Mum’s Memorial
March 31st, 2009
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Mum’s memorial, tucked safely away in the crook of her favorite tree. She is forever covered by a canopy of Frangipani leaves and blossoms….we KNOW she is happy with her final resting place.
Fixing the Plaque
March 31st, 2009
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My sister and I fixed the plaque to a massive, aged Frangipani tree that has withstood the test of time. Mother loved this tree and this part of her rambling garden. We felt she would be very happy here.
“She loved this place”
March 31st, 2009My mother died last year and chose to be cremated and asked that her ashes be buried in her garden. My sister and I followed her instructions but there was no plaque to memorialize her. This was the first chance we have had to remedy that, so we had a plaque made with a simple yet meaningful sentiment, “She loved this place.”….indeed she did.
Mombasa Ferry
March 30th, 2009
I have reached Mombasa. It has not changed that much since my last visit except the population has grown even larger. When I was a boy growing up in Kenya I think the population was about two million, now it is forty million. It is startling how many people surround you in Mombasa. Taking the Ferry across to the South Coast is an adventure all on its own…witness the picture!
Dubai Airport
March 29th, 2009Anyone passing through Dubai has to be stunned by the simple grandeur of the airport terminal. The place is a palace..huge hardly describes it. Garish in some ways, I thought the palm trees were “over the top” but magnificent none the less. Clearly expense was no object when they built this place.The airstrips are wide and long as well, waiting for the A 380 I suspect. 550 passengers all arriving at the same time is going to take a large airport come to think of it.
Dubai
March 29th, 2009 In many ways I found Dubai kind of “soulless”. It smacks of the future that’s for sure. The place is totally cosmopolitan, with every sort of nationality doing every sort of job. These seemed to stay within “wealth ranges” folks from Bangladesh drove taxis’, the Thais worked reception and the Swiss cooked meals…it is very modern, clearly very safe, and lacked any sort of character at all. APART from this one sight of the old Dhows that plied their trade down to the shores of East Africa for thousands of years. The Dhows have not changed in all that time, everything around them has, but the boats remain the same. A tiny figment of the past among overwhelming “modernity” and “efficiency”. It gave me a moment of hope that not all has been discarded, but truthfully, this is NOT a place I would choose to live. I have a close friend who lives just down the road in one of the other Emirates, and I will have to ask him how he manages it…
United Arab Emirates
March 27th, 2009One of the amazing aspects of the UAE (United Arab Emirates) apart from the stunning amount of money they used to have, is the way they have built islands offshore in an endless development scheme. Well it was endless until the recent financial crash. Here is a perfect example of a pristine island, on the approach into Dubai, completely devoid of anything, but there with a purpose I am sure.
Emirates Plane
March 25th, 2009 This is going to be my home for the next 13 hours. It is the business section of the long haul A340 EMIRATES plane. Now they are talking about the A 380 which is the double decker and has a HUGE amount of space. I am off to Kenya via Dubai. Should not be too bad I have over 200 movies to choose from and a bed that goes flat!! Probably the two most important elements of a long haul flight…
Signs of Spring
March 23rd, 2009
A true sign of spring…one lone bud, stuck out (and slightly out of focus as well) all by itself, the barrenness of winter still apparent in the background…but hope springs eternal they say and this bud will burst forth at some point…
