They have painted over the swastika on the wall outside the cafe – a single coat of white emulsion shrouds it like a veil. A double mobility scooter hums slowly by followed soon after by a woman in dark...
Category - Travel
Some time ago, I was in a different place, far away from where I am now. I was in the far North East of the High Tibetan plateau in the back of a jeep with two of my best friends, a monk and a driver who sang when his heart...
When passing through a country for a month or two, it is impossible to grasp the nuances of the culture. You don’t even scratch the surface. Your eyes and senses see what they recognise and refract it through a prism of...
I am moving house. Again. It happens all too often. As soon as I start to feel settled in a place, I am either struck with a sudden urge to up-sticks and travel or I find myself forced to move house. There is a familiar routine...
I watched the market from the first floor of an empty restaurant. I watched traders unpack their wares on the roadside, laying brightly coloured objects in the dirt. I watched as the first customers shuffled in. I watched as the...
I’ve tried to write about what happened that day a number of times. I never get far, not far enough to feel like I have adequately described what actually happened. And for this reason I stop, delete what I have written and...
There are only a few of us who have drunk through the tedium that tends to settle in around 4 am on a prolonged drinking session: the boredom that descends when every form of alcohol tastes more and more like water or poison...
A man has his hand thrust down the front of his jeans. He is shouting the word ‘violence’ amongst others whilst ferreting and thumping behind the zip of his jeans. He is not masturbating: there is nothing sexual about...
There was a time during my travels in China when I did not write. I did not put pen to paper, did not type into these smart little machines, didn’t allow dialogue to bounce around in my mind or words that connected to...
So, here I am in Sri Lanka, in Colombo, sat in the bursting corridor of light that is the Katunayake International Airport, a veritable Hadron Collider minus the God particle. I have six more hours until I fly back to London...