A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

Humans do seem to enjoy moving about. In fact, some might define history through the movement of people.



We spend a large percentage of income on travel and to me it seems worthwhile. We've seen the devastation that nature can cause. Collecting material possessions seems so silly. Many people work so hard for material goods that they sometimes miss life itself. You can't, as they say, take it with you!

Jay went to Thomas Cook in order to pick up a few Euros. We'll need the change to buy transit tickets from Schiphol to downtown Amsterdam next week. Having a little cash is always convenient. We will be able to use them up in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France too. We should be able to get rid of most during those couple of weeks. If not, we can always change the remainder to Pounds when we head over to London.

It made me think of old currency I had kept. I've got bills from every place we've travelled and even donations from fellow collectors. When I was last in the Netherlands in the early 1980's, I saved this note.



Isn't money a great invention? I can earn it by teaching a class then take some and purchase whatever I desire --- globally. This sort of goes hand-in-hand with my amazement that wherever I go, there are always people ready to give me a meal and provide a bed for sleeping. All I need is a little cash. A few slips of paper are so much more portable than keeping wealth, say, in cattle. Cows don't travel well in one's luggage and they don't divide easily.

Labels: Amsterdam, money

There's at least one entry for every day during this period. There are also 2 months of daily pictures on flickr.com.

Labels: Flickr

I feel sorry for locals who planned a summer camping vacation this week. From the beginning of June until just this week, the weather had been very nice. This summer, the nights have been a bit cool but, generally, there have been mostly pleasant sunny days.

Yesterday, I walked down to drop something in the postal box. It wasn't raining but was misty enough so, because I wear glasses, I had to look down at the sidewalk. Things smelled warm and wet. (That's unlike our winters when things smell cool and wet.) I know it isn't bad compared to the devastation that can be wrought by weather. Yet, it would be an awful way to spend precious vacation time.

In 2001, we camped across Canada and back. Click the thumbnail to load a larger image taken in an Ontario campground. It wasn't raining in the photo!

Labels: Canada, road trip, weather

Okay, I hate bringing it up but August is almost over. Since I imagine this is read mostly north of the equator, that means the slide into fall is inevitable. I've already become acutely aware of switching on the lights earlier and earlier. It was actually quite cool last night.

There's a Canadian TV advertisement where a woman walking down the street starts to shriek. It's a great shriek. It's so effective, it might lead you to believe she's seen a horrible accident. Then, the camera turns to show an autumn leaf on the sidewalk.


Enjoy a picnic and the weather any time of year.

Labels: camera

I discovered that my graphics software can stitch together separate photographs into one, large panorama shot. It was very easy to do. Rather ambitiously, I went to the balcony and took five shots. I needed to cover a one-hundred-and-seventy degree view.



Click to load the picture on flickr. This could be very convenient when it's not possible to get everything in the viewfinder. Just being able to take two side-by-side pictures and stitch them together may prove useful. Although I've owned the camera for three and a half years, I also found out that the same effect can be done 'inside' the camera. Live and learn!

Labels: balcony, Flickr, software

Let's see. The notebook computer won't get any heavier if I put stuff on the hard drive, right? Photocopying maps from guide books is a thing of the past. Most maps are available in .pdf files. For the ones I couldn't find, I just scanned those very same guide books and saved a personal copy in the standard Adobe-created format.

I've got no illusion that I'll be able to pull out the Gateway in the middle of the crowded tube, but it'll surely be easy to plan from a hotel room the prior evening.

We're flying into Amsterdam next month, and will spend a few weeks travelling in Brussels, Luxembourg, and Paris. Then, we'll spend the final six days of the trip in London. How do I get to King's Cross Station?

Labels: travel planning