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

I'd never wish the stress of a calamity on others. Still, a house fire or flood must be a sure way of getting rid of junk collected over the years. As a case in point, I finally got around to throwing away these old things that were hanging on the wall in the bedroom. Had it not been for painting the walls, they very well could've been hanging around, literally, for years more.



Here's the story on the front frame. In 1988, I worked for a year for the Royal Saudi Naval Forces in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Instructors were given dorm-style rooms right on the military compound. The rooms were provided with basic furniture. Whenever an employee left, their old room was always left unlocked. During one such time, I found this RSNF-inventoried picture. It was calming to see the river scene while actually sitting on the edge of the desert. Additionally, it may have reminded me New Hampshire, I guess. I appropriated it.

After I left Dammam, it came with me and was placed on walls in Bahrain, the UAE, and both apartments in New Westminster. During one move, the glass broke. In the intervening years, the colours faded. So, after twenty years, I realize it's time to say goodbye to it. One of the other little pictures was salvaged from a dumpster when a hotel in Dubai was updating rooms. The third was a framed beach towel from long ago.

I don't mind parting with them; it's just I had to document their existence here first.

Labels: Saudi Arabia, souvenirs

Adding labels to my eJournal and images has meant going through nearly four years of daily entries with a fine-toothed comb. I don't mind taking the time as I've got a copious amount in August.

What has bothered me is how unrepresentative this blog is in regards to actually painting a picture of my 48 years on earth. Actually, few would believe that by entering a mere paragraph or two, even 1400 times, one could sum up a life. It's true; however, I have now vowed to chat much less about the weather! (Today is starting off to be fantastic though.)

Also, I run into a problem by spending a near equal amount of time in Flickr. I do my Daily Picture Parade, add lots of what's going on currently, and took to scanning a while back. In my mind these two repositories of Dennis data are intertwined. I have mentioned Flickr a lot but a visitor cannot possibly know what's on the other site when reading here. Even a link doesn't seem as powerful as pasting the image right on this page.

So, as there was only a single entry regarding a trip to Kenya in February 1994, I put this one of Jay standing in the middle of souvenir sellers in Nairobi. I know that was a long time ago, but I need to add to my world label.

Labels: blogging, Daily Picture Parade, Flickr, Kenya, scanned, souvenirs

I like to think that I'm not terribly attached to possessions. Without trying to sound trite, it really is true that when you have your health you have everything. It is also true that you come into the world with nothing and leave it that way too. The decades in between those events shouldn't be diminished due to a desire to collect material things.

We have friends who once lost near everything in a house fire. Belongings can, for the most part, be replaced. The memories of an item can be almost as powerful as the actual object.

The things we might miss do not have any financial value. Small objects can remind us of a vacation or different time in life. I want to start saving these items in photographs in case they somehow get seperated from us.

Labels: feelings, souvenirs

This was our last day in Nugegoda.

We decided that I could pick up a few Sri Lankan souvenirs from Laksala. I’ve discussed the government-run handicraft sales organisation before. It’s still the easiest place to do complete souvenir shopping. It’s also nice to know that some of the funds will actually benefit the people who made them. I wanted to pick up something for my secretary at work. After all she is ‘fish-sitting’ for five weeks. We also needed to buy something to give ex-colleagues from Dubai. Bill and Leone left a decade ago when we did. They’ve been raising the kids in Hong Kong. Since we’re spending a week there .. yikes .. next week, we plan on seeing them. Even though the coconut shell monkeys were sold out, there was a cute, fat coconut elephant that needed a home. We have enough travel junk but at $1.60 it was one of those things I couldn’t afford not to buy.

When in the Fort area, we developed some digital photos. Earlier in the morning, we sat and looked though the directory on the Gateway and found 78 ‘people pictures’ to give to folks here. I burned them to a little CD for transport. The prints were SR 15 each and they were ready to pick up after Laksala and lunch.

We ate at the Pagoda restaurant which is something of an institution here. It has been there for quite a while. It’s not the cheapest but is reasonably priced so office workers eat there. Duran Duran (Do you remember them?) filmed part of a music video inside in the 1980’s when on location in Sri Lanka. Mongolian grill was a speciality today and I’m sure I smelled like it on the way back to Nugegoda in Bus 137. We hit the roads just when some schools let out; therefore, the trip took over an hour.

It’s warmer here than out among the coconut trees in Minuwangoda. I’m typing this in the yard. Jay’s showing a DVD of last year’s Euro-trip to the others. Lal’s house presently has one floor, so the sun bakes the roof/ceiling. Jay’s eldest sister, though, has created a living space that looks like an art gallery. It is beautiful.

Labels: monkeys, souvenirs, Sri Lanka 2006

Most of us end up owning lots of things. For many acquisition is the goal while for others keeping can actually become a burden.

I am amazed how long some things last. For example, I think I have the suit my father was married in. I don't dry clean it because I doubt it would fit me. Still, the material is perfectly usable all these decades later.

Around the apartment there are small items from various corners of the earth. Some are practical such as the dishes from Bahrain which are still used on a daily basis. Souvenirs, on the other hand, don't have a practical purpose. It's nice to know, however, that things collected decades ago still surround me.



The photo above is a handcrafted Sri Lankan decorative container. It was purchased in the late 1980's and has been a part of my environment since. Today, it sits on the coffee table full of other souvenirs and junk.

Labels: Bahrain, opinions, souvenirs

In yesterday's blog entry, I mentioned finding ancient pottery shards in the desert sands near Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Here are a few which I originally picked up in 1989.

The following is the beginning of a chapter from the US Library of Congress on Saudi Arabia's Pre-Islamic Period:

"The bodies of water on either side of the Arabian Peninsula provided relatively easy access to the neighboring river-valley civilizations of the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates. Once contact was made, trading could begin, and because these civilizations were quite rich, many goods passed between them. The coastal people of Arabia were well-positioned to profit from this trade . . ."

Labels: Saudi Arabia, souvenirs

A bit to my right, there's a whole shelf of souvenirs that we've collected during world travels. I thought it'd be clever to begin to document them here. We've known friends who've lost items to fire or theft. Even if something were to damage these items, we'd be able to see the photo and remember the situation by which they came to be with us.



This 9 x 6 1/2 x 3 mm box is made from marble. The stone inside of the box has been hollowed out by hand. The inlay design of this particular box is rather simple but was made using the same techniques as during the construction of the Taj Mahal. This item successfully made a number of moves but one corner of the cover was damaged during shipping to Canada.

We picked this up on an independent, summer tour of India during 1994. We chose fairly small souvenirs because we always travel lightly.

Labels: India, souvenirs

One major advantage of the location of Jay's house is the proximity to the international airport. It's also important to remember that it's within commuting distance to Colombo, the capital.

A day downtown did seeme like a lot of work although we opted to travel by luxury a/c bus. The cost was $0.35 for the 75-minute trip. Colombo is crowded but fun. It's also really big, so we stayed close to the Fort area. We bought several Singhala DVD's. We tried hard to ignore the shouting street vendors. Later, we had a quick lunch at a Moslem restaurant, took a few photos, checked email, and brought a few gifts at Laksala.

Laksala is the Sri Lankan Handicraft Store which was founded on a good idea. It was formed as a clearing house for native products. The government-owned company buys items and resells to tourists. Yet, in traditional bureaucratic style, there were twelve workers mostly doing nothing at each cash register.

We got back to Minuwangoda at 4:00 pm. Phew!

Labels: souvenirs, Sri Lanka 2004