Trip to Sydney - Mid Jan'10

Leave has been approved for the period from 14th Jan to 22nd Jan for my trip to Aus - Sydney. For now, what is left for me to do before end of the month is to book my flight and arrange for accommodations.

Every trip to me is special and unique. For this coming trip, even more so. I will be spending a good 4 to 5 days at Aloka Meditation Centre at Peats Ridge for a retreat. Sister Sumitra has been encouraging me to set aside sometime to visit her for a retreat, to get in touch with my spiritual self. She's been mentioning to me that its good that i'm reading up on Buddhist philosophies but more important, i should start to put more practice into it and go for a proper retreat.

Its the first ever retreat i will be attending so i'm not quite sure what to expect but i believe there will be time set aside for activities such as meditation, self-reflection and dhamma talks. These are the times for practicing mindfulness, mindfulness of the current in breath and out breath, mindfulness of the present moment.

After the retreat, i intend to spend the remaining 2 or 3 days in the city itself to do some sightseeing and photography as well cos if i can, "i want to take that 3 pictures that break my heart" (if you have no idea what i'm talking about, watch the 2nd video in my previous post - Dont Be A Tourist =P

Of all, there is one thing i'm absolutely sure of, this trip, this retreat will be most nourishing to both body and mind.

Don't Be A Tourist

Here's the series of "Don't Be A Tourist" advert clips by Kevin Spacey on Olympus Pen that really stole me. Esp the clip with the line that goes, "I don't want to take 300,000 same old pictures that break my hard drive. I want to take 3 that break my heart."

Other clips with lines like, "I don't want to be the camera guy....., 15 lenses, 3 tripods... I want to be, I don't know, camera ciao, picture wow." and "... photographs that hurt everytime you look at it..." were also done up very nicely.

And I must say, they are most excellently done as a series. Just kept going wow over them... it's just so captivating.... They didn't break my heart but they sure did touch my heart. =)