Saturday, June 21, 2014 – The Adventure Begins

Friday – our last day in Canada for a while.  On the way home to pick up our bags I said to Ana, “So what do you think of having ten weeks of free time?”  Normally, finding ten minutes of free time during a typical day is a challenge.  And is it really “free time”?  That usually means you have nothing else to do, and with two kids, jobs and a house, there is always something to do.  This summer, the only items on our to-do list will be Food, Drinks and Shelter.  And we will be able to spend time on things we choose to, not things we have to.  This is a luxury that few people will ever get to experience, so we plan on relishing this time with our children, exploring the world, and appreciating every minute of it.

We left Toronto late Friday night and it is now early Sunday morning as we wait in the Hong Kong airport for our connecting flight to Singapore.  The flight took us over the North Pole then down through Russia and China, and the airplane had an amazing flight tracker system which included a camera on the bottom of the plane where you could watch the ground passing below – the kids loved it!  We all got some sleep on the plane and enjoyed the limitless selection of movies, televisions and music that was available.

We purposely did not plan much for our trip as we didn’t want to be tied into a schedule of places we had to be at particular dates and times.  We have our return flights booked from Bangkok at the end of August and our first two nights of accommodation in Singapore – besides that, anything goes.  We are hoping we can meet some fellow travelers along the way who can tell us of some nice places they have visited.

It is an exciting time for the Olson family!

An Excellent Travel Idea for Baby Boomers

 

I did a presentation about travel at the Brantford Rotary Club on Friday.  I quite enjoyed myself, and managed to secure myself a delicious, free lunch.  Some people will do anything for a free lunch, even embarrass themselves in front of a crowd composed mainly of fiesty baby boomers.

I had plenty of travel ideas and suggestions for the audience, but there was one that I forgot to mention that I am still regretting.  I really can’t believe I forgot to tell them about this as it’s one of the most adventurous, unforgettable, mind bending experiences a baby boomer could experience.  And this travel experience is not only easy on the pocketbook, but also offers the opportunity to meet other humble, pleasant and open minded individuals.

What am I talking about?  A death metal concert, of course.

Often overlooked by baby boomers, a death metal concert provides an authentic, accessible, adventurous, herbal travel experience.

On Monday, May 12th, my two favourite metal heads (brother Marty and brother-in-law Mark) and I will be joined by my boomer dad for an epic concert in Buffalo, New York featuring the two greatest bands currently on the heavy metal scene - Mastodon and Gojira.  I will also be turning 42 that day and am out to prove that Monday birthdays don’t always have to suck.

Now if you are yourself a boomer, you may be very much like my dad.  Currently in your 60’s and either retired or closing in on it, you probably have adult children and likely some grandchildren.  You may do some traveling, perhaps down to the Caribbean, or Mexico, or within Canada to visit family and friends.  And I bet the last concert you went to was Rod Stewart, Elton John, Bob Seger, Billy Joel, Michael Buble or Celine Dion.  Not that there’s anything wrong with those artists, but I assure you that listening to their music will produce feelings of nothing more than tranquility, calm and gentle satisfaction.  But isn’t that a wee bit boring?  Even lame?  Quite.

Upon leaving a death metal concert, you feel urgently compelled to seek out an axe, helmet, and shield then strap on a battle jerkin and go out raiding.  You are sweaty, smelly, either partially or completely stoned, drunk and probably lost one of your companions along the way.  If you had a phone or camera it’s been smashed or lost and your neck is completely loose and flexible from rotating your head wildly in an attempt to swing your non-existent hair in an awesome circular motion like the raging guitarist.  You have either been punched, or have punched somebody out, and the last time that happened was in grade 6 when you and Julio went at it down by the schoolyard.  You are not sure what happened to the shirt you wore to the show, but you are now sporting an awesome, black, beer and sweat drenched concert t-shirt that likely has a skull printed on it somewhere.  You don’t have a clue what the hell the singer was saying for any of the songs, but it doesn't matter because the death grunts belted into the microphone said it all.  Your ears are picking up a constant hum, and will remain to do so for a week.  If you are lucky you managed to catch a drumstick or guitar pick and was able to beat off the other skids who were trying to tackle you to the ground and take it from you.

You don’t have to travel far and wide for an authentic, new, and completely different experience.  And being a baby boomer doesn’t mean you have to start doing old people things.  My dad has always been adventurous, curious, open minded and retains the enthusiasm of a kid.  I hope to remain like that too as I get older.

Dad, you rock.

