I perhaps owe an apology to Scottish friends for implying in an earlier email that differences in perspective, either side of the Caledonian border, are but the joshings of friendly equals. We no longer grace monarchs with titles like Hammer … Read More »
A word on the set-up at AIDG (Appropriate Infrastructures Development Group – the Boston NGO my daughter Annie interns for) and its crew of multi-talented oddballs. Think (I´m talking to the Brits now) The Young Ones and factor in that … Read More »
Flashback to my arrival at Guatemala City a week ago. Annie and Daniel had made their own three hour trip the day before. “Being Guatemala”, daughter had reasoned, “there´ll just be a sliver of ticker tape three inches from the … Read More »
So it was fixed last night: I would rise at four-fifteen to shower, get coffee and be out on the street in full hiking gear to await Edwin, who would drive and then guide me and two other gringos up … Read More »
In town for 7:30 this morning, I was to meet Daniel, the daughter´s Mexican boyfriend, to watch the Mexico-South Africa game. In the event I couldn´t find the bar and ended up in a scruffy place selling disgusting coffee (they … Read More »
At three thousand metres in the Western Highlands of Guatemala the air is thin but carries a loamy scent. I’m coughing. Out of breath and out of condition too, having dragged self, camera and lenses (my daughter Annie´s sensible Mexican … Read More »
Since my last email I took night sleeper from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in the north for a lovely three days. I’ve written before about Chiang Mai, a beautiful city with a feel more relaxed than Bangkok. (Viv, I got … Read More »
Yesterday I was struck for the first time, amazing though that now seems, by a simple thought. I turned eighteen in 1970. Had we a Tony Blair in Downing Street at the time it’s not too fantastic a stretch – … Read More »
Not just white boys: the final part of my previous email ended with a reference to the ‘white boys’, mainly Americans, who killed and died in Vietnam. But black boys came too and – for reasons obvious to anyone who’s thought … Read More »
A twenty-five minute flight from Phu Quoc had me on the mainland town of Rach Gia before ten am on Sunday in good time for buses to Can Tho, hub town of the Mekong Delta. The first bus smelt strongly … Read More »