Sri Lanka

The flight from Singapore to Colombo took about three and a half hours. It was cloudy pretty much all the way and when we came down to land in Colombo, there didn’t seem to be any bottom to the clouds.

As the plane approached the runway i was watching the view from the forward facing camera – on the screen on the back of the seat in front of me. The first i saw of it was a small triangle of lights shining through the fog in the distance. As we got closer, the runway came into sight through the haze, but it soon started to look like we weren’t on quite the right course to land properly in the centre of it… Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

Singapore

The flight from Darwin to Singapore was relatively painless. It’s only three and a half hours anyway, and the departure time of around six thirty in the evening was about as good as you can get. It meant i had plenty of time to do what i needed to do before i left and to get to the airport in plenty of time at a reasonably leisurely pace.

I’d booked a room at the airport hotel for the night as i figured i wasn’t going to have enough time in Singapore to make it worthwhile traipsing into the city and trying to find a hotel – and then having to get back to the airport fairly early the next morning. So staying in the airport seemed like a good idea. But when i checked in and found out the room had no windows, i wasn’t so sure! … Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

Darwin Again

Jo had very kindly offered to drive me to the airport in Brisbane, so i didn’t have to cart my bags to and from the train for a change. And the flight to Darwin went smoothly, arriving pretty much on time. I caught the airport shuttle bus to the Paravista motel, which is just down the road from Rohan and Liza’s, where i was staying, and i was back at their place by about half past one on Saturday morning.

After not quite enough sleep, i had breakfast at Parap markets as usual on a Saturday. I had baramundi curry and rice for a change, rather than the vegie laksa which i often have there. The market was quieter than it had been when i was there last. The wet season was due to start, which meant the tourist season was over and a significant proportion of the non-tourist population had headed south too… Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

Brisbane, Lismore, and Maleny

I got to Brisbane nearly two weeks ago now, and i don’t seem to have had enough spare time to write since then.

Last Thursday, two weeks of being in three different cities started to do my head in and i ended up hiring a car and driving up to Maleny, which is a couple of hours drive north of Brisbane, out the back of the Sunshine Coast, to visit Chelsea. When i went to pick up the car, they told me it was a year to the day since the last time i hired one from them! It was good to get out of the city and into the hills – and see some green instead of just grey concrete everywhere. I stayed there that night and then drove to Caloundra for a swim in the ocean before going back to Brisbane. … Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

Melbourne and Sydney

Melbourne was ok, but there was nothing really notable about my stay there. The weather was better than i expected it to be. Although it was a bit chilly at times, i never really regretted my decision not to travel with long trousers or a jacket.

I caught up with a few old friends while i was there, some of whom i hadn’t seen for quite a long time. And i managed to spend a few hours in the state library doing a bit of research into the theatre that my grandfather’s grandfather allegedly built in Melbourne in the 1870s. I didn’t have time to find out anything really useful though… Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

Adelaide

The flight from Darwin to Adelaide last Monday left at ten to seven in the morning, which meant i had to get up at half past four. Fortunately i’d managed to catch up on a bit of sleep while i was in Darwin, so getting up at that time wasn’t too painful. The Darwin airport shuttle bus will drop you off anywhere on its route if you get on at the airport, but it only picks up at hotels, motels, backpackers, etc. Luckily, there’s a motel just a few doors away from the house where i was staying… Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

Flying To Darwin

Flying To Darwin

That was the tenth time i’ve done the trip from Europe to Australia (i’ve done it nine times in the other direction as well) and as far as i remember it was the first time i’ve been on a flight that’s been delayed. Although it wasn’t too bad really, this was the worst one of the nineteen journeys. Previous worsts were probably the first one, when we had to run for the plane, and the first one back the other way, when i had to run for the plane again! … Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

Three Months in Basque Country – part 4

I’m afraid it’s been so long since i wrote part three that if you were following it, you’ve probably lost track.

Anyway, after i got back to Vitoria from the crazed hitchiking trip to Portugal i felt that time was rapidly running out there for me. I’d almost come to the end of my savings and there was no prospect of getting a job. Winter was coming, too – and as Vitoria is high in the mountains, winters there are very cold. It was time to reluctantly pack up my few belongings and head back to London… Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

A Burqa And A Hard Place – by Sally Cooper

The end of Sally Cooper’s book, A Burqa And A Hard Place, made me sad. Not so much because it was about the sad goodbyes when she left Afghanistan, but more because i’d been enjoying reading it and now it was finished.

I had the pleasure of meeting Sally at Sanjar’s birthday party a month or so ago (see my earlier post on that). She knew Sanjar from her days working in community radio in Kabul. I didn’t meet her when i was there, though, as she left Afghanistan a few months before i arrived… Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

Anniversary

My father died at the wheel of the Thames sailing barge “Thalatta” twenty one years ago last Sunday. By a strange coincidence, on that day i had a hog roast job at the boatyard at St Osyth, where the Thalatta’s being rebuilt. Naturally, i took the opportunity to go aboard and see how the work was going.

I went there and had a look in early February and work had pretty much come to a halt because of lack of funding. There was still no funding, so nothing much had happened since i saw it last. But this time i went down into the hold, which i hadn’t done before, and got a closer look at what was down there… Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »