http://snapandscribble.com a blog by Will Kemp Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:57:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc en hourly 1 a blog by Will Kemp Will Kemp no Will Kemp Will@SnapAndScribble.com http://snapandscribble.com/20081128-sri-lanka http://snapandscribble.com/20081128-sri-lanka#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:15:33 +0000 will http://snapandscribble.com/?p=534 http://snapandscribble.com/20081128-sri-lanka/feed The flight from Singapore to Colombo took about three and a half hours. It was cloudy pretty much all the way and when we came down to land in Colombo, there didnt seem to be any bottom to the clouds. As the plane approached the runway i was watching the view from the forward facing camera - on the screen on the back of the seat in front of me. The first i saw of it was a small triangle of lights shining through the fog in the distance. As we got closer, the runway came into sight through the haze, but it soon started to look like we werent on quite the right course to land properly in the centre of it. It was weird and a bit disturbing watching the runway coming towards us but feeling sure that we couldnt land on it properly. The thought came into my mind that always comes into it at times like that - oh well, if im going to die, im going to die, theres no point worrying about it Anyway, we probably werent much more than ten metres above the surface of the runway when the pilot changed his mind and we soared up into the sky again. It was partly a relief and partly a bit more worrying! We flew round in a long circle, back out over the ocean and back to approach the runway again. This time the plane was on the right course when we came in towards the runway and the wheels soon thumped down on the tar and wed landed. No doubt everyone on the plane breathed a sigh of relief at that point. Id asked the hotel to send a car to pick me up from the airport and the driver was waiting near the exit, holding a sheet of cardboard with my name written on it. The drive to the hotel took about an hour - partly because its about thirty kilometers and partly because the traffic was pretty bad. There are several towns between the airport and Colombo and the road seems to go through the middle of them all. It was dark and raining so i couldnt see all that much along the way. The Colombo City Hotel, where i was staying, is in a security zone, as its near various government buildings and is right next to the twin towers of Sri Lankas world trade centre. We had to go through a roadblock at the end of the street. It was a bit like being back in Kabul again! The hotel was ok. The room was clean and a decent size and it had double doors out onto a concrete balcony. The only view from the balcony, though, was of the gigantic circular towers of the world trade centre, along with a smaller high-rise building on either side. I got there at about half past seven, which was half past eleven Darwin time, and i was exhausted. I was a bit hungry but i couldnt be bothered with a proper meal and in the end i got a plate of chips brought to my room. I ate that, checked my email, and went to bed. Id asked the guy on reception if the water from the taps was ok to drink and hed said yes. But im not sure he really listened to what i was saying. Anyway, i took his word for it and drank a few glasses of tap water while i was there. The next morning, though, i noticed it said in the hotel information that the tap water wasnt recommended for drinking. Oh well, it was too late by that point! I woke up at five or six the next morning and went out onto the balcony. It was still dark and it was very cloudy. The rain had stopped, but everything was still pretty damp. I had a shower and then went out for a walk. The receptionist told me how to get to the ocean, which i knew wasnt far away, and i had to walk most of the way around the world trade centre to get there. There were soldiers all over the place, but not very much else at that time of day. There was a bit of traffic around, but where i walked the roads were blocked there were no vehicles. It was only about five minutes walk from the hotel to the beach, where there was a long esplanade running from the fort area, where the hotel is, to the main part of the [...] The flight from Singapore to Colombo took about three and a half hours. It was cloudy pretty much all the way and when we came down to land in Colombo, there didnt seem to be any bottom to the clouds. As the plane approached the runway i was [...] Will Kemp 00:06:23 airport, american, beach, bedding, b