What is “Happiness”?

To me, it is uncontrollable, belly aching laughter with a friend. Pure happiness.

What does “happiness” mean to you?

Seconds before falling into the cold, Irish river!

Our Deepest Fear

Lately I have been catching up with some old friends, friends from school, from Uni or from all the small side tracks I have taken along the rocky road that is my life. It is an amazing feeling to see how successful, how grown up, how independent or how happy my friends are/have become.

Some are getting married and starting their own families while others are doing PhD’s in Biomedical Science or Applied Physics. Some are still roaming the world, content with nomadic life, jumping from country to country making friends the world over while many have stayed put in Ireland and are, in some cases, making their dreams come true. 

From designing iPhone Apps and synthetic wind pipes to performing live on National TV to getting ready to take on the high rolling mega economy of China, my friends are truly going from strength to strength. I would like to dedicate this blog post to you, my dear friends scattered around the world. Let it shine, be proud, and keep on inspiring those around you!

Let it shine!

Our Deepest Fear (As quoted by Nelson Mandela)

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us…Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” 

The Korean Susan Boyle??

Just saw a video on YouTube that left me near to tears and felt I had to share. We have seen many talent shows, and as a result seen many inspiring groups and individuals come to into the limelight. From Paul Potts to Susan Boyle and even that cute little breakdancer George Sampson on Britain’s got Talent, the list goes on and on.

Here is a talented man with a difference. A man who has gone through so much even at the tender age off 20 (22 Korean age, 20 international age). Left in an orphanage at a baby, he ran away when he was just 5 years old after being beaten and ended up living life on the streets of Seoul for over 10 years, alone and scared. Can you imagine being homeless and alone and only FIVE years old? Sleeping in toilets or under stairs, selling gum by day to make ends meat.

Such a sad story, until said man,Sung Bong Choi, walks into a “Korea’s got Talent” audition and simply moves the judges to tears, not with his story but with his mesmerizing singing.

This video really touched me, let me know if it touched you too.

“Confucius says….”

I visited numerous temples in Taiwan, including a Confucius temple, which as a teacher I thought was a fitting place to visit, and was inspired more by a few minutes reading the varied “notes to confucius” then by anything I saw on the remainder of my trip. People asking for health and happiness, praying for loved ones struggling with their exams or studies, asking for strength in all that they do in school, in University and in life or simply wishing good luck onto others.

“Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated”

So in an effort to make this post simpler but still hopefully let readers get a small glimpse into my trip to Taipei, I am just going to post a few simple pictures that stand out in my mind and illustrate what make Taipei a special place. Enjoy.

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”

“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.”

“If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children. “

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step!”

“Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself. “

“And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.”

Walt Disney; My Idol

I no longer want to become an inspirational teacher, traveller and writer. I no longer want to venture back to Africa, where my heart belongs, to set up a school or orphanage or do any of the other things I outlined in THIS post.I have ,instead, decided to become a cartoonist. I would also like to become one the most successful business people in the world and set up the world’s most renowned Children’s characters and a theme park, or theme parks, that are cleverer, better run, better known and simply more “magical” than anywhere else.

Nah, just kidding. Walt Disney is now my Idol and my inspiration because it turns one of the quotes I have lived my life by, “If you dream it, you can do it”, comes from him. On top of that revelation I also recently found another captivating quote from Sir Walt;

Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.

If that is not inspiring then nothing is. The man was a genius thus why I would love to follow in his footsteps and maybe someday inspire others. I plan on living my dream, slowly but surely, and only time will tell what I can achieve. Fo the time being I am going to enjoy every last-minute of my life here in Korea. I am going to stay positive and try my utmost to encourage and inspire the somewhat saddened and overworked children I currently teach.

As my idol once famously quoted;

“Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children. We worry about what a child will become tomorrow yet we forget that he is someone today”.

Have you guys got any favorite quotes or personal Idols?

Korea…Inspiring.

Randomly came across this promotional video of South Korea, encouraging people to come visit this often forgotten land, on YouTube. It makes me appreciate the country I’m presently living in and get excited at the prospects of spending some weekends exploring the wonderful countryside. It might just be the music..as it makes shivers run up my spine…in a good way!

