One of the favourite pastimes in the western world is to predict the weather or repeat the drastic prediction made by slender, flimsily clad "certified meterologists" (whatever that is ).
The modern technology takes you a world of wonder where clouds and rains and hale and thunder all appear as if we are living in a Disney world of Fantasy and Magic..
The cuture of fear is so ingrained that it has crept into the subconscious pits of useless communications between friends who spend days at their social media etc.
iPhone has a feature which lets you know your dear ones or some others in that category where you are . As I arrived in Tunis and checked into the yesteryear elegance of Hotel Majestic, a message arrived from Miami oh boy what a crowded place you are in, whatever you city you are in, it is certainly not my style ! Does anyone care anymore about the architecture of this erstwhile elegant hotel? For those of you, here is something from Wikipedia
Hotel Majestic is a historical hotel on the Avenue de Paris in Tunis, Tunisia. It was built in 1914 and is noted for its Art Nouveau architecture with a white facade and gently curved corners. The hotel is four storeys high and the first floor has a terrace. The hotel overlooks the Jardin Habib Thameur.
I love staying at this hotel in Ave de Paris very close to my favourite café, Café Corsé..
The very same friend, each morning used to warn me of the dire weather waiting for me, when I am preparing to drive to visit indigenous people. Usually a bright sunny day with clear blue skies followed.
Ominous predictions have become NEWS. I remember very well reading the history of LAOS, by the Australian historian Grant Evans: The press in countries with totalitarian governments tend to project future projections as NEWS .. not what has happened in the past nor what is happening now. Cuba is no exception where the only rag that pretends to be a newspaper proclaims: The sugar crops expected to be a bumper one in the coming years ..
So, in free. countries I suppose there is enough optimism in the lives of people that there is no state supported optimism without any basis, so they resort to private enterprise supported pessimism without any basis.
I have been a traveller all my life, so the Bucket Lists of Travel which appear with irritating frequency on line or press is rather cumbersome. Almost every single visitor to the most visited city on earth Paris would have seen Eiffel Tower so it rarely appears on your Bucket List but it is difficult to get to Rapa Nui or expensive for Backpackers, Bhutan, they are always in someone or others backward list .
Conde Nast List of places to visit in 2023 is a thinly veiled advertisement for fancy hotels . Go to Galilee and you can book a room at this Farmhouse or at the Kinneret.. Jacinda Arden has been a fantastic PM of NZ/Aotearoa that has prompted her lovely country to be included in many lists.. Iceland ditto There are natural wonders which do not more visitors but less so ..
So here is my LIST for 2023
Cochin Biennale in Cochin, Kerala the only Biennale in India.
Mindelo, in the island of Sāo Vicente, Cesaria Evora's birthplace.
As always, Rapa Nui and Berta's Empanadas.
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:
"Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!"
Come you back to Mandalay,
Where the old Flotilla lay:
Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay?
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin'-fishes play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!
For Food
Mexico City
Lima
Buenos Aires
in the Americas
and France, what else ?
and an Israeli breakfast..
preferably at a Druze village near Haifa..