breakfast, british, building, built, call, calle, camera, car, cardboard, centre, check, chilli, chilly, chips, circle, city, cloud, cloudy, colombo, concrete, control, course, curry, darwin, deliberate, departure, downs, drink, drinking, drive, driver, driving, eat, email, end, fish, fishing, f fs, fog, food, government, happiness, head, heathrow, hold, hotel, interest, interesting, kabul, land, landed, light, lighting, listen, morning, name, notice, ocean, passport, plane, plate, problem, queue, rain, raining, read, reading, remote, restaurant, road, room, rough, runway, saving, savings, saw, screen, security, singapore, sky, soldier, sorting, start, street, three, tower, town, trip, walk, walking, water, wedding, weird, wheel, words, world, year no http://snapandscribble.com/20081124-singapore http://snapandscribble.com/20081124-singapore#comments Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:57:28 +0000 will http://snapandscribble.com/?p=519 http://snapandscribble.com/20081124-singapore/feed The flight from Darwin to Singapore was relatively painless. Its only three and a half hours anyway, and the departure time of around six thirty in the evening was about as good as you can get. It meant i had plenty of time to do what i needed to do before i left and to get to the airport in plenty of time at a reasonably leisurely pace. Id booked a room at the airport hotel for the night as i figured i wasnt going to have enough time in Singapore to make it worthwhile traipsing into the city and trying to find a hotel - and then having to get back to the airport fairly early the next morning. So staying in the airport seemed like a good idea. But when i checked in and found out the room had no windows, i wasnt so sure! Theres an open-air swimming pool at Singapore airport - its run by the hotel and is free for guests. So the first thing i did after checking in was to go and have a swim. It was a great idea after getting off a plane - to be able to stretch out, get a bit of exercise, and fill your lungs with fresh air. Well, fresh-ish air anyway - it was an airport, after all! After the swim i went to the Indian restaurant in the food court and had a masala dosa. It wasnt as good as the one id had there the previous time i was in Singapore, about five weeks earlier. Then i checked my email, courtesy of the airports free wireless internet, and went to bed. I didnt sleep as well as i would have liked - mainly because of the lack of fresh air in the room - and i got up before six the next morning. The swimming pool didnt open till seven, so i walked the whole length of the terminal one transit and shopping area and went up to the cactus garden to get some fresh air. The cactus garden is on the roof of terminal one and contains an impressive array of cactuses and similar plants from around the world. Its a good spot to escape the air conditioning and breath some real air - although you have to keep out of the way of the smokers, who are a bit of a plague in most open-air situations these days. I had a sandwich for breakfast and then went back to my room to pack my stuff up before having a swim. As the pool didnt open till seven and my flight was due to leave at quarter past nine, id be pushing it a bit by going for a swim - as i had to go out through customs and then check back in again for the next flight. I checked the flight indicators on the way back and i was puzzled and a little disturbed that i couldnt see any sign of my flight on them. I wasnt sure which terminal it was leaving from, so i checked all terminals and there was nothing. I went back to my room and checked the airport web sites flights info too - and there was no sign of it there, either. I got a bit worried at this point and, as the pool hadnt opened by about five past seven, i decided i really should go out to the departure hall and try and check in. There was no travellers at all at passport control, as there obviously hadnt been any flights yet that day. There was nobody in any of the booths, either, but a couple of immigration officers were hanging around and one of them took my passport and stamped it for me. I grabbed my checked-in bag, which was waiting for me at the baggage control office, along with a few other lost and found bags, and walked out through customs without anyone paying me any attention. Then i had to find out where to check in for the flight to Sri Lanka. But that was easier said than done. In the end, i found the airport information desk and asked the woman there where Sri Lankan Airlines check-in was. She was puzzled and said there wasnt a flight at that time - and when i checked the paperwork i had with me i found id made a mistake somewhere along the line. Id compiled a list of all of the eleven flights i was taking on this trip and printed that out