Travel

More and more, I seem to spend time in transit: to and from work, visiting my family in Canberra, visiting friends in other suburbs, occasionally crossing state borders to reacquaint myself with my beloved Melbourne, and even less often travelling further afield.

Many people I know hate travelling time. I gather they see it as wasted time, time better spent doing other things. Especially if it involves public transport. I, however, love travelling on public transport. I love it nearly as much as I love to walk. It could be argued that I have only learned to love it because I have to do so much of it as a non-car-owner. But I would disagree: I love it because it forces me to have contact with other people, while at the same time spending time alone.

I guess this ties in to my last post, but I feel that public transport travel allows me to listen; to observe. For me, observation is a very important skill to have: it forms the basic structure of my creative work.

Travel also takes me out of my ‘normal’, everyday life. Being outside of something, I believe, means you can more keenly observe it. And so, as well as scribbling some of my best work inside my little Travel Notebook while I’m bussing it somewhere, I make some of the most important decisions about my life while I’m travelling.

Here is someone who seems to agree with me on the subject of travelling time.

Image by Magnolias forever.

PS. I found it very hard to choose between the above image and this one.