https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/ Notes from the road, and from staying. en https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/a-lesson-in-sales/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/a-lesson-in-sales/ Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 You step off the plane, you collect your bag, and just past the sliding doors you make the one mistake. You listen to a taxi driver for five seconds. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/what-the-quiet-does/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/what-the-quiet-does/ Sun, 29 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 A morning in Georgia, and nobody knows where I am. Nothing dramatic in that. It's only that no one has a reason to think of me before evening, and I have nothing to be on time for. The first few days of that are pleasant. After that it gets interesting. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-fear-of-being-free/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-fear-of-being-free/ Sun, 25 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000 I have been round a wide loop: from the Emirates to Italy, a short run into Germany, and back to Georgia. Now I am in a hut in the mountains, going back over two years. My life in Germany was a prison. I dressed the way I was shown. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/a-fellow-traveller-writes/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/a-fellow-traveller-writes/ Thu, 08 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000 In Abu Dhabi I decided to put the self-discovery on hold, spend time with friends and concentrate on the business. I don't need much, but a few extra dollars in the pocket are useful. That is why it has been quiet here. Some things have accumulated in the meantime. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/a-new-shade/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/a-new-shade/ Sat, 24 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000 What follows may sound strange to you. But you are here, sharing this moment with me, so you probably feel it too. Something is shifting. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-water-hole-at-gomismta/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-water-hole-at-gomismta/ Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Susi has 283,175 kilometres on her. The engine is perfect. The clutch is fine. Entirely reliable, this car — thanks to Jorge Martins and his workshop, who went over the whole thing before I left. What Jorge can't do anything about is stupidity. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/rivers-dont-set-goals/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/rivers-dont-set-goals/ Tue, 02 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000 So here is the new year. How are the resolutions holding up? Setting goals only half works for me. What actually changes anything is moving in a direction. I would rather work on habits. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/three-hours-a-non-smoker/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/three-hours-a-non-smoker/ Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 If you have resolutions for the new year, there are a few days left. Raise your glass. Let us put off once more the thing we said we would do, and we both know how that ends. You have heard this sentence as often as I have: “I managed three hours without a cigarette.” https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/anything-less-than-yes/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/anything-less-than-yes/ Tue, 12 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 If you have read a few of these, you will have noticed that I am an authority on how not to do it. I know exactly how failing feels. I have taken more or less every dead end that was offered to me, in work and with women, and I took some of them twice. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-same-mess-twice/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-same-mess-twice/ Sat, 09 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 This one is personal, and it is for the few people who know me. Nobody else will read it anyway: I have been silent for half a year. The same man made the same mess for the second time. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/dubai/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/dubai/ Sun, 07 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 After the business with the stolen phone I flew from Georgia to the Emirates. One night in Abu Dhabi, then an hour in a taxi down the motorway. I reached the outskirts of Dubai at about one in the afternoon. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-unfortunate-club/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-unfortunate-club/ Thu, 04 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 If you are looking for a story in which I come off well, keep walking. This one concerns a misfortune that began two days before I flew to Dubai. The decision to stick with the life I have chosen has been paying off. Things are getting clearer, doors are appearing. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/go-all-the-way/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/go-all-the-way/ Sun, 16 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Once you have decided to try, go all the way. Some evenings that is lonely. Then your neighbour knocks on the door because it has occurred to her that you might like something to eat. This happens in Georgia, and it happens particularly at Easter. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-future-that-belongs-to-you/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-future-that-belongs-to-you/ Tue, 28 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000 “But why losing?” a friend asked me. “Because failure sets me free.” https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-chronicle-of-georgia/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-chronicle-of-georgia/ Fri, 24 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Day two hundred and eighty, Georgia. When I lived in Germany I was proud of knowing how the world works. The rich exploit the poor. Things used to be better. What I am told is presumably correct. It is correct, isn't it. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-men-you-meet-out-here/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-men-you-meet-out-here/ Sat, 11 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Day two hundred and sixty-seven, Georgia. You meet them more often out here than at home. Independent, sharp, entirely unbothered about questioning how things are done. Confident and introverted at the same time, which is the part that confuses people. The usual word for them is sigma. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-wheel/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-wheel/ Wed, 25 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Day two hundred and fifty-three, Georgia. A friend said this to me on the phone a few days ago: “I feel like I'm in a hamster wheel.” — “The mood in Germany is crushing.” — “Most people are only looking after themselves now.” https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/everything-is-negotiable/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/everything-is-negotiable/ Mon, 16 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Day two hundred and forty-six, Georgia. Love can move mountains and breaks like glass, at least the sort between a man and a woman. “Everything is negotiable,” says Jacobina. I meet her at a games evening in Tskaltubo. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-mosaic/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/the-mosaic/ Sat, 14 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Day two hundred and forty-two, Georgia. Looking for an answer can take a long time. Longer than you would think possible. What you are shown is often a mosaic put together out of half-truths, and at some point you accepted it, because everyone around you had accepted it too. https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/new-year-kutaisi/ https://frank-goes-walkabout.com/walkabout/new-year-kutaisi/ Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Day two hundred and twenty-eight, Georgia. New Year's Eve in Kutaisi. When I drove away two hundred and twenty-eight days ago, I thought I would be back in six weeks, possibly eight. Tonight I look forward and find that I am in no hurry at all.