______________________________
Supplemental - 2 days later....

After reading this blog I received the following from my dad, who is currently at my brother's house taking care of my two young nephews:

"Just realized that the McDonalds playland is good training for the upcoming metal concert - complete with mosh pit, 145 decibel noise level, screaming, and the occasional head butt."

Yann, Stephen, Me and a Whole Bunch of Books

I have always been a voracious reader.  And somehow I’ve always assumed everybody else I know is as equally enthralled with books as me, but I have learned that this is not true at all – many people simply don’t much enjoy reading or choose to do other things with their spare time.  Fortunately my wife Ana is equally enamored with reading so our house is littered with books, in fact, you may have a hard time finding somewhere in our home to stand where there will not be a book within reach.  Ana is a great lover of fiction.  For much of my life I too read many works of fiction, especially when I lived in England and could pick up the Penguin Classics books, with their signature tan and black covers, for a couple of pounds each, which allowed me to burn through dozens of books from commonly recognized authors such as Jane Austin and Charles Dickens but also many authors and titles I’d never heard of.

Since I returned to Canada around ten years ago, my focus has turned to non-fiction books. Though I have a business degree in Finance, my knowledge of investing and financial planning was sadly lacking, so when I returned to Canada to live I found a great mentor and made it my mission to learn everything I could about personal finance.  Beyond that, during that time I have read a great number of books covering other subjects - memoirs, biographies, sailing and navigation, sociology, economics, statistics, travel, religion and so on.  I do read the odd work of fiction, but only rarely.

The other day I was at the Brantford public library, scouring through the discard rack when I came across a great find – Yann Martel’s What is Stephen Harper Reading?  I grabbed it up, along with six or seven other books, paid two bucks for the whole lot then hustled back to my vehicle, like a robber fleeing from a successful heist.  I knew this book, as I have read two of Martel’s other books and enjoyed them immensely.  I remember seeing it in the bookstores when it was first published, and even picked it up a couple times, but probably bought yet another book on dividend investing instead.

The idea of the book is this: after an upsetting incident in the House of Commons where Martel feels that he (and the arts community in general ) has been somewhat humiliated by the Prime Minister and his political colleagues, he decides to send Stephen Harper a book every two weeks that will serve to inspire a certain sense of stillness within him.  Though Martel doesn’t come right out and say it, he seems to suspect that our nation’s leader doesn’t read any interesting books.  Just lots of briefs, memos and a Guinness Book of World Records volume every once in a while for fun.  Martel’s tone meanders from sharply condescending, to one of genuine care, then right back to piss taking, sometimes in the same paragraph.  Or same sentence.  And he can be very, very funny.

But this is not a book review.  It is simply a word of thanks to Mr. Martel for compiling an incredible list of such a variety of works, from novels to poetry to plays and penned by authors all over the world.  I simply loved the book, and not for any political statements contained within its pages, but because it was like a custom written prescription for me to re-introduce myself to the genre of fiction.  And Martel has such a wonderful way with words, I can be sure that my own writing will be improved by diving into some of the books which surely helped him to become the fine writer he is.

This week I picked up the recommendation in the first letter he sent to Stephen Harper - The Death of Ivan Ilyich, a book that I read in high school, but could scarcely remember.  I read it this week and loved it, every word.  I am certain It made a lot more sense to me now than when I originally read it, likely because I am certainly closer to my own death than I was when I was 16 years old, and I have learned a bit more about the world and its people.

I’m considering embarking on my own mission to read every single one of Martel’s recommendations (there are 57 in total – his letter-writing campaign lasted for two years).  After ten years of working on my family’s finances I think we are in good enough shape to allow myself more pleasure reading time.  A lot more.  And our ten week adventure through Southeast Asia planned for this summer will provide me with the perfect opportunity to lose myself in some wonderful books.

The Travel Talk

One week from tonight I will be doing a presentation at Glenhyrst Art Gallery on The Found Vagabond as part of an event called "The Big Literary Night Out"  This is one of a series of events at the gallery which usually features artists discussing their works, but this one is all about books and the writing process.  I am very much looking forward to hearing the presentations from the other authors - Jack Jackowetz, Zig Misiak, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, though I am already quite envious of them as they all seem to have way cooler names than me.

I have been thinking about the presentation for a couple of weeks and have a draft one partially done, but I've been struggling with what angle to take for the talk.  It is only about 15 minutes long so whatever I present will have to be crisp, concise and very focused as 15 minutes goes by very quickly.  Unless, of course, you realize partway through your speech that your zipper is open, a large booger is stuck to your cheek, and there is a guy in the crowd who loaned you twenty bucks last year and you forgot to pay him back.  Then time slows to a crawl.

