I read “Tuesdays with Morrie” some time ago about a former student visiting his professor who was dying from Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS).

For the last six months I’ve been visiting a friend in hospital dying from AIDS on Saturdays after lunch. It became a routine: bike ride, market, Rudy. There is little that is honourable, decent or dignifying about AIDS and watching the slow deterioration in this friend has been agonising.

Like in the story, I enjoyed immensely the time we had together, even though Rudy was no philosophiser on life. His face would light up when he saw me, he’d whinge and complain about family members to me in confidence and we’d go downstairs in his wheelchair so he could smoke away to his heart’s content. Yes I took him – why should he have been denied a few simple joys in his last months? A nip of Baileys and a good dose of chocolate were our other great shared joys.

We talked of our lives, compared travel notes, watched TV together, made jokes about the food they served at the hospital and really had a great time together. In that triviality about the nuts and bolts of life was great meaning.

Rudy passed away this morning at 8am. He was fun and a laugh but above all compassionate, faithful and a decent human being.

May you be at peace Rudy.

All that is bright, happy, colourful and wonderful in this world I dedicate to you, including these images celebrating life.

Butterfly on a flower on a walk to Manshir Khiid, Mongolia

Rainbow lorikeets, Brisbane, Queensland

Girls surfing at Noosa, Queensland.

Baby with fairy wings.

Bottle feeding in Mongolia.

Ladies sharing a joke, Dhanoulti, India.

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Feel free to email Jo at admin@visitedplanet.com with your comments/thoughts/photo aspirations. See and learn more at www.visitedplanet.com

There have been some good sales of the two 2012 calendars offered through Visited Planet.

To jog your memory one contains images taken by orphans in Myanmar and the other from the database of Visited Planet. Profits from both calendars will go directly back towards developmental projects and to the orphans themselves. See the product page for more details.

Anyway Lulu, the company printing and distributing the calendars, is now offering a 20% discount on all purchases made before the 20th January – this Friday. For those in Australia that basically wipes out the postage fee.

Please do consider a purchase to support Visited Planet’s work.

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Feel free to email Jo at admin@visitedplanet.com with your comments/thoughts/photo aspirations. See and learn more at www.visitedplanet.com

I just spent the morning creating a photographic post of images of the south island in New Zealand for Travel Wire Asia – a site I blog for on travel. It’s not yet published but I’ve added the same gallery of shots here.

Read more

Police tape goes up as the streets start to flood. Pic: Joanne Lane, www.visitedplanet.com

This week it’s a year since the base for Visited Planet went underwater in the 2011 floods. While we’re sitting high and dry here now, repairs to the house as yet are still unfinished, although nearing completion.

It’s incredible to reflect back on what we were doing a year ago – madly evacuating computers, photographic and personal items out of the house as the waters rose around us and up into the property. It was a dreadful time; exhausting and debilitating in many ways but also an incredible time of community and friendship as people came to help and assist – many whom we didn’t even know. Read more

In addition to the Cameras for Asia calendar project, Visited Planet has also launched a calendar featuring images from the database by photojournalist Joanne Lane.

The purchase of this calendar is an invaluable support for the work of Visited Planet in countries like India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mongolia and Myanmar.

The Visited Planet 2012 calendar celebrates the diversity of nations with colourful images of life, culture and joy. But it also highlights the ongoing struggles people face around the world and the ways in which Visited Planet has been involved with them. Your purchase of this calendar will enable the ongoing work and efforts of Visited Planet, particularly in Asia. This has sometimes taken place through classroom lessons teaching English, photography, sports and other subjects to equip people with new skills. It has also been documentary in nature photographing and writing recovery efforts and struggles after adversity in an attempt to encourage and motivate people. And support has also been in the form of monetary donations to enhance developmental programs whether that be fledgling businesses or small projects to enable people to feel empowered and instilled with hope for a future where freedom and restoration is possible. Please see www.visitedplanet.com for further details.

Click here to purchase your calendar!
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Feel free to email Jo at admin@visitedplanet.com with your comments/thoughts/photo aspirations. See and learn more at www.visitedplanet.com