so [...] The flight from Darwin to Singapore was relatively painless. Its only three and a half hours anyway, and the departure time of around six thirty in the evening was about as good as you can get. It meant i had plenty of time to do what i [...] Will Kemp 00:06:53 flight, darwin, singapore, departure, airport, hotel, room, swimming, pool, guest, exercise, masala-dosa, wireless, internet, email, cactus, garden, customs, terminal, web-site, departure, check-in, sri-lanka, city, colombo, mrt, train, kuala-lumpur, city-hall, station, ticketing, system, machine, deposit, card, harbour-front, water, raffles-square, reclaimed, land, ocean, sydney, brisbane, gold-coast no http://snapandscribble.com/20081123-darwin-again http://snapandscribble.com/20081123-darwin-again#comments Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:28:14 +0000 will http://snapandscribble.com/?p=512 http://snapandscribble.com/20081123-darwin-again/feed Jo had very kindly offered to drive me to the airport in Brisbane, so i didnt have to cart my bags to and from the train for a change. And the flight to Darwin went smoothly, arriving pretty much on time. I caught the airport shuttle bus to the Paravista motel, which is just down the road from Rohan and Lizas, where i was staying, and i was back at their place by about half past one on Saturday morning. After not quite enough sleep, i had breakfast at Parap markets as usual on a Saturday. I had baramundi curry and rice for a change, rather than the vegie laksa which i often have there. The market was quieter than it had been when i was there last. The wet season was due to start, which meant the tourist season was over and a significant proportion of the non-tourist population had headed south too. That afternoon, i visited Sharna, a friend id met at yoga sessions in Kabul. Shed had enough of Afghanistan and was living in Darwin now, just round the corner from where i was staying. It was funny seeing her again, so far from where wed met - both geographically and culturally. Rohan and Liza had a large tree in their garden that they wanted removed. Theyd had a quote from a tree lopper, but it was too expensive. Lizas dad, Alex, who was visiting them for a while, had started cutting bits off it, but he wasnt going to get anywhere near taking the whole tree down. It was higher than a two story house, quite wide, and had a complicated array of crossing branches, but i decided id have a go at it myself. So i went to my storage shed and got my climbing gear. I started off really not having much of a clue what i was doing. I was very out of practice as i hadnt done this stuff for nearly two and a half years, apart from one day last year, when id done the assessment for the final module in my arboriculture course. The first day i had a go at it i only managed to cut off a couple of branches. I was using a hand saw, rather than my chainsaw, as i didnt feel comfortable working up the tree with a chainsaw without someone on the ground with a bit of tree work experience. A hand saws also less stressful, quieter, and lighter to carry. By the second day, Tuesday, i was getting back into the swing of climbing a bit more and i was starting to get a grip on what i was doing. I cut a few more branches off, more quickly than the previous day. And i used my chainsaw on the ground, to cut up the bigger limbs. But on Wednesday, my old friend Adam (aka Dingo) came round for a visit. Hed done a bit of tree work himself and i put him to use as my ground crew while i climbed the tree and seriously started to remove it - using the chainsaw this time. There was one very high limb that had looked really tricky and i wasnt sure if i could do it, but talking about it with Dingo helped me work out how to tackle it. In the end, after two or three hours, i had the whole thing down, apart from about three metres of a couple of main trunks, which i decided to leave for someone who had a bigger saw than mine. My saws a small climbers saw and these trunks were a bit too thick for it. It would be easy enough to fell them from the ground with a larger saw though. The yard was pile up with branches and leaves and i started cutting up the bigger ones. But i didnt finish the job because i hit a steel star picket that was hidden under one of the branches and that was that until i sharpened the chain. I couldnt be bothered doing it that day, as i would have had to go to the storage shed and try and find the file. Anyway, most of the job was done and it would be easy enough for someone to finish it in half an hour or so. That was my last full day in Darwin. The following day, Thursday, i was leaving Australia again. Liza gave me a ride to the airport, but we went via