God shuffled my Ipod today

pome I wrote

God shuffled my iPod today
As I tooquickly walked away
from the joy and noise of girls and boys
who filled their cups, their heads,
so full of merry song
as I stood by with empty hand
and empty heart
never in
so never apart.

Every silent step seemed slowed
as if I towed in mind
what I left behind

Ghostly cars floated past
a redwhite mass of different paths
Annihilating what little the night of shadow could cast.

And I am walking
Somewhere
in there
A small tall man.

My little world I curled around
The unhappy music     sound surrounds
My lightless lonely walking
with bespoke words;
a measure of kindness
crafted to fill the soundless, toobright darkness
through which my tall and nameless no one
slips and snakes like smoke
a breath of light
without light
soboldly going nowhere.

South America – 4

Much has happened since last i posted, which probably explains why i have not posted much! Most worthy of note is what i did today; i write from Iguazu, near the border with Brazil. We have just been to Iguazu waterfalls and i am at a loss for words to describe it. Simply breathtaking, a sight to end all sights and that has to be seen to be understood. you have to go there! Tomorrow morning we’re going to see it from the bottom (today was a walk-way at the top) from where we are sure to get soaked but will doubtless get a real appreciation for the might of it.  it´s jusr so ohmygodohmygodohmygod good! 

Then at 1pm we’re on a 14 hour bus to Sau Paolo, and near the end of our trip!

Some good photos have been taken, which makes my happy! I{ll get em up ASAP when i get back, though i do also have the pressure of moving to London!

South America – 3

Aaaaah it´s COLD in Chile, so i can hardly type! Will write more in Argentina where it will hopefully be warmer!

South America – 2

I am back from the rainforest! it was AMAZING!!!!!! we saw SO many animals including – the highlights – 5 of Peru´s 200 giant otters, as well as capibara, howler monkeys, a web-cast spider (one of the rarest spiders in the world!) and a JAGUAR! It was just so fantastic to see such a different environment, and it is one of the most unspoilt areas of rainforest in the world. i just feel so lucky.

Bella got eaten alive by the mozzie bastards and she´s also extra bitter because i only got bitten about a dozen times! The journey there and back was a bit hellish – a 9 hour night minivan ride on some really BAD roads, and then the flight back was cancelled so that meant satirday was spent in 6 hours worth of boat and 15 hours in a minivan again! BUt we are here safe and sound and were still able to bo to Machu Picchu yesterday, which is undoubtedly one of the most incredible things i have ever seen in my life. It is beyond description – a whole small city in the mountains!

Hmmm other news…well i´ll save further details of the rainforest for when i get back so that you can see pictures as well I also have had a beautiful leather bag made here in Cusco, there is this lovely woman at the back of one of the markets who made it to measure for me (so that i can fit my camera in it) for just over a tenner! It´s amazing bcasue it´s the kind of thing that would cost about 7 times more back home!

sorry about my spelling by the way – i´m using the worst keyboard in the world!

more to come after Lake Titicaca!!

South America – 1

Hello again!

I write from a little internet cafe in Cuzco, Peru!  Things have fianlly settled down and everything is going very well! Rio De Janeiro was great  -  on our first night we went up the sugar loaf, which is a huge rock sticking up out of the bay from where there is a great view of the city. We went at sunset too so the city lights were amazing! We also went out one evening in  an area called Lapa, where we had some lovely food and then went to a salsa club, which was great fun- the briazilians are such good dancers!

We found that we can go to the rainforest easily from near here in Peru so we´ve come here a little earlier than planned, since this way we save money on having to travel to the north of brazil and then again on to here.

Peru is an amazing country! The city we are in – Cuzco, is a beautiful little place with cobbled streets and beautiful old colonial buildings, and the people are all so friendly! It is a poor place so lots of it is a bit run-down, but it is still very clean, which is in cointrast to similar areas of Rio. It is pleasing to see that the Peruvians have such a positive and considerate culture.

We haven´t done a huge amount so far in Peru because of the altitude – we´re 2,400 metres above sea level and so have had to take time to acclimatise. On arrival especially one can easliy sense that the air is thinner and that things are that little more draining.

The weather here is interesting – it hardly rains because we are so high up, and while it is very hot when the sun is out during the day temperaures drop sharply at night (our bed has 4 blankets on it!!). but the air is also very clean; it reminds me of the lake district and makes me smile.

