Talk of travel...

...makes me happy!

Not as happy as planning a trip and travelling itself, of course, but it does lift my spirits just to think about somewhere interesting and exciting to go to. Or to talk about it. Or to share a conversation with people about places already visited, by them, or me, or both.

Today at lunchtime a colleague and I chatted about his forthcoming visit to India, where he will be attending a family wedding in a few weeks. We talked about his holiday plans and he shared with me how he felt like a new sector physically opened in his mind, one not previously accessed, when he first travelled as an adult to somewhere that he had not been before... His whole demeanor - usually quite reserved - changed as the pleasure of what this brings him was apparent in word and tone and gesture. He apparently went to India quite often as a child and in his youth but always to visit his family in their homes. Fly in, one city, one town, fly out. Only a couple of years ago did he and his wife travel over and take a little extra time either side of visiting family to explore the country a bit more. And the travel bug bit him. Good and hard. Fortunately for him, it bit his wife too.

We had a lovely chat. We compared notes and reminisced about places we've both been and shared experiences and adventures from places that one or the other has not yet been. We talked about our travel wishlists and regretted that a lifetime would probably not be long enough to fulfill them unless perhaps we could find a way to earn a living as travellers and live out our days that way.

Mostly we talked about India and South East Asia, as we have more common ground covered there, and it made me long for the colours, sights, smells, textures and flavours of these places. The heat.

These things make me happy. Even just talking about them makes me happy.

As do the colours that conjour them in my mind's eye - rich red, saffron yellow, golden orange. Gorgeous!

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.

Miriam Beard

Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings.

Hodding Carter

(1907-1972)

Let your memory be your travel bag.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

(1918-2008)

To see what's making other people happy today check out the happy week list here...

[Flickr credits]