my storage shed as i had to put my bicycle [...] Jo had very kindly offered to drive me to the airport in Brisbane, so i didnt have to cart my bags to and from the train for a change. And the flight to Darwin went smoothly, arriving pretty much on time. I caught the airport shuttle bus to [...] Will Kemp 00:04:09 brisbane, airport, train, darwin, flight, paravista, motel, parap, market, saturday, baramundi, curry, laksa, tourist, season, yoga, kabul, afghanistan, tree-lopper, climbing, gear, arboriculture, course, chainsaw, branches, ground, crew, climber, saw, star-picket, steel, australia, storage, shed, england, bicycle no http://snapandscribble.com/20081112-brisbane-lismore-and-maleny http://snapandscribble.com/20081112-brisbane-lismore-and-maleny#comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:10:15 +0000 will http://snapandscribble.com/?p=501 http://snapandscribble.com/20081112-brisbane-lismore-and-maleny/feed I got to Brisbane nearly two weeks ago now, and i dont seem to have had enough spare time to write since then. Last Thursday, two weeks of being in three different cities started to do my head in and i ended up hiring a car and driving up to Maleny, which is a couple of hours drive north of Brisbane, out the back of the Sunshine Coast, to visit Chelsea. When i went to pick up the car, they told me it was a year to the day since the last time i hired one from them! It was good to get out of the city and into the hills - and see some green instead of just grey concrete everywhere. I stayed there that night and then drove to Caloundra for a swim in the ocean before going back to Brisbane. When i got into the city again, i really didnt want to be there, so i decided to just keep on going and drive down to Lismore that afternoon, instead of the following morning as id planned. I wasnt going to have long down there, so the extra time would be good and hopefully it would mean my visit wouldnt be quite so frantic! An old friend, Shaun, had just bought a house and he was doing some moving over the weekend. He was going to have to rush around the whole time i was there, so i offered to give him a hand. I ended up staying in his new house, which was completely empty. I spent a few hours on Saturday pulling up carpets and underlay and pulling out staples and those horrible wood strips with spikes sticking out of them - which was entertaining. I think the temperature got up to about 34 that day, and sweat was pouring off me as i worked. That evening was the opening of an art exhibition by graduating students at Southern Cross university. I went along with Heather and ran into a few other friends there. It was really bucketing down with rain that evening, which was pleasant - i love heavy tropical and sub-tropical rain storms. The art in the exhibition was a bit of a mixed batch, but there was lots of it and some pieces i really liked. It had been a long time since id been to an art exhibition and i enjoyed walking around and looking at everything. On Sunday morning, id arranged to meet a couple of friends at the Channon Market to save myself the extra driving of visiting them at home in Nimbin. The market was the same as ever - and i think i like the idea of it more than actually being there. There are so many people and it makes my head spin after a while! I caught up with several other friends while i was there though, which was good. On Monday, i met up with Emily, who works as a web designer, and we talked about ways we can work together in future. With a bit of luck shell be able to put a bit of work my way, which will be nice as im going to need it. And then it was time to head back to Brisbane. I wanted to go for a swim on the way, but i didnt leave Lismore till about three oclock and it was a bit rainy and not very warm, so i ended up just having a walk on the beach at Suffolk Park and then continuing on my way. Id arranged to meet three friends at a Vietnamese restaurant in West End that evening and i had about an hour to spare by the time i got back to Brisbane. It was just about enough time to relax and check my email - and then i had to rush out again. The restaurant was packed and we had to wait for a table - which was surprising on a Monday evening! On Tuesday, i went to Caboolture and visit my aunt Terry and Mary, Frances, and Jo - three of my cousins - who live around there. We were meeting at Jos place and she picked me up from the train station. It was good to see them again, as it had been quite a while. I saw Jo in 05, when my niece Anna was over here, but i hadnt seen Terry and the other two since 99, when mum had visited last. Theyd all been to England last year, only a few weeks after id left to come back to