A few friends and I are planning to climb Seoraksan the first weekend in November with Discover Korea, which is supposed to be spectacuarly beautiful. The trip also includes a few hours in natural hot springs and staying over night in mountain huts. I also just got a free ticket the Korean F1 happening in Mokpo this Sunday. Excitement. Life is good.

NEVER A DULL DAY

Profile I wrote on Irish Travel writer and presenter ‘Manchan Magan’.

From riding in the back of an ex-army truck across Africa to battling rabies and drinking his own Urine, Manchan Magan is not your regular D4 head!

He may have grown up in Donnybrook but he is living a life far removed from the world of Yummy Mummies. He could speak Irish before he could speak English and despite being the great-grandnephew of nationalist “The O Rahilly” he has always felt disconnected from Ireland.

“I never connected with the world I was brought up in and it left me feeling depressed in my teenage years”, he says.

He is talking to me via Skype from New Mexico, where he is currently helping with the Obama Campaign. Never a dull day I would say.

At the young age of 20 he embarked on a trip of a lifetime. He brings me back to a young, innocent Manchan Magan about to begin his first ever adventure; an epic six month trip from London to Nairobi in the back of an ex-army Truck with 18 unlikely adventurers from 2 privately educated schoolgirls to a locksmith who claims to be a UFO-abductee.

Magan holds back nothing when describing some of the hilarious, eccentric, and shady characters he travelled with, which he explains is why he waited nearly 20 years to publish it.

“When I was younger I preferred reading books that were honest so I like to be brutally honest about everything, whether I am writing about the terrible things I did in South America or the terrible things people did to me in Africa”.

On this first trip across the Dark Continent he encountered witch doctors, drug runners and missionaries. He talks about hitching with dessert nomads in Morocco to being stranded in the middle of the Congo with no food and no money. He was looking for some romance and compassion but all he got was an infectious disease.

“When I returned home with Bilharzia, the doctors here had never seen it before and were entranced by he tests”, Manchan recalls.

“The doctors in the tropical medical bureau out in Dun Laoghaire couldn’t hide their excitement. They seemed to forget my life was in their hands! A new cure had just been released and the Irish government was obliged to use me as a guinea pig to try in out and I was cured within days.”

As I listen to Manchan talk about his travels I can’t help but smile. I can immediately sense his passion and love for the places he has been. That is until I get him talking about his years at a student in UCD, where he studied Arts for 3 years.

“I promised my mum I would go back to College so it was only for her. I was disgusted by how little I had learnt in 3 years in UCD compared with everything I had picked up in Africa. It was my travel experience that created me!”

“The trip I enjoyed the most though was my time in Ecuador”, he tells me. As he reached the Valley of Longevity he realises he had reached a place he could call home. Here he settled down for 7 months where he worked at an organic health spa.

“I also had no choice but to stay put as the Doctors there were treating me for Rabies”. Honest as always.

From running a spa in Ecuador to living in a cave and befriending a gay Leper up in the Himalayas, Manchan has had no shortage of diversity in his life. It was here, high up in the mountains, that Magans brother Ruan came to rescue him.

“I was living the life of a Hermit and had lost all communication with the outside world. I had become delirious living on my own Urine so when Ruan came along with the camera it was the only thing I could talk to.” It was from here that Manchan Magan became the renowned travel presenter he is today.

Now a full-time writer, broadcaster and TV presenter he has a travel column in the Irish Times, regular slots on RTE radio and has made over 50 documentaries worldwide. Yet Magan says he is sticking to his Idealistic ways. He lives in a house made entirely of straw surrounded by his self planted forest in Co. Westmeath.

“I got the idea when I was living out in British Colombia for a few years. I needed to find what I connected with in life and ended up living in a hippie commune where everything was environmentally sustainable.”

I ask him his plans for the future, and he tells me he plans on following his heart…right back to Africa, where all this madness began over 20 years ago. Another crazy adventure awaits for Manchan Magan.

Manchan Magan