About Cap and Shades
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" – Lao Tzu
It is a little cliched to start with such a well-known quotation. However, it perfectly captures the mood. Sometimes a journey starts with baby steps, like mine did, but journeying becomes a staple routine throughout life, embedded forever from early learning!
It has been 60 years, and the different travelling and life experiences are still very much alive, re-telling and re-playing forever in my mind and playing out here on Cap and Shades!
Cap and Shades was born out of the idea of sharing the perspectives and benefits of mature travellers' experiences of international and expatriate living and working. We might not have walked into the same gin joints in all the towns in all the world or been to the same places at the same time, but for sure, we will have had some of the same sorts of experiences and impacts wherever we have found ourselves.
How it all started…
My nomadic-like lifestyle was something I inherited from my lovely parents. Thanks to their adventures, I was born as a visitor in Yemen and wandered around the world with them. Singapore and Cyprus were the locations where I spent some of the formative parts of my childhood years before settling in my native UK!
And to be frank with you, I lived there having a steady professional career until I was 45! Staggering, I know, but of course, I had my fair share of international travels in spare time.
2009 was the year that changed everything. After the world economic crisis, a job offer I received for Dubai was something that made my life very different. Expat life, here I came!
The first time I stayed in Dubai, it was only a few years before my family and I returned to the UK once again. But not for long! I got a working offer to move to Johannesburg in South Africa, an offer I gladly took and left parts of me in the realms of the southern hemisphere.
That was far from the end, though. I left South Africa to return to Dubai. But again, I didn't stay long there and went for the far east and inscrutable, historical, intriguing Japan.
After this short but incomparable cultural taste, South Africa called again and Mzansi shared her glorious vistas. Before long, I again caught that plane and have now settled in Dubai for the time being!
Putting it in perspective
That wonder-filled journey has made so many adventures come to life and changed my mind in so many different ways one couldn't possibly imagine. It indeed strayed from the "norm" but opened new unimaginable highways!
Deep into the nomad life, I could not picture returning to the UK again and working my old job or a traditional 9-5. These adventures were who I was and the adrenaline I needed.
Whether surfing in the desert or renting a whole pub in Japan to celebrate my birthday with local friends, those experiences are worth talking about, sharing, reliving, and writing.
It was not always beer & skittles, wine & roses, spice and everything nice. Losses were also present along the way. Loss of a good wife, loss of relationships and home, loss of a well-liked pet and any chance of another, loss of any alternative life. But the road travelled is the only one that now matters because it points the way to an unknown journey and place.
Know that the fear of the unknown becomes your friend. It becomes something that makes you more prosperous, more vulnerable, but at the same time also stronger and wiser. Meeting people, in new places and cultures, whether professional or personally related, made me profoundly richer and more personable on all levels!
The Future is Near
Dubai is the place that I call home right now. But who knows, it might be a different village, city, country, or state tomorrow. Life is unpredictable, and I try to embrace every second of its gifts and gatherings.
You might wonder what's my name and where is my photo. Well, don't think this blog is only about me; this blog is about all the travels, experiences, cultures, and people that have intertwined along my lifeline.
It is also much more than that. It is also about and to be about YOU. Going on a ride with me to relive your memories of the same or similar or dissimilar places, but maybe likewise experiences. It's about sharing and caring for your fellow nomads and life travellers. It is about teaching valuable lessons while also reminding each other of all of the met friends and cultures experienced and life and lives lived on the road actually travelled!
The time has come to help me and put on your Cap and Shades so we can together create a fresh breathing experience of all the glorious adventures and meetings you have and also appreciate simply being alive! I and my friends here trust you feel the same and would be delighted to hear about the tales of hope, work and experience, in the context of your physical journeys.
Taking an all round view of optimism, aspirations, hope and horizons or as we put it here, put on your own Cap and Shades.
Bon voyage mes chers amis!