One thing I've learned in Toasmasters is to first think of who your audience will be and what material would be of most interest to them.  I'm expecting the crowd to be generally middle aged (I hate saying that term as more and more I'm realizing I've slid into that category), well-off, and some will have traveled extensively.  So I began by pulling out my book and looking at the table of contents to see where I should focus my talk.  Should I tell one of my travel stories?  Should I show a bunch of cool travel pictures?  Should I talk about how great travel is and why everybody should do it?  Should I go Facebook-style and brag about how many countries I've been to?  Should I focus on the spiritual aspect of travel and how meeting special people along the way can really change your life?  Some of the attendees will probably have kids in high school or college so maybe I should talk about encouraging young people to travel and considering working in another country?

As a person who was not born and bred in southern Ontario, one thing I know for sure is that people who were born here often fail to appreciate what an amazing part of the country this is and how lucky we are to have so many local opportunities for local travel.  In one part of the book I talk about the "American Style Power Weekend" where you take a weekend and pledge to make every second count.  From here, it's possible to make a weekend trip to Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, and if you really want to go for it, how about New York City, Washington or Chicago?  Or how about any of the thousands of cool small towns and villages that decorate the landscape?  What about a tour of the lakes - we are within an hour of so of three of the great lakes - Erie, Huron and Ontario, and each of them have towns and cities where you would swear you were on the ocean (though this year the "ocean" in question would be the Arctic).

So we will see where I get to by next Friday.  As usual, I have my lovely and talented wife helping me out with formatting the presentation as she always has great ideas and can spot my terrible ones!

I 'm hoping the excellent press I've received for the book locally will help bring people out to the event, here are links to a couple of those:

Article in The Paris Star
Inside Brant television interview
Brant News - article just came out today, not online yet

Oh, one more thing.  The Glenhyrst event next week has free wine and cheese from the Tipperary Bog.  'Nuff said.

South-East Asia, here we come!

It has been quite a while since we have done a major backpacking trip. In fact, we have not taken an extended trip since moving back to Canada in 2003 so we are long overdue. This summer the four of us will be taking a glorious ten weeks off and exploring the countries of South East Asia. We land in Singapore mid-June then will be flying out of Bangkok at the end of August, just in time for school. What we do in between these dates is up for grabs!

We are hoping to visit 6 countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. It is going to be hot and sticky since we are visiting during the monsoon season, but at the moment, with the -20 temperatures and extremely dry winter air in Canada, the idea of extreme heat moisture seems divine. Let’s say if I feel the same way with a fifty pound backpack strapped to my back hiking through the jungle in the middle of a tropical downpour!

The kids are very, very excited and doing a lot of reading and research on the countries we will be visiting. They are determined to go on an elephant trek and would also like to see some monkeys in the wild, so I expect those two goals should be quite achievable. They both received backpacks for Christmas from their grandpa so have already starting thinking about what to pack and which few precious toys they should bring along for the journey.

One of the best chapters in The Found Vagabond is on traveling with children. Traveling with young kids seems to scare the crap out of most people, but we have been doing it since our kids were babies. If we hadn’t done that, and if our kids were not used to traveling, then I seriously doubt we would be considering a trip of this magnitude. But I know we will all do just fine and have some amazing adventures together.  The kids are currently 7 and 9 so at an excellent age for such a trip as they are old enough to take care of themselves and will probably be able to retain these memories into their adult years. I have said this so many times, but I am always surprised at how the vast majority of parents take most of their vacations away without their kids. It is such a privilege to be able to include children on your travels as the delight they experience usually serves to enhance your own. And kids are usually much more resilient and adaptable than us adults give them credit for.

I had an idea the other day (yes, it happens occasionally). I am currently in the midst of a marketing and publicity campaign for my book The Found Vagabond and I started wondering if I would take a few copies along on our trip to give to people we meet along the way. Then I imagined a neat experiment that would serve to promote my book, allow many people to read it for free, and test some of the concepts I present in the book, such as traveler bonds, coincidences and friendships made on the road. It will also serve as a marketing tool even after we return from our trip?

