“So sit, and wait, and bend, and break, you rise, and fall, just you, that’s all” Shihad Home Again We appeared at the diner at 10 past 6 and took our usual table. The paraphernalia of caffeine appeared on the table before us. Our host stepped away from her opening rituals long enough to let…
Tag: travel
Travel: Length of the Earth
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” J.R.R. Tolkien Jet lag again ripped us from sleep in the early hours. Icy fresh air floated in the window and took the edge off the central heating. We persevered through the caffeine-free hours of purgatory and presented…
Travel: In Search of Mutton Pie
Oamaru, July 2025 I rise after a night drinking with Michael O’Brien in his cottage. Last time I did so I bore the brunt of a mortal liver the next day, every footstep was a lash of self-flagellation. Today though I am buoyed by the fact that I showed relative self-control the night before. My…
Travel: Crisp And Clean
“Crisp and clean. No caffeine.” RZA , Coffee and Cigarettes Our jetlag wrenched us from sleep at 2am. In an act of cruelty that frankly jeopardizes Canada’s inclusion in the commonwealth there was no coffee or tea making facilities in the hotel room. I took to twitter to voice my anguish and was told that…
Travel: Canadian Nice
“I believe the world needs more Canada”- Bono I think airports say a lot about the country they are verandahs to. In Sydney they call you mate before hauling you off to be swabbed for explosives, at Heathrow there is a resigned down beat air of lost grandeur and milky tea, in Chiang Mai there…
Travel: Beside the Seaside
“the first thing he espied was the wine lodge door stood open invitingly to quench his thirst, he toddled inside and called out for a wine which grew to eight or nine, till his nose began to shine.” John H. Glover-Kind I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside. This was our last full day…
Travel: Rag and Bone Man
“contenting myself with observing that I shall not abandon the facts until there shall have been a considerable spontaneous combustion of the testimony” Krook , Rag and Bone Man in Bleakhouse , Charles Dickens My apologies for the delay in continuing the trip write up. Life got in the way upon my return to NZ….
Travel: Due South – Edinburgh to London
“In Scotland, there is no such thing as bad weather – only the wrong clothes.” Billy Connolly I rose early and wandered around the corner to the Scotmid Co-op supermarket around the corner. I stocked up on sandwiches and pork pies for the train and ordered coffees and Scotch Pies for breakfast. A Scotch Pie…
Travel: The West Riding – Yorkshire Day 2
“I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide: Where the gray flocks in ferny glens are feeding; Where the wild wind blows on the mountain side.” The Brontë Sisters At 8am I presented myself at mum’s room where scrambled eggs, toast, tea, coffee and orange juice had…
Travel: Atop the Wall – Cheshire Day 3
“Masclus to Cerialis his king, greeting. Please, my lord, give instructions as to what you want us to have done tomorrow. Are we to return with the standard to the shrine at the crossroads all together or every other one of us … most fortunate and be well-disposed towards me. Farewell. My fellow-soldiers have no…
Raise the Dawn 