I arose before dawn to see the sun rise over the Himalayas. I’ve always wanted to write that. It sounds like a diary entry from some brave adventurer. And so it is. Life is one big mountainous adventure after all.
Nepalesian Narrative 1 – Into those Mountains
The snowy shark fins of the Himalayas peek through the fluffy white clouds as we fly towards Kathmandu. As high as our plane, these mountains stand head and shoulders above any other place on earth, dominating the peculiar but enthralling state of Nepal.
Aside
I look back with renewed fondness at my interaction with the dog on a train. On Thursday, I experienced something far more distasteful – drunks on a train. And all of this in the so-called quiet coach.
Dignity
No matter what they take from me, they can’t take away my d-i-g-n-i-t-y . . . wailed Whitney. And in the end they didn’t. She managed to do that all by herself. Just like we all do, or don’t. Our dignity is ours to nurture or to dispose of, nobody else’s. Whatever life throws at…
Train ride across Transylvania
I am sat with Jerry in the sleeper compartment of an impossibly long Romanian train, transporting us overnight out of Bucharest and up into Transylvania. He has demanded silence whilst he proves that he can complete a killer Sudoku in less than 45 minutes. So I quietly write my diary.
Intelligent Life?
I had this idea in the bottom drawer of my brain that there were ten different intelligences, a number I have quoted with alacrity but rarely enumerated (and have never been challenged on). When I Google’d it, I discovered two different lists of 10 and another one of 8, none of which satisfied me. They…
Get the celebrities out of here …
We live in the age of the individual and the personality. The individual is me (or maybe you, if I even care about you). The ‘personality’ is the so-called celebrity on TV, in the papers, on the web, in my fantasy. The way it works is this.
Embracing Memories
It’s hard to remember. It’s particularly hard remembering those who have died. Our faculties fail us. How can so many thousands of days and millions of interactions generate so few moments of recall? And we can find it hard to get past the dark door of their death to remembering the extensive garden which was…
The Hit Parade
Least unpopular blogs of all time . . . 1. School Prospectus – Jun11 – How we need to change education 2. Take me to your Leader – Jan12 – What makes a good leader? 3. Leaving and Losing – Jul11 – When our children leave home 4. Dogs on Trains – Jan12 – A…
Knowing your Place
On Tuesday, I visited Aalborg, a small industrial city at the top of Denmark. As I pondered my destination I wondered whether it could claim to be the first entry in the world gazetteer. Which other town or city could surpass its opening double “a”s and followed by a respectable “l”? Even in a dictionary…
Unwrapping The World 