So what’s the idea? I am going to give 5 copies to fellow travelers for free and ask them to simply pass it onto another traveler to read once they are done with it. But these copies will have a special index inside where the recipient enters his/her name, where they received the book, where they gifted the book and, most importantly, a web link where they can enter this information, and it will then appear on our www.lifeisgrand.org website. Imagine - a book on travel doing its own traveling around the world! I’m hoping that by the time the books are too ratty and beaten up to be used anymore, they will have covered many more countries than I have. Maybe in the end somebody will mail copies back to me, or perhaps somebody who knows me will get one, or maybe they will all be abandoned or lost somewhere. Who knows? But I have a feeling something exciting may come of it.

Christmas shopping in Cuba

 

It is our last morning in Cuba and thought I would write a quick blog before the reality of regular life strikes back like a Star Wars sequel.

Though Christmas Eve is a mere two weeks away, it is the last thing on my mind; we have been completely sheltered from any sort of holiday spirit here at the Memories Flamenco resort in Cayo Coco. Our thoughts have been more focused on finding the best beach chairs, keeping the plastic beer cups full, avoiding sunburn and being sure to sample everything on the ample buffet spreads. As far as all-inclusive resorts go, this is probably the best one we have ever been to. The mathematics of how the tour operator and resort can be making any money eludes me. I just cannot understand how a family of four can be flown to the Caribbean, fed delicious food and unlimited drinks, and be catered on by armies of personal assistants for less than $2,500 for an entire week.

Saying all that, after a week of this routine I am always ready to go. It is nice to spoil yourself for a short time, but after a while the whole thing gets a little ridiculous. I have certainly caught up on my sleep – made it to 11:30 one night, but the rest of the evenings I was sleeping by 9:30 or earlier. Of course, I was then awake by 5:30 most days, which allowed me to sneak out of the room with a laptop, grab a coffee and do some early morning writing.

I brought a copy of my book along, and have been tempted several times to open it up and start looking for errors, but every time I tried, Ana slapped my hand.  And I am very thankful for that as I needed a break from it. The next phase of the project is to start selling the damn things instead of trying to perfect it! So far I have only really “released it” online and through Amazon and have not yet done any local marketing. There will be a couple boxes of printed books ready for me when I get home so will start my marketing efforts then and see where that takes me.

This is the time of the year when I start preparing for the annual Olson family review. It sounds dorky, but each year during the Christmas holidays I do a full set of financial statements, put a Powerpoint slide presentation together and we have a family meeting to review what we accomplished during the year, and then set goals for the following year.  We each set personal goals for areas such as health, fitness, education, and work, then together set family goals for travel and finances. I try to track every dollar we spend during the year so it’s always enlightening (and sometimes shocking) to see where all that money actually went. I may be accused of being a planning fanatic, but hey, if you don’t know where you are trying to get to, then how the hell can you even know if you are traveling in the right direction?

Ouch, just got a mosquito bite. Won’t be getting any of those in Ontario for the next few months!

I've got a book....now what?

I announced the release of The Found Vagabond last week.  Since then I've been simply trying to keep away from the thousands of reporters asking for interviews, the daytime talk show producers leaving dozens of voicemails, politicians and political leaders from around the world calling to congratulate me, and so on.  It is all really so tiring.

So, to escape all this embarrassing attention, we are headed for Cuba today for a week of sunshine, overeating, and probably a whole lot of scheming of what exactly to do with this book.

Primarily, I wrote the book because I think I have a pretty good story to tell and wanted to share my experiences with others in the hopes that they can benefit in some way.  But I also wrote it for myself...maybe just to see if I could do it.  I've always enjoyed writing, but I know that it is very tough for a writing career to pay the bills.  That is why writing is not my job.  At least not at the moment.  But that may change someday, when I move onto the next phase of my life, whatever that may be.

So for now, I just need to figure out how to promote my book, get a few people to buy it, start getting some feedback on what they think, then adjust my techniques for the next project.  I'm looking to my sister-in-law Carrie for some inspiration here - she has been an independent singer/songwriter for many years, and I'm sure has many tricks up her sleeve.  A book is very similar to a musical projects in many way - it is a creative endeavor, you put your whole heart and soul into it, some will like it, others will not, and your main job is to try and find an audience who will appreciate your creation and offer support.

So that's what I'm going to for the next week.  With a drink in one hand, a book in the other, sand on my feet, and a clear mind.  Like I write in the book, being away from your everyday routine allows you to step back, see things differently and think better.  So we will see what happens.

In the meantime...since internet is hard to come by in Cuba, I will be completely off line.  If you do contact me for any reason about the book, have no fear - you are not being ignored and I will respond to you as soon as I am home.

Enjoy!