The Adventures of Hione!

I am a traveler of both time and space, my philosophy is that life is a journey for the soul and woe unto those who take it too seriously. This has not always been the case and I know that I haven't always lived up to my own ideals... I am still a human being unless it turns out I was sent from outer space to study humans then a lot of things will make sense. This blog was created to share with my close friends my travels in India. If you found it then good for you, maybe we can be close friends in the future.

[h1on3]

Is the solution to weak impulse control another impulse decision?

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We can’t smoke for years and suddenly stop, expecting the monkey to be accepting and understanding.

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How is life in Da Nang, Vietnam? It's easy, if you are a westerner, I guess. People do seem happy and content. Very polite and pleasant. The weather is great, if you love the heat, which I do.

How to make beach-friends. Buy an American football, no easy task to find one. Go to the beach. Throw at the closest person you see. Try not to hit them in the face. Why the American football? Just throwing the ball around in the water is great fun. You don't need much explanation. There is a skill element involved, you need to throw the ball the right way and you need to be able to catch it, not with your face.

How is Ramadan going, then? Great. Eating lots of fruit, I love yellow mango and riding around on my rental scooter. The yoga practice is increasing in frequency and tension from the all work on the laptop is being released. Core strength is improving.

But wait, weren't you in Singapore for a week? Yes. Singapore is packed with people and expensive. It's nice to visit if you have friends there.

Coming up... Are you guys going to a volleyball game or something?

[h1on3]

How is life in Tokyo? Everything costs money and nothing is cheap. You can get anything you want for the right amount of money. Everyone is polite to the extreme. A scary number of Japanese have memorised one English phrase, "I don't speak English," which they utter in perfect English. Are they messing with me? No, they really can't speak English. Is that a huge problem? No. You order stuff by pointing at pictures in menus. Not only food. Extremely safe. The only time I felt unsafe, and I've been to some fucked up places and countries, was when I was talking to other foreigners. The conversation ended quickly. The best thing was the silence of the Tokyo night. When the last train has left and the city falls asleep, there is peace, you can walk for miles and miles and just admire the scenery. Walking down a busy big city street, you take a turn down a side street and suddenly you are in a village atmosphere with small buildings and narrow streets, another turn and you're in the middle of skyscrapers and sidewalks full of busy people rushing off to somewhere. There is no space. I was lucky to get a private room, cheap, on AirBnB. It was small, but big by Tokyo standards. The final night I spent at a manga café. You get a computer in a small cubicle and a reclining chair or even a sofa or just soft floor and you can do your thing. You get free coffee and soft drinks. Singapore Imagine Stockholm, hot as hell and full of tourists... I hate tourists so much. Why aren't the world governments funding a global war on tourism?

[h1on3]

Back in Malta. The weather is great, but cold.

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Time to leave Stockholm again. New adventures will begin soon...

[h1on3]

The Religious Experience of the Smoking Ritual

We are going to need a whole lot of patience and we will experience a moderate amount of existential agony, so let us strap on our patience belt and put on our patience hat and hold on tight as we …

The monkey learns to suppress painful emotions with cigarettes. It’s a sad side effect that pleasurable emotions get suppressed as well.

[h1on3]

Tame monkeys will put the tobacco corporations out of business, no one will buy their products anymore. http://www.tamingthemonkey.com/index.php/2017/12/10/authority-over-the-cigarette-monkey/

[h1on3]

For every smoking occasion that we don't smoke we are winning another battle in the war for our freedom.

[h1on3]

We are beings of infinite love and no amount smoke will smother our inner light.

[h1on3]

Back in Stockholm and the weather is as expected. Gonna hibernate during the winter and next year we’ll go on a new adventure. What, like travel again? Don’t have to be, adventure and travel may coincide but are not synonymous.

[h1on3]

Welcome to Turkey.

How to drive in Turkey. Are you driving on the highway and happen to miss your exit? Simply drive the wrong way, which is now the right way because you feel like it. You can count on other drivers paying attention so you can focus on what truly matters, whatever you feel like. Do you speak English? No. I can't understand how everybody in the world does not speak Turkish. How can that be? Welcome to Turkcell Sabiha Gokcen. You have never seen a mobile phone in your life and need instructions on basics such as "Press button, magic happens on the screen". Seriously, Sir, it is 02:00 AM and there are people who have been flying all day and night and are basically fubar, off fucking course I will take my time to help you and ignore the others. Let them fucking wait. Fuck them! Welcome to Turkcell but with different name Sabiha Gokcen. Yeah, we don't, we just don't. Give a give fuck? You said it, we didn't. Try the other places. Welcome to Vodafone Sabiha Gokcen. We can give you the SIM card, but we can't get it to work. We count on you to sort things out.

Welcome to Turkey. In some places, you find people over eager to help despite the language barrier. They keep hope alive. Does your local café not offer a portable charger for your phone with your coffee? The cafés in Mersin, Turkey do that and they are living in 3017!

[h1on3]

We are practicing abstaining from every smoking occasion we can conceivably encounter throughout any given day.

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Last day in Casablanca. It has been fun and many good times. Time now for Turkey.

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The more intense the first craving episode is, the more strength we gain from withstanding it.

[h1on3]

The more intense the first craving episode is, the more strength we gain from withstanding it.

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The Casablanca mindset. What is it and how does it work? Simple: Always do what is most comfortable for you right now. For example, you are driving somewhere and your destination is on the wrong end of a one way street. It would not comfortable (uncomfortable is the opposite of comfortable, not comfortable is just lack of comfort) for you to drive around the block. Your comfort right now dictates that you drive the wrong way. Take a quick look and you will see that there is no traffic and the laws of your immediate comfort dictate that if you are unable to observe any traffic on a street for 2 seconds that means that there has never been and never will be traffic on that street. Go ahead and drive the wrong way, maximum comfort achieved. Good job. What? The car road is not enough comfort for you? Your vehicular comfort lies on the sidewalk? If your immediate comfort demands it, then it must be done. Go ahead and drive on the sidewalk. If pedestrians get in the way of your immediate comfort because of your disturbance to their comfort, then a simple "pardon" will restore their comfort levels like magic. No problem! Walking down the street? Your immediate comfort dictates that you walk in the middle of the road or sidewalk and never ever give way for anyone else. How else would they know that you are the most important person in your world and that they are just inanimate objects in your world and their existence disturbs your immediate comfort level? They must be taught respect for you immediate comfort. The law of immediate comfort dictates that all encounters with other pedestrians should be turned in chicken races. Walk at them at full speed and watch them turn away like chicken. Your dominance has been established together with your immediate comfort. Good job! Extra points if you chicken race a cripple. Got a nice car? You need to drive as slow as possible so that others can look at it and cover as many lanes as possible so that more drivers can see the back of your car. The back of your car is prettier than their wives faces and they know. I don't know why they get so mad. Jealous much? No is paying attention to your nice car? Easy, drive recklessly, now people will pay attention to your car or DIE! Either way, your immediate comfort level is safe and that is all that matters in this life and the next. Every interaction is a bargaining opportunity, not only with stranger, but even with friends and especially family. Always be bargaining for something when you speak with people, otherwise you might get screwed.