Australia, so id missed them there. I got back to Brisbane at about half past six, [...] I got to Brisbane nearly two weeks ago now, and i dont seem to have had enough spare time to write since then. Last Thursday, two weeks of being in three different cities started to do my head in and i ended up hiring a car and driving up to [...] Will Kemp 00:04:26 brisbane, maleny, drive, city, hills, concrete, caloundra, swim, ocean, lismore, house, moving, carpet, underlay, spikes, temperature, art, exhibition, graduating, students, southern-cross, university, rain, tropical, storm, channon, market, nimbin, web-designer, suffolk-park, beach, vietnamese, restaurant, west-end, caboolture, aunt, cousin, australia, england, falafel, king-ahiram, vulture-street, woolloongabba, cbd, korean, elizabeth, arcade, birkdale, moreton-bay, indian, balti, darwin, flying no http://snapandscribble.com/20081102-melbourne-and-sydney http://snapandscribble.com/20081102-melbourne-and-sydney#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:51:19 +0000 will http://snapandscribble.com/?p=492 http://snapandscribble.com/20081102-melbourne-and-sydney/feed Melbourne was ok, but there was nothing really notable about my stay there. The weather was better than i expected it to be. Although it was a bit chilly at times, i never really regretted my decision not to travel with long trousers or a jacket. I caught up with a few old friends while i was there, some of whom i hadnt seen for quite a long time. And i managed to spend a few hours in the state library doing a bit of research into the theatre that my grandfathers grandfather allegedly built in Melbourne in the 1870s. I didnt have time to find out anything really useful though. On the Sunday, i got a call from Jetstar saying my flight from Sydney to Brisbane, the following Friday, had been cancelled. I had the choice of going the next day or flying to either the Sunsine Coast or the Gold Coast instead. I decided to fly to the Gold Coast, as it would mean i could have a swim and i could also catch up with Jowanna on my way to Brisbane. On Monday, my flight to Sydney was due to leave at about 1pm, so i left where i was staying in Coburg at about ten oclock and caught the train to Southern Cross station. It started raining as i left the house, so i was treated to some typical Melbourne weather to help me on my way! I was amazed at how crappy the international terminal at Melbourne airport was. It was like a fancy version of a small town bus station. They obviously dont have many international flights arriving or departing from there. Unlike Singapore, Darwin and Adelaide, of course, you had to pay to use the wireless internet at Melbourne airport. I dont understand why, if small airports like Darwin and Adelaide can have free internet, bigger airports like Melbourne and Sydney cant. Greed, i guess. But i did need to use the internet while i was there, because the flight was delayed by an hour and a half and internet access meant i could do some work while i was waiting. I could certainly get used to this web design work, as i can do it anywhere in the world where i can get internet access. With a bit of luck ill be able to get enough of that sort of work, eventually, to allow me to travel around the world as i do it! The plane i was catching was flying on to Honolulu after Sydney - which was why i had to catch it from the international terminal. It had previously arrived from Bangkok, apparently, with a mechanical fault - and the flight was delayed for an hour and a half while they fixed it. I eventually arrived in Sydney at about four oclock and caught the train to Central station and then the bus to Rozelle, where i was going to stay. I met Irene, who was one of the people i was staying with, on the bus, on her way home from work. On Tuesday, i met up with Juls at Bondi and we walked along the cliffs from there to Bronte. The annual Sculpture By The Sea exhibition was on, with sculptures scattered along the cliffs the whole way. There were some really good ones and some that left me a bit bemused, and overall it was really great environment for a sculpture exhibition. Heres a photo of some sculptures on the beach at Tamarama. When we got to Bronte beach, we went for a swim in the seawater pool in the rocks at the south end of the beach. The water was a bit on the chilly side, but it was pleasant enough and we both enjoyed a reasonably long swim. I stayed in Sydney till Friday and met up with several other friends during the three days i was there. Three days wasnt really long enough, as there were a few other friends i would have liked to have seen - but theyre all scattered around outside of Sydney, making it impossible in such