Franco and Lisa

Franco and Lisa Esile

International Travel Tips for Making International Coffee

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV8q3ZihgaA&w=420&h=315] As of yesterday I’m back in NZee, which means goodbye for now Santa Monica Boardwalk mulled wine at the Venice Ale House, Randy Weeks live at The Cinema and new friends who do things like crochet you funky gloves & usher you to your 17  hour flight leaving little bits of themselves in […]

Thugs Against Drugs and other Celebratory Things

So yesterday there I am at the Santa Monica Urth Cafe sitting by the window munching my way through the finest Half-Sized Fruit Plate ever – oh good grief those mangoes – and working on my new up-and-coming course teaching people who ‘suck at meditation’ my simple easy technique for getting all the lovely calming […]

The Real 'Not Usually Spoken About' Deal on Forgiveness

Here’s how people usually teach forgiveness: They start by telling you to go get a piece of paper or an entire legal pad, depending on how pissed-off at everyone you are. Then they say, sit down and write why everyone you’re mad at was such an asshole how this makes you feel, why you now […]

On Being the Queen (or King) of Your World

There’s nothing like coming to a different country or doing some challenging thing like being by yourself for a long time without all your regular friends and dogs (Yes I still miss you) to dredge up some of the less pretty things you think about yourself, the things that can sometimes get obscured by your […]

I Love Me I Love Me I Love Me

This is one of my favourite inspirational cards (from my deck of Life Cards). Which is why I painted it up all big and with more colours and some extra words. All the I love you bits at the end are because sometimes I need a little extra love to remind me ‘ah hello, could […]

Three things you'll find at the bottom of my garden … including a squirrel!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HpFDPk7rP0&w=560&h=315] In New Zealand we grew up reading books from America or England with ‘woodland creatures’, birds we’d never seen and Christmas in the winter time. I asked someone the other day nervously, hoping they wouldn’t guess I didn’t know the answer, about the situation with chipmunks. As in were they real?

I Heart Bukowski

Just spent two hours in a cafe on Windward reading Bukowski and writing a poem about reading Bukowski. The picture above is from yesterday, when I wasn’t feeling so Bukowski.