No matter how carefully I consider my likely needs in advance of any trip, there are always things I get wrong. Things I packed but never used: The little book for sketching. I don’t know what kind of holiday I think I take, but it is almost never the kind where I sit around sketching… Continue reading Things I got wrong on holiday
Category: Travel
MK
If I say “weekend retreat”, what do you picture? Do you think of yoga and mediation, sitting on some kind of mountaintop in gentle contemplation? Or maybe in an open sided rainforest cabin, chanting “omm” repeatedly while ignoring the bites from mosquitoes? Maybe you think of the beach, the seaside, watching the sun rise while… Continue reading MK
Visa questions
Applying for visas is never an easy process. Something about the officialness of the forms always brings about a sense of panic in me. I wonder if I’m not answering the questions right. Why do they want to know this? How do I answer that question? What do they really want to know? We’re currently… Continue reading Visa questions
My Mumbai life (part 1)
Thirty years ago I left home. I left my home town of Brisbane, Australia. I left my job. I left everything that was familiar. I left my country for the first time to go to Mumbai on a graduate exchange program. (I left home so long ago that Mumbai was still called Bombay.) I arrived… Continue reading My Mumbai life (part 1)
Caledonian sleeper (or 36 Hours in Inverness)
I really like the idea of sleeper trains. I think I like the idea more than the reality and I think my idea of sleeper trains comes from watching old films where sleeper carriages were roomy and glamorous and they all had ensuite bathrooms. This is not the reality of sleeper trains today. Last year… Continue reading Caledonian sleeper (or 36 Hours in Inverness)
The Airport
It’s mid morning on a non-school-holiday weekday at the airport. There are still a lot of people, but it’s not a terrifying amount. The queue for Security is a snake of people shuffling left, then right, then left again. In the distance there is thumping and shouting. Is this what it’s like for animals in… Continue reading The Airport
West Highland Way: Day 8
“The forecast isn’t great for today,” said our host, Jo, as we ate breakfast. That was a nice way of telling us it was going to be a long, wet walking day. From our table in the sitting room where we enjoyed a healthy breakfast (fruit! porridge! yoghurt!) we watched a steady trail of hikers… Continue reading West Highland Way: Day 8
Day 7: West Highland Way
Kingshouse to Kinlochleven We woke up in the Kingshouse Bunkhouse and looked out the window at a bright sunny day outside. It’s wrong to assume you have a right to sunny days while hiking in Scotland in April, but after two days of cold, overcast and only occasionally sunny weather, we felt this was a… Continue reading Day 7: West Highland Way
Day 6 West Highland Way
“Really, it’s a short, easy walk. It won’t take you more than a few hours. I’ve walked there and back in a day. Sometimes I don’t even take a water bottle.” The Lady Owner of the Inveroran Hotel had reassured us that today’s walk to Kingshouse was so unchallenging we should take our time in… Continue reading Day 6 West Highland Way
Day 5: West Highland Way
We had a good sleep a Tyndrum Lodges. Our room was cosy and comfortable and we would have loved to stay longer and avoid the trail that awaited us. But instead we ate our pastries, yoghurt, fruit and juice, packed our bags, put on our hiking clothes (now dried out after yesterday’s rain), laced up… Continue reading Day 5: West Highland Way
Tales from Tobhamhor 