‘Everybody hates a tourist’, sang Jarvis Cocker, the one phoney note in the most inspired song ever to emerge from my home town. It isn’t true. Tourists who engage – and part with much needed dollars – are liked and … Read More »
The officials at Guangzhou (‘Gwongchow’, Canton in old money) International can smile but it doesn’t happen often. That’s not due to some People’s Republic edict; still less surly disposition. The first time I was there they pulled all the stops … Read More »
slideshow here
slideshow here
http://steelcityscribblings.uk/slideshows/1208%20andalusia.pdf
Workers of the world: they always did know how to enjoy themselves given half a chance. Here a Bank Holiday Monday, spring tide, bracing wind and gorgeous sunshine all came together on the Yorkshire coast at Hornsea – and the … Read More »
Late evening at the Seven Olives. Mesfin and I eat chickpea stew with Ethiopia’s ubiquitous injera. Mesfin – below, with Daniel and my tripod on his right – casts a baleful eye over a table on the far side of … Read More »
Thoughts now, on my last day in this wonderful, maddening, deeply civilised country. I’ve just seen (not for the first time) a grinning young man, buff naked and hugely endowed, walk down the busy Addis street outside the internet shop … Read More »
When Sisay was six his family abandoned their mountain hut and headed down to Lalibela and a better life. There in the holy town they scratched an existence on the streets until, after a year of zero progress, Sisay’s parents … Read More »
Some though not all of the content of this post is also in the photo-essay, Out of Abyssinia Imagine a day’s fell walking in the English Lake District. Setting off from Buttermere’s Fish Hotel you tread the lake’s western bank … Read More »