Open air showers
Sometimes it’s just the shear randomness of life here that entertains me. Like the water trucks that drive by twice a day, washing the roads and watering the plants. In ice-cream van tones, ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ is your cue to jump out of the way pretty fast, unless you fancy taking your second shower of the day in public.
Read MoreWilde Beauty
I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky, And at every drifting cloud that went With sails of silver by. You have to be in the right mood to read a long poem. I was in that mood at the bus stop this morning, when I pulled my precious Oscar Wilde anthology from my bag and let the page fall open on The Ballad of Reading Gaol (‘Gaol’ pronounced ‘jail’). He wrote it after his release...
Read MoreWeekend Wanderings
And so to another weekend’s frivolities, and what a busy weekend it has been! A few of us signed up for the annual staff development trip, so off we trotted on Friday afternoon down one of the most appauling roads I’ve ever had the displeasure to be thrown around on in my life. Ouch and a sick bag. We spent the best part of Friday evening frolicking around in the massive outdoor pool at a very grand five-star hotel set up in the hills above Guangzhou,...
Read MoreI am standing upon the seashore
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” “Gone where?” Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and...
Read MoreWaffley weekends
No, not the edible kind of weekend, although wouldn’t that be a prospect? No, I mean waffley as in slightly long-winded and irrelevant. You know, those kind of weekends. I stayed by myself for most of it, in my empty flat. I laid pens on the floor to outline where my bookcase is going to be once I pluck up the courage to go to Ikea and ask for a home delivery. It’ll turn up in Timbuktu, knowing my luck. Yes, I have decided that I need things in my flat, lots of...
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