INTERMISSION: RUNNING AWAY FROM NONDON FOR A DAY OR TWO. WHERE TO? Part II.
In the previous post, Kaidie asked where she could go for a day or two, away from Nondon. As Chatwin says in his Anatomy of Restlessness, there exists an innate need in us to undertake ‘journeys of the mind and body’. Even while travelling, as we are, being on the journey from life to death, in Nondon. Reprinted here are some of the advice we have received so far. Thank you Susan, Miss Nim (a sponsor of Kaidie’s charity run in March 2010), Chuthatip aka Chutha Indigo aka The Good Pirate aka Fisherman, Aaron and Meena (who had previously helped to look for Kaidie when she was missing)! Kaidie’s running buddy, Claudia Tomaz, is also itching to have a little respite. So, do keep the advice coming in!
Reprinted from Facebook as of Sunday 25 July 2010.
* Walking around Woolwich and Greenwich for 3.5 hours this afternoon, Kaidie realised that Nondon is the one city she is not felt strange, or different, or is foreign (one of the reasons being simply that nearly every other person is strange, different and foreign, too), or out of place (what an evocative expression), or that she shouldn’t be. This is not necessarily the case of the 102 other cities in 32 countries that Kaidie has visited or lived in her previous lives, not even the one that she first arrived in. (All that said, one of the reasons why we are employing running as a navigational tactic for our 21st century reality is precisely because we do want to always feel foreign, strange, different and never settled down. We are never at home, but are out of our comfort zones at all times, and are instead invariably homesick, yearning for a ‘home’ – or an idea, or idealisation of a home. This ‘home’ is yet to be defined, and we resist and put off and postpone calling any place ‘home’, including Nondon).
** Do continue to watch and vote for CLAUDIA TOMAZ’s film, Kaidie and The Meaning of Life 3.0, Episode 1. Episode 2 coming up!
Some of Kaidie's desired next stops (in this or other lives): Iceland (where Marker filmed the '3 children on a road' in Sans Soleil), Norway (aha, a childish desire), Denmark (for Dreyer, and not for Von Trier), Brazil (this October?) (where Herzog crossed the Amazon with his impossible task), Morocco, Canada (for Gould), Algeria (for Camus), the Trans-Siberian (for ever and ever), the Taklimakan desert (ditto), Bhutan (the happiest place on earth), Dubai (one from one theme park to an other), Las Vegas (ditto) (and travels in hyperreality), Belfast (as a city of in-between), Bilbao, River Danube (bordering 10 countries - does it connect or separate them?), DMZ , Gaza (instead of viewing from the other side in Sderot), Xinjiang, Damascus (when Peter O'Toole took over her in Lean's epic that was watched 40 times in a previous life as a child), Mexico (for the amazing Tarahumara runners), Mount Hiei (for the mad marathon monks), Greenland (for Miss Smilla), the part of Russia where The Belovs was filmed, other parts of Finland (for the Leningrad cowboys and Lordi) and Suomenlinna again.
CFTE
Holkham Bay, Norfolk.
Jul 28, 2010 @ 17:36
3rdlifekaidie
Holkam Bay looks like a great recommendation, CFTE. The (nudist!?) beach looks good too. As a wimpy urbanite it also sounds like a challenge (which we like). Even just swimming at the unheated lido at the Parliament Hill today was a nice kick, but 1 hour was all we could take – our fingers were the first to lose any sensation…
x
Kaidie
Jul 28, 2010 @ 17:58
CFTE
If Parliament Hill was exciting, the North Sea at Holkham will take your breath away. Clear as glass, cool and green. And you have to walk a mile to get to the water. Out through pine forest, across massive smooth sand flats, between soft dunes like gates. Check tides and don’t swim far out. Very shallow gradient, so no excuse for drowning. You can see the bottom all the way.
Jul 28, 2010 @ 23:05
3rdlifekaidie
I quite like having my breath taken away. That which is inaccessible, and having to put in effort towards something, sounds attractive as well. Holkham sounds rather tempting indeed. I shall not cook up excuses for drowning or other mis-haps. If there was a genre called landscape soft porn, or if there was Mills-&-Boons for people who have a thing for Holkham Bay, I think you would win the Booker Prize, my dear CFTE.
Warmest regards
Kaidie
Jul 29, 2010 @ 23:59
CFTE
Mmmm. Luckily there isn’t and I won’t! Romantic prose never was my strong point. But you’ll see what I mean if/when you go there. The real thing is a lot better written than my effort.
Aug 02, 2010 @ 23:00