[blogfocus wednesday] travel and identity

1. Aranka felt deflated by the strong winds on the weekend:

We spent the weekend in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, attending the Shenandoah Valley Hot Air Balloon & Wine Festival and a Civil War Reenactment/Living History event. Sadly, the weather did not cooperate (too much wind) and this is all we saw of the balloons at the attempted sunset launch on Saturday.

Which was fun, but we will now have to come back again next year to see the full spectacle (well, at least this is the reasoning I’m giving Ron). Theoretically, we could have gotten up the next day to see the 7:30 AM launch... Yeah, right. (Don’t get me wrong; we love hot air balloons. Well, I LOVE them. I’ve even decorated The Cakes’ nursery with hot air balloons.

2. Ordo has sound advice about your carbon footprint – here are four suggestions:

1. Wear sandals…No one will ever want to look at your carbon footprint again. 4. Holiday closer to home…Rent a caravan in Amlwch. 5. Don't buy…shoplift. Most of our footprint is down to the things we buy. Our houses are often cluttered with items we only use or wear once. Shoplifting reduces the amount you can consume, unless you have very, very big pockets. 7. Eat a local, organic, seasonal, low meat diet…Yes, seagulls and grey squirrels.

3. The Broadsheet Rag has an identity crisis … or does he?

I was reading the Last Ditch earlier today and found that he was quite upset. It turns out that the leader he is most like is Gandhi. So I thought, ‘I’m at a loose end why don’t I try the test’. I answered the questions honestly. And the result? Well, TBR is most like Saddam Husein. I was overjoyed. Of course my mother will be a little upset. But who doesn’t like to think of themselves as an evil dictator? Patrons of fair trade and woolly liberals of course. But to me it was great news. Affirmation of my soon to be found greatness. It’s like doing a cartoon character test and finding out that you are most like Eric Cartman or Bender.

4. The Pub Philosopher considers a holiday in a part of the world which appears to be open again:

Things must be getting better in Somalia. It seems you can go on holiday there now. Yasin Abdirahman would have been safer if he'd accompanied his mother instead of staying in Southall.