'A good traveller has no fixed plans.' Tao Te Chiang
Once upon a time - it was a dark and stormy night, as I recall, my poor heart in turmoil, my tongue let loose upon the world in verse and worse - once upon a time, when I was younger, quite a lot younger in fact, and of course much less sensible than I am [...]
That long-ago momentin a hotel corridor -a woman’s soft mews and a man’sblunt panting. My own lifesuddenly unraveled,undone by this happiness.Or by no more than a mutuallysatisfactory encounter, a momentstolen behind a thin painted door.Until the couple stoppedwhatever they were doing.A sudden silenceand I moved quickly on.
The great thing about Canada, Canadians will tell you, is that it’s so boring. No big drama, no insurrections on the steps of Parliament, no QAnon lunatics impeaching the prime minister, and no prime minister, for that matter, doing his damndest to overthrow a legitimate election. Just law, order and good government. It’s national news [...]
Sometimes a rhino is just a rhino. This big fellow, bringing up the rear of a group of white rhinos as they lumbered up a rutted track to the top of a ridge before disappearing down the other side, maintained a watchful eye as we jolted along in his wake, in the open LandCruiser, last [...]
This was not one of thoseSwooping soaringPhoto opportunities, you know,Where the bird glides in fromStage left andExits beautifullyTo the rightWith a pristinePink and silverSalmon or somethingA missile ready to launchFrom its clawFlakes of morning lightFalling from its not yet barbecuedFlesh. This was murder, a brawl in the shallowsWhich ended badlyFor the thrashing creature in the [...]
At a time like this, when half the world is on lockdown because of the pandemic, when civility and decency and the very foundations of democracy seem at risk in the face of racist populism and rabid know-nothingness, when the planes are grounded and we can barely venture out of our houses, when our ‘advanced’ [...]
I am startled and yet not surprised, in returning to my blog, that almost a hundred days (of solitude, I am tempted to add, in the spirit of Marquez) have passed since my last post. Last time I wrote we were 10 days into the lockdown, and the number of reported cases in South Africa [...]
It is Day 10 of the Covid-19 lockdown, here in South Africa, and autumn is in the air in Johannesburg. It has been an intense week of work, and the calm and quiet are strangely welcome. I say strangely, because the times are not normal, and we stay home not by choice but because we [...]
What to do in a lock-down? This is a question to myself, you'll be glad to hear, not another of those claims to instant expertise, sunny wisdom, righteous outrage or uniquely personal angst or fear that seem to be spreading around the globe with the speed and virulence of, well, a Coronavirus or a Donald [...]
On the Bosphorus Ferry For a couple of weeks now I have been meaning to post these images from a ferry ride up the Bosphorus - there are plenty of sight-seeing trips you can book, to explore Istanbul from the water, but the ferry is the simplest and most affordable, offering a two-hour round-trip from [...]
