Invitation to a Book Launch by Heidi Trautmann

‘The World is my Home – An entertaining and nostalgic World Travel Cook Book – with Sailing and Travel Stories’

By Heidi Trautman….

1. During the Işık Bookstore Book Fair (28 Aug -08 Sep 2023) for one week 28 Aug – 03 Sep from 17.30 – 19.30 hrs…. Revision see comment below.
2. On 07 Sep 2023 at the Girne Public Library at 15.00 hrs.

The human beings are born with senses which according to their development will determine their course of life. Vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste…. are these senses well developed by constant concentrated use, other senses will come to life and these are creativity and curiosity; without them, there is no development of our hidden abilities. With creativity I am not referring to the arts alone, creativity is to create something from little, to do something with passion, especially in questions of survival. Creativity and Curiosity is Life itself and to follow the demands of your body and soul for good food is a basic element of all living beings. Don’t accept borders, or limits for yourself, always go beyond them…because experiencing new things gives you the chance to learn…

I repeat here the text on the back of the book:

Heidi Trautmann’s World Travel Cook Book is an anti-statement, a statement against fast life, fast food, fast travel, a statement against the virtual world where most of us feel constrained to live. Instead, it is an invitation to get up and do things the natural way.

Happiness is not in arriving at our destination, it is the journey itself, so says the Chinese philosopher Confucius. We can apply the wisdom of this quote to most things in our life. This book catalogues Heidi’s travels in real time; it is a suggestion to the reader to think, ponder and marvel at their own direct experiences without the filter of virtuality, on which we have sadly come to rely.

After adapting to the many substantial changes brought about during the post-war period, to the new orientation in society, politics, and sudden waves of migration worldwide, Heidi discovered new worlds altogether. Using whatever transport at her disposal, she travelled the globe in real time, latterly with her husband on the sailing boat they built themselves, in order to have the time to meet and talk to people, absorbing as she went through new cultures and traditions. This book is the culmination of those experiences, Heidi’s own ‘Cocktail of Life’, in which she narrates the lessons and knowledge she picked up while observing and adapting to local cultures and incorporating them into her life, thus making the whole world her home. She takes us on a nostalgic world trip, using her culinary curiosity and know-how, starting in the early 1960s up to the present time, recommending that we would do well to slow down and appreciate the joys, sorrows, and frustrations of the journey itself, and not just focus on our destination.

There is an Arabic saying which declares that our souls travel with the speed of a camel, yet so often in our speedy culture, we arrive physically in one place but find we have left our souls far behind.