someone gets to be here

My friend Rana photographs three new friends in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Every time I travel, there always comes a moment -- usually sometime after the first few days I'm there -- when I suddenly think to myself, "Wow.  Someone gets to live here."   And then, I spend the next few minutes trying to imagine what it would be like to be in that location long enough so that it's no longer seems exotic, but merely mundane and everyday.  I never actually can, of course, but I try anyway.

Just me?

Anyway, sometimes I'm overcome with the same feeling just surfing through the web, I become so overwhelmed by the beauty and the diversity of the images I see.  So I thought maybe I'd start an occasional feature here of some of my favourite Someone Gets To Be Here online spots.  Like:

•  these images of France Palmer's pottery studio

• when I die, if I've lived a good life, my house in heaven will have this furniture and this view

• My friend Gilligan and his wife (shown in the photo) live on this Caribbean beach. And even though this obviously shouldn't seem that exotic to me, having lived on a Caribbean beach myself once, it still boggles my mind.

•  On the flip side, though I don't do well in the cold, I marvel at people who spend entire seasons looking at Christmas card views

• Hula always makes the places she visits look like a dream

•  I'm pretty sure that I would write a bestselling novel if I did it in this Berlin café

• My friend Irène went to Tanzania, and shot the most beautiful photographs -- would love to visit someday, man.

With that, have a great weekend, friends.

Song:  Fly away by Lenny Kravitz