We´re going to go to Maccu PIchu in a couple of days and tomorrow we´re going to have a look at some of the ruins that are closer at hand - macchu pichu is a failry long train journey away (though  it is also said to be one of the most breathtaking train journeys in the world!).

the hostel is lovely as well; we´ve got our own en-suite and it faces on to a little courtyard, and all for just 3.50 a night!

After Cuzco it´s off to Lake Titticaca – the highest lake in the world, and from there we´re travelling down Chile to Santiago and then across to Buenos Aires. From there we might stop off in Monteviedo, Uruguay, then we´re going to the Brazil / Argentina border to igassu FAlls, and then it´s back to Rio to fly home!

more noews post Macchu Picchu!  :-)

Writing!

I wrote something for the first time in AGES today, and although I will not post it here it did make me open up my book and find the following extract, which I wrote in a cafe in New York!

-

He stopped one morning and watched a man carrying a crate full of green apples out of his shop, convinced that he was about to drop them all. He smiled as he found that he was right; the shopkeeper stumbled over the front step of the shop and the crate came to the ground with a confident and slightly splintered thud. The apples of course tumbled out quite happily and quickly became a green carpet en-route to the edge of the pavement. They bobbled along with an inexpert freedom and naive blindness – like a group of newly hatched turtles scrabbling toward the sea. Their tottering yet constant progress was endearing, and he felt a pang of bitterness on behalf of the the whole group as the skwawking shopkeeper angrily tried to pick them off before they could swim to freedom. Of course their majority did succeed in their quest and thus avoided the inevitability of being eaten; instead consigning themselves to live out the rest of their lives happily decomposing with the other green waste. instead of waiting in a bowl among the rest of the condemned fruit for their moment to be eaten alive.

Inspired by the blind bravery of the apples’ escape, and the joyous nature with which they did so, he walked on with a spring in his step, invisible to all but him, and as such delighted to be sharing such a happy secret with himself.

Chillax

Right. If you know me well enough to have my phone number and you have some spare time and a kind heart, then call me up and tell me to relax. (Or ‘chillax’, but whatever). I’m having a bit of trouble staying calm and stuff at the mo, so gimme a call! (Plus it would also be nice to chat!)

Some Interesting Stuff

..has been deleted by the stupid internet the last two times i’ve tried to post And I couldn’t be arsed to re-enter it because it was late and I was tired. So, third time lucky I hope.

I’ve decided to try selling my unused stuff online to make some money; so far I think i’ve got about £100 worth of things i can think of.

The photo week is only going okay – more on that here.

And I’m going to go around some of Europe for a month! I’m going to buy a ticket for France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco, and then I think I’m just going to go and see what happens! So if anyone has any recommendations for places to go and things to do then please let me know! I should get some fantastic pictures along the way

Oh and on a completely unrelated note, this article is interesting.

A Big Week

…is coming up. I have declined to take the opportunity to work that’s been afforded me by having no work experience to do to instead pursue other things. I am going to have a good crack at making some money out of my photographs, and I’m going to try  to plan my travelling.

There is a clear financial risk here since the photo thing might fall flat on its face, and then i’ve wasted a good week of earning a mighty £5 per hour. BUT if I do manage to sell some pictures then I reckon I might actually end up quite well off! So it’s risky but there is the potential to make some serious dough!

In fact the photos and the travelling are linked, since I want to use the former to fund the latter. I think that that might give me a better chance of selling some pictures, since I think people will respond far better to the idea of having a display at their business if they know that I’m doing it so that I can go and teach English in a remote village in Costa Rica, for example. Other ideas include getting some postcards printed and asking local shops to sell them, and getting a canvas or two put up in the dentist’s office where I know the owners. I was also thinking of going to the florist’s where Mum and Graham got their flowers for their wedding and asking them to display one of the pictures I took of the flowers, since it’s a great picture and will help their business, and maybe I’ll sell a few too!

Plus I’ve got a load of law stuff to do too! And I have to phone Orange and shout at them for sending me my bill late and therefore costing me money on my phone deal.

So a big week to come! News will follow….

3 Things

I’ve decided to become much more proactive in my persuit of happiness, and to that end I have decided to do three things every day:

1. Something to make me laugh.
2. Something to make me feel good about myself.
3. Exercise.

So far it’s going really well! Ricky Gervais’ podcast is very good for no.1. The exercise is having a satisfying result upon my appearance, and no.2. works well by definition!

ps. Today I saw Rab. C. Nesbit in Bristol carrying 6 bottles of wine!