a short time. I like Sydney, but a visit there thats too short is always preferable to one thats too long! The flight to Coolangatta left at ten oclock on Friday morning, which meant i had to leave where i was staying at about seven to make sure i had plenty of time to [...] Melbourne was ok, but there was nothing really notable about my stay there. The weather was better than i expected it to be. Although it was a bit chilly at times, i never really regretted my decision not to travel with long trousers or a jacket. I [...] Will Kemp 00:05:00 melbourne, weather, travel, trousers, jacket, state-library, research, theatre, grandfather, built, jetstar, sydney, brisbane, cancelled, sunshine-coast, gold-coast, swim, coburg, southern-cross, railway, station, raining, international, terminal, airport, bus-station, flight, arriving, departing, singapore, darwin, adelaide, free, internet, web-design, work, access, plane, honolulu, bangkok, mechanical, fault, central-station, bondi, bronte, tamarama, sculpture, by-the-sea, seawater, pool, rocks, beach, coolangatta, highway, bilinga, flying, palm-beach, towel, clothes, sand, wind, camera, laptop, passport, shelter, dune no http://snapandscribble.com/20081012-three-months-in-basque-country-part-4 http://snapandscribble.com/20081012-three-months-in-basque-country-part-4#comments Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:00:55 +0000 will http://snapandscribble.com/?p=460 http://snapandscribble.com/20081012-three-months-in-basque-country-part-4/feed This is the last part of the four part story of my life in Basque Country, in 1984. Part one is here Im afraid its been so long since i wrote part three that if you were following it, youve probably lost track. Anyway, after i got back to Vitoria from the crazed hitchiking trip to Portugal i felt that time was rapidly running out there for me. Id almost come to the end of my savings and there was no prospect of getting a job. Winter was coming, too - and as Vitoria is high in the mountains, winters there are very cold. It was time to reluctantly pack up my few belongings and head back to London. As far as i remember, i stayed in Vitoria for about three weeks after i got back from Faro. I dont remember much about it, except that the festive feeling of summer was receding and there were less people out at night, in the streets and in the bars. I was sad to be leaving, but it felt like id done my time there - for now, at least. I decided to give the ferry a miss on the way back and catch the bus, which went all the way from Vitoria bus station to London. The bus started its journey in Bilbao and when i got on, there were already some passengers on board. I sat in the seat in front of the back seat - which was already taken by a couple of typical Basque punk women. The punks had a cassette player which was playing punk music and they asked me if it was too loud. I turned round, smiled, and said no, turn it up. Well, i didnt, i mangled the Spanish a bit and said put it stronger - but they knew what i meant and smiled back. Their names were Mamen and Dione, and i got to know them quite well on that trip - and im still friends with them today, even though i dont see them nearly enough now. I remember the bus stopped for a short break at Bordeaux and we all got out. I cant remember exactly what happened, but Mamen shouted hijo puta (sort of equivalent to bastard) at some minor incident. The she noticed a couple of nuns nearby and turned and apologised to them. It stuck in my mind because it was quite a funny scene - a tough looking punk chick apologising to a nun for a bit of mild swearing. A British punk would never have done that - but, then, the Basques are considerably more civilised than the British in every possible way. I dont remember anything about the bus ride through France, or about getting on to the ferry at Boulogne. But when we were on board the ferry and out of the bus, Mamen and Dione went off to change into their smart clothes to go through British immigration control. In those days, before Spain was in the EU (or the EEC as it was back then) they didnt need a visa, but they had to get an entry permit on arrival and immigration at the Channel ports was notoriously unfriendly. When they came back in their smart clothes, they barely looked any different to how theyd looked before, and it was obvious they were going to have a hard time at immigration. They almost certainly wouldnt be allowed into Britain. I tried telling them this, but they didnt believe me. Then someone else from the bus said it too - and it finally sunk in. As well as their appearance, they hardly had any money - and they didnt have a hope in hell. There was, however, one