I am not a regular church goer but twice in the last few weeks have found myself in God’s house surrounded by people a lot more devout than me. Why?
The Devil’s Music
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Lagoon Life
Today is the 12th May 2015. My birthday. I am 53-years old and happy with that and would not have it otherwise.
The Fallen
The graves were simple white painted slabs with a matching headstone. There were five in all: two were for the nine English militia killed in a skirmish in 1989 with the Maori rebel chief Te Kooti; the rest were the graves of later settlers.
Jungle Fever
It rained all night. Every time I awoke it was to a relentless drumming on the tin roof and the occasional chirp from one of the six geckos stuck on the underside of the foil insulation.
India, my India
After 2-weeks, and in spite of saying I was only going to post fresh pieces, I still have a few last thoughts on India. In fact a part of India travelled with me to Australia in the form of an intestinal parasite. Nobody gets to have 4-months of blissful bowel action without some darn bug breaking through the defences. So here it is, a resurrected draft, a ‘to be continued’ post on the ongoing state of Ashby and his relationship to India.
“I’ll huff and I’ll puff . . . “
Well, I wanted to write something that was hot off the press and of the moment and the opportunity has finally arrived! Continue reading
Lazy Bones
Time’s up! A final hour left before the taxi grinds through the early evening Calcutta traffic to drop us at the airport. There’s still a lot to say about this country and with so little sand left in the hourglass now is not the best time.
Wobbling towards Understanding
I have spent nearly a year of my life in India and have not made huge advances with the main language, Hindi. This lack is in large part due to so many Indians having a good working knowledge of English. Thus I have become lazy when I travel here and fall back on my native tongue.
Meditation – on a Mountain
If you find yourself stuck for inspiration or down in the dharma doldrums then I believe I have the place for you. It’ll take a few days of fairly hard walking to get there and will involve some level of discomfort but, trust me, it will be more than worth it.
Horn Please!
If there is one noise in India that will ultimately test the patience of even the most battle hardened traveller it is the blast of a horn – or horns as it is rare that you hear just one.
Ashby's World 