I’m in Bali and I’ve found the person who will be my driver for my 2 week stay. The first trip is to a local shopping mall. As he skillfully navigates the insane traffic with an air of quiet and calm he is warm and friendly without being too familiar….

As many Viva 70 readers will know my mind has been rattling around the idea of how to do something useful in the area of climate activism when the last time I was politically active was in 1970’s around the Vietnam War! So apart from becoming a more diligent recycler,…

I’m winding along country roads to find the home of Terry and Jill Williams. Cows grazing, rolling hills, a tiny old brick church, now a private home. Google tells me to keep going. So I do. Driving past rural properties with their never to be understood exotic numbering system. House…

Have you heard of Sou Fujimoto? I remember his name from a visit to the temporary Serpentine pavilion in London when I visited the gallery there in Hyde Park. Like a spider’s web this beautiful building makes you gasp at the imagination and technical skill displayed. The main image shows…

Do you remember learning about the ” birds and the bees?” or about Storks delivering babies? My mother was a midwife and her anatomy books were the source of much of my early sex education…you can imagine how well that went! I was hearing  rave reviews for a Netflix series…

Do you ever have that feeling that you are definitely not part of the human race? An alien perhaps? Or at a minimum lacking some basic human responses? I do. Like my brain reacts to what others say is ” lovely” or ” heartwarming” by feeling irritated and nauseous! I…

Education and learning is a well traveled friend in my life. In my 20’s I worked in an alternative school for 10 years, an innovative child – centred learning program where kids’ interests, not age, was the organising principle of the curriculum. Steiner school. Montessori, Summerhill, Preshil were all precursors…

It’s 3 pm and the sun has a gentler fingers as it touches the body and soul.  Clouds gather and a soft wind rolls in from the beach. My afternoon nap was blissful. But now its time to head down to the green tables under the trees for my massage….

How well do you know your body and it’s needs? Are you able to read the cues and adjust your lifestyle, diet and thinking accordingly? Most of us romp through life knowing we SHOULD drink less, eat more healthily etc etc. But often it’s after a serious medical event that…

Two of my friends have died in the last two weeks. I’m here in Bali receiving messages from home. I remember my mother, who was famously caustic in her commentary on life, saying that at 80 her only social engagements were to attend funerals and do her weekly shopping. Both…

Last night I moseyed down to the beach club for sunset drinks,  which in my new angel status world means a slushy mocktail probably with more calories than a decent glass of wine. However I feel virtuous and I don’t miss alcohol in this very stress free world where the…

Do you celebrate Valentine’s day? I do… and I’m single! Forget the commercial spin on showing love by buying stuff….Perhaps it’s as simple as thinking about those you love in your life and the gratitude you feel about them being in your world- your family and dear friends. It’s also…