I generally don’t travel very far these days. I live in Limerick, my hometown is Cork, and I generally might go to Kerry, Clare or Dublin for short breaks. I’ll go to Dublin, specifically Dun Laoghaire, in the autumn.
I would like to visit the UK again soon. I’d like to revisit places I’ve been in the past:
- London
- Cambridge
- Canterbury
- Oxford
- Brighton
- Isle of Wight
- Weymouth
- Lyme Regis
- Bristol
- Cardiff
- Liverpool
- Manchester
- Hebden Bridge
- Haworth
- Southport
- Blackpool
- York
- Settle
- Bolton Abbey
- Harrogate
- Llandudno
- Yorkshire Dales
- Edinburgh
- Isle of Skye
I often visit these on Google Earth and Street View. And it’s a much more immersive experience on my Meta Oculus.
Several apps, such as Wander, enable you to use Street View around the world. And some, like EarthQuest, give you the fuller Google Earth experience, although I like Wander for its simplicity.
If I could instantly teleport myself to a destination, it would be Cambridge. I can do it on my Oculus, but perhaps I should push myself to go there for real again.
One thought that came to mind in the last few days, would be to systematically visit every country in the world on my Oculus, alphabetically. I could perhaps spend 30 mins every day wandering a specific country and praying for the people there. Years ago, I had a book named Operation World, which I used to pray for different countries across the world. I sometimes use the online version, but it’s easy to get distracted, so I haven’t been very systematic about praying for different places. And there’s YouTube too. I enjoy watching tourists tell of their experiences. I was an armchair traveler even in my young years. I remember watching Whickers World. And then, as a young adult, I loved to watch Michael Palin’s travels:
- Around the World in 80 Days
- Pole to Pole
- Full Circle
- Himalaya
- Sahara
- New Europe
And getting back to the Oculus, with Real VR Fishing, you can fish at various locations around the world. I do fish in it, but I enjoy being at the locations more than the fishing 😀.
So, I always like to weave in a bit of music and Christianity. So here goes:
I remember Charlene’s song being a big hit in 1982. I don’t like it at all, but I understand the broad point the song makes. In the UK, when they discovered that she was a born again Christian, they invited her to the Greenbelt Christian rock festival in the summer of 1982. U2 played there the previous year. They didn’t generally have mainstream acts there apart from Cliff Richard. The only other mainstream artists who played there were Corinne Bailey Rae and Daniel and Natasha Beddingfield.
So, let’s end with a few hymns about the world.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
So what does the title Onward and Upward mean? Well, ultimately, I plan to travel up to meet the Lord in the air.
1 Thess 4:16-18
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Hibernia Gospel 