Tripping Out Alone

It is August, I am back at school, and my blog has been neglected. I have stories to share and I shall share them soon. I have been to Thailand, East Java, North Sumatra and Singapore.. I have pictures! I have thoughts, I have a final six weeks of uni study...I will be writing on these pages soon....

Tripping Out Alone Jakarta The best way to say goodbye is to leave without saying goodbye…the last school week was full of speeches, departing staff fare welled by those remaining and some innocuous speeches made by people in charge who represent not much in terms of lasting friendships or even supportive collegiality so it was better to get out, jump in a plane to the Big Durian and get some song writing lessons from Ed. Jakarta doesn’t grow on me, although I visited it only last week it doesn’t have familiarity, only sudden moments of recognition amongst a vast spread of confusing landmarks. We made it to Lincoln’s apartment to drop my bags, add a few lyrics and then headed over to another area. How far away I have no idea, it took an hour to get there but it could have been round the corner. The taxi driver moaned and sighed like an old heifer as we encountered one gridlock after another, not a good job for a man who wore his intolerance on his sleeve. From the hotel we went to

I have really been tripping out recently, so much so that I have not posted pictures of the rest of the Taj Mahal, or the trip to Europe, or the trip to Singapore to meet the girls, or even the trip to Jakarta, but that was a school trip so may not feature here. And as the holidays approach I am off again on a second trip to Jakarta, a trip to Thailand and then a very interesting adventure in Java and Sumatra. I will get to the photographs and get up to date as this blog serves me well given the amount of computer crashes , the two thefts and a malfunctioning motherboard have all disrupted my logical and sequential digitalizing of my images. And while I am not tripping out I like to look at where I tripped out, those spaces between school and study that sometimes find me restful and wandering in the delightful memories of places, things and people, tastes, smells and sounds that make up the recall of a moment of life. Could the top ten favorite memories of one person give rise to

Cushla, Claire and I headed out of the smog of Gurgaon on Sunday afternoon and headed down a manic highway to Agra. Our plan was to spend the day at the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort as well as the deserted city of Fatehapur Sikri. Our inspiration was to meet and celebrate our milestones together, Claire her move to Yangon, Cushla her move to Paris and me, the last year of my masters.We have known each other over some years in South East Asia, Cushla from Bangkok, Claire from HoChiMinh City, and have met up in Bali with regularity. We had our girls own adventure and were individually inspired and awed by the beauty of what we saw. People, buildings and the mad things on the road including strangely shaped bulbous carriages that looked like moving castles. Great food and a welcome bottle of champagne on our arrival back into Dehli provided by Eric, Cushla's husband sealed the trip and then it was home time!

Air Asia stopped flying to Europe, but I had to go, so I researched hard and came up with a great flight in Air France from Singapore to Paris. FIlled in the gaps with Air Asia,Easy Jet, Vueling, British Airways and bmi for a 16 day visit that took in Barcelona, Bilbao in Spain, Menton and Villefanche in France, Monte Carlo in Monaco, Civezza and Imperia in Italy as well as my home neighbourhood, Kew Gardens and Primrose Hill... Not bad. The weather was fantastic, the food superb, the wine flowing and the friends and family warm. I was in the middle of deadlines, had an exam online and an essay to prepare but I managed to find the time for everything, as I discovered it easy to study at airports and I was at quite a few. Highlights of Barcelona and Bilbao Going 'home' to Caversham, it is so evocative that I often forget the simple beauty of it's landscape and very Englishness: London in the spring: After seeing David and m