Return to blogging, or, a time for laughter and forgetting
10 Comments Published by Tom Gara on Wednesday, August 16 at Wednesday, August 16, 2006.
Answers to some pretty frequently asked questions:
Why havent you updated your blog for like 6 frigging months?
I was busy. And I lost my laptop, so all of a sudden those late night blog-friendly hours at home dissapeared. But plenty of people far busier than me make the time to blog, so that excuse won't get me too far.
I made a pretty concious decisiong to abandon my blog until I would be able to put some decent time and focus into writing good stuff again for it. I've been lurking on nomadlife, reading other peoples blogs and commenting occasionally, but nothing much has been written by me for ages. But as you will find out here, all that is about to change big time!
What are you doing now?
Since the end of the AIESEC International term (Aug 1), I have been chilling and doing pretty much nothing. And it was all that I could have possibly imagined to to be. I started out at Arthurs place in Amsterdam, enjoying some fine movie watching and lazy canal walking with Brodie. For the last two weeks I have been in Budapest, also known as Most Awesome Place To Chill on Earth.
Budapest has been special. Peter, a long time friend ever since he lived with me during his traineeship in Australia, has been hosting Arthur, Brodie, me, and a few others, and the one person apartment has become a close-knit community/refugee camp of 7.
The Sziget festival has been going on for the last seven days, ending last night. Sziget is unlike any other festival I have ever been to or heard of. It is huge, taking up a whole island in the Danube, with hundreds of different stages, tents, bars, chillout spaces and gerneral portals of weirdness. There is just so much of everything, wherever you walk you find a new place that you could soak up for hours.
On Sunday, I leave Budapest and go back the the Netherlands for a week, catching up with Thea and enjoying some final NL time. And on the 27th, I move to Cairo, where I will be living for at least a year...Which brings us to the next question....
What are you doing for the next year?
For the last few years I have been looking forward to a time when writing, my passion, can become my career. And now it is happening! I will be writing as a freelancer, trying to get myself established and published. I will be writing long-form non-fiction journalism kind of stuff, on topics like culture, travel, life in the Middle East, food, tourism, and anything else that people want me to write about.
I will also be working part time, in a traineeship with an advertising agency, which hopefully will also help me develop some creative skills and let me see another side of life in Egypt. So after 6 years with AIESEC, I am finally doing a traineeship!
Ideally, within one year I will be able to make enough money from writing to make it my full time profession, which would be absolutely dream-like for me. I will also work on a few side projects, which you will all find out about in good time!
I've always wanted to come to Egypt. When is a good time to visit?
Its always a good time to come to Egypt - there is sunshine all year round in Sinai and the Red Sea, even when it is chilly and raining in Cairo. And it is only chilly and raining in Cairo for about 6 weeks of the year, around January/February from what I remember.
To conclude - Come to Egypt. Its battles Budapest for the most awesome place in the world.
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So there we go. Lots more to write, and I will be writing plenty more in the coming weeks. 5 more days of Budapest paradise time left.......
Why havent you updated your blog for like 6 frigging months?
I was busy. And I lost my laptop, so all of a sudden those late night blog-friendly hours at home dissapeared. But plenty of people far busier than me make the time to blog, so that excuse won't get me too far.
I made a pretty concious decisiong to abandon my blog until I would be able to put some decent time and focus into writing good stuff again for it. I've been lurking on nomadlife, reading other peoples blogs and commenting occasionally, but nothing much has been written by me for ages. But as you will find out here, all that is about to change big time!
What are you doing now?
Since the end of the AIESEC International term (Aug 1), I have been chilling and doing pretty much nothing. And it was all that I could have possibly imagined to to be. I started out at Arthurs place in Amsterdam, enjoying some fine movie watching and lazy canal walking with Brodie. For the last two weeks I have been in Budapest, also known as Most Awesome Place To Chill on Earth.
Budapest has been special. Peter, a long time friend ever since he lived with me during his traineeship in Australia, has been hosting Arthur, Brodie, me, and a few others, and the one person apartment has become a close-knit community/refugee camp of 7.
The Sziget festival has been going on for the last seven days, ending last night. Sziget is unlike any other festival I have ever been to or heard of. It is huge, taking up a whole island in the Danube, with hundreds of different stages, tents, bars, chillout spaces and gerneral portals of weirdness. There is just so much of everything, wherever you walk you find a new place that you could soak up for hours.
On Sunday, I leave Budapest and go back the the Netherlands for a week, catching up with Thea and enjoying some final NL time. And on the 27th, I move to Cairo, where I will be living for at least a year...Which brings us to the next question....
What are you doing for the next year?
For the last few years I have been looking forward to a time when writing, my passion, can become my career. And now it is happening! I will be writing as a freelancer, trying to get myself established and published. I will be writing long-form non-fiction journalism kind of stuff, on topics like culture, travel, life in the Middle East, food, tourism, and anything else that people want me to write about.
I will also be working part time, in a traineeship with an advertising agency, which hopefully will also help me develop some creative skills and let me see another side of life in Egypt. So after 6 years with AIESEC, I am finally doing a traineeship!
Ideally, within one year I will be able to make enough money from writing to make it my full time profession, which would be absolutely dream-like for me. I will also work on a few side projects, which you will all find out about in good time!
I've always wanted to come to Egypt. When is a good time to visit?
Its always a good time to come to Egypt - there is sunshine all year round in Sinai and the Red Sea, even when it is chilly and raining in Cairo. And it is only chilly and raining in Cairo for about 6 weeks of the year, around January/February from what I remember.
To conclude - Come to Egypt. Its battles Budapest for the most awesome place in the world.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So there we go. Lots more to write, and I will be writing plenty more in the coming weeks. 5 more days of Budapest paradise time left.......
Hey Tom:)
I am really happy you have returned to blogging.
Even more so - to learn that you are following your life's ambition:)
Going to Egypt and becoming a writer is a part of my dreams as well;)
What should I say - I sincerely wish you good luck (I am actually going to be a journalist...some kind of a collegue:P)and hope we see someday, somewhere around the world.
Till then I will remember your words at the "crying session" at IPM 2006 - to never give up on our dreams:)
Cheers from Sofia
This proves the Egyptian saying to be right...You drink from the Nile once and you have to come back to it again...for Tom, it was 10 months later and then again 4 months after that...
Tom is back in Masr!
Welcome back. Looking forward to a shisha with you and Tamer sailing over the Nile.
Heya Sve,
Cool to hear that you will be writing too, we should totally keep in touch and see if we can work together or at least support each other on some stuff. I dont have your email address, can you mail me? tom.gara-at-gmail.com
Come to Egypt!
Jen, Tamer, see you in Egypt too!
Hi Tom- best of luck with Egypt and writing...I can't wait to start reading your new blog entries again, and your new writings. All the best with that.
Budapest is totally awesome- I hope that I can visit Egypt one day soon too after hearing so much about it from you guys!
Cheers from Melbourne! Renee
cheers tom!:) good to c the blog updated again and best of luck with the new venture(s)...
Nice plans. Except I think frequency of rain in Cairo is more like 6 hours a year than 6 weeks a year. Live it up, I hope to catch up with you back in Cairo at some stage too.
Hey Tom,
Glad you are blogging again! I am also glad ur on ur way back to Egypt. Let's meet up for sheesha when ya get here..
See ya soon....
Tom, welcome back to the blogging world!
I'm looking forward to reading your upcoming prose.
Hope to see u soon .. btw, my bday is on the 26th, u ll miss it.. shame on u!!