writer. traveller. life unraveller.
An Italian man once said to me, “Colleen, you’re approaching the age of deterioration. You can’t live the way you’re living for too much longer. People won’t receive you as well as you get older. You won’t be as pretty, your body won’t be as fit. That’s how it is for women.” I was 35.... Continue Reading →
You know life is pretty good when you have a stack of really, really good books next to your bed and you’ve been having too much fun to read them. That’s usually a sign of happiness for me anyways. That stack is a sweet reflection of my life at the moment. Another signal involves a... Continue Reading →
I recently added “Forward Thinker” to my character adjectives on my website. To represent it as a proper noun is an attempt to treat my newfound trait with the importance it deserves. And to perhaps use it to replace a less-attractive trait, like Unsuccessful Decision-Maker or Occasional Flosser. It is a New Year’s resolution of... Continue Reading →
The road less travelled has fresh footsteps these days as more people choose an alternative lifestyle. For many, the appeal of a steady job, a fixed mortgage rate, and an annual two-week holiday is waning with the dawning realisation that life can be a jet stream, a wide open sea, or a riverside trail. Making... Continue Reading →
As I drove a friend to the airport a few days ago, I realized that one indicator that you live in a good place is the length of time it takes to drive to the airport. And I write that with all seriousness and anyone who lives in a big city will understand why. Hours... Continue Reading →
On the final day of Thai massage school, four of us listened as our teacher talked about herbal medicine for treating common ailments. “How do you treat heartache?” One woman asked. She’d recently broken up with her partner over the course of our ten-week training. His name was still scrawled in ink on the top of her... Continue Reading →
Photo Credit: Todd Brown IG:@toddbrownfoto I watched a woman lean from her chair and pick up her bag from the floor of the restaurant we were in. She stretched forwards, exposing the pink hearts on the band of her underwear. Cute. But did she know it? I sometimes go braless. It’s about comfort, namely my own... Continue Reading →
Travelling alone might be one of the best things you can do for yourself. Yes, it gets lonely, especially when you’re at an age seriously underrepresented in the travel world, and yes, it is sometimes scary. But loneliness and fear are a bit like mosquito bites, they affect everybody at some point but they only... Continue Reading →
Where am I? I asked myself this a few hundred times a day as I pondered all the things I would have been doing had I not rolled up on this remote tropical island. I had fallen off the map, or it felt that way. I was in a place were clocks don’t matter because... Continue Reading →
Photo credit: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UolOn_ZO-KY/UMuR9fNCKJI/AAAAAAAAACU/TqfPWbfWfp... Are Western women easy? The answer depends on who you ask. I am a single white female (SWF) travelling in Indonesia, a country that has conservative values regarding women, so my Western perspective is biased. This musing may provoke a bit of controversy but isn’t that the best kind of reading? It’s... Continue Reading →
colleen thornton 