A positive new year message In these times of grim uncertainty, facing permatanned presidential lunacy on one side and black flagged killers on the other, amongst all the other gloom ridden headlines, we could do with something positive to start the new year off. I may be able to do little to help us fend off the perils of the turbulent year ahead of us but my travels in recent years have at least given me one source of hope…
Somewhere in rural England a wizened figure in the landed gentry is bemoaning the loss of the good old days of empire. His echoes reverberate to the ears of a tattooed skinhead, wistfully staring into his can of super strength lager in a grubby, urban apartment, festooned with Union Jacks, waiting for an English football team to live up to the days when we conquered the world. No doubt, both would be surprised to learn that some measure of…
The village of Charenghi Pathar has nothing to appeal to the average tourist. So effective was this deterrent that I turned out to be the first one they had ever seen there. Although its lack of appeal was motivation enough for me to want to see it, the same could be said of many places, so it was no random event that brought me there. It was the birth place of my dear friend J who had his first opportunity…
