zealand. I've had my ticket booked for months now. I have a 7 hour layover in Hong Kong International, so I should be fine even if my first flight is delayed a bit. I booked a hostel in Auckland, a quiet family owned place this time instead of the bustling Hosteling International joints I usually haunt. I figured I might have a better chance to catch up on my jet lag and meet a few nice folks at a less mainstream hostel. Though all the reviews and photos seem like it is a really nice homey feeling place. The currency exchange rate really works in my favor too, I'm only paying about 12 euros a night. I started sending out farm requests this week also. I have two replies so far. One to the north and one to the south of Auckland (both within 2 comfortable days cycling range) The one to the North sounds more my style, so I think I might take them up on the offer. But I need to talk to the owners about a few more details before we decide on anything.
I talked to a bike shop in Auckland who said they could outfit me with a bike and luggage racks inside of 24 hours after my arrival in NZ, provided I give them a bit of advanced notice when I'm arriving and send them my height measurements, it sounded like they'd set aside a few second hand bikes in my size for me to try out.