possible solution. We could tell the immigration officer that they were coming to stay with me, as my guests, and that i would support them and make sure they left the country when their entry permits expired. It was a long shot, but it was their only chance. We decided that theyd try on their own first, and id keep an eye on them to see how they were going. If they had trouble, id go and help them. Of course they did have trouble and they clearly werent going to be allowed in, so i went over and spoke to the immigration officer. She was speaking Spanish to the [...] This is the last part of the four part story of my life in Basque Country, in 1984. Part one is here Im afraid its been so long since i wrote part three that if you were following it, youve probably lost track. Anyway, [...] Will Kemp 00:07:45 basque, country, vitoria, hitchiking, crazed, portugal, savings, job, winter, mountains, cold, london, faro, festive, summer, street, bar, ferry, bus, bilbao, passenger, punk, women, cassette, player, spanish, bordeaux, hijo-puta, nun, swearing, british, france, boulogne, immigration, control, spain, eu, eec, entry, permit, arrival, channel, port, money, officer, stamp, passport, enforcement, department, squatted, flat, estate, hackney, downs, dalston, australia, mexico, chiapas, zapatista, ezln, mexican, government, moon, squat, calle, prim, mobile, phone, internet, international, number, call, letter, flight, stansted, mainland, puro-chile, band, myspace http://snapandscribble.com/20081005-a-burqa-and-a-hard-place-by-sally-cooper http://snapandscribble.com/20081005-a-burqa-and-a-hard-place-by-sally-cooper#comments Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:51:45 +0000 will http://snapandscribble.com/?p=446 http://snapandscribble.com/20081005-a-burqa-and-a-hard-place-by-sally-cooper/feed The end of Sally Coopers book, A Burqa And A Hard Place, made me sad. Not so much because it was about the sad goodbyes when she left Afghanistan, but more because id been enjoying reading it and now it was finished. I had the pleasure of meeting Sally at Sanjars birthday party a month or so ago (see my earlier post on that). She knew Sanjar from her days working in community radio in Kabul. I didnt meet her when i was there, though, as she left Afghanistan a few months before i arrived. Sally was the manager of IRIN - a United Nations community radio organisation that id never heard of until i read her book. The fact that i could work in community in the same city for eight months and never even know they existed says a lot about the total disconnection between the various foreign development organisations operating in Afghanistan. Id even met Sallys successor on several occasions, and he knew what my job was, but nobody ever bothered telling me what he did! Anyway, Sallys book tells the story of the three years she spent working in radio in Kabul. Reading it brought back lots of memories of places, people, and events from my time there. The main difference was that Sally was working in a very small unit inside the bubble of the UN. I think i would have found it difficult to have to live within the claustrophobic embrace of that extraordinarily dodgy organisation. Sally managed to find ways around the rules they tried to subject her to, but it still seems to have been a very restrictive way of life. Sallys a typical Australian (yes, another member of the Australian community radio mafia that operates in Afghanistan!) and she doesnt take kindly to being pushed around by authority. For her own sanity, as much as anything, she ignored a lot of the rules the UN imposed on her - even going as far as wearing a burqa so she wouldnt be busted! Its a shame i wasnt there when she was, as im sure we could have had fun breaking rules together. The one jarring note in Sallys book is her insistence on constantly referring to Afghanistan as The Ghan. Thats not a term that id ever heard used to refer to that country. The Ghan, as far as im concerned, is the train from Adelaide to Alice Springs, named after the Afghan camel drivers. They operated the only transport on that route for more than half a century between the 1860s and completion of the railway line in the 1920s. For the first third of the book, every time i read the phrase The Ghan  it threw me - and it was repeated constantly. After a while, though, i got used to it and it didnt bother me any more. And Sallys book is entertaining and flows well enough that her constant use of it was only a minor irritation. She only really hints at the complete and utter uselessness of what she calls Development Inc - in other words, the massive global development industry, which the UN is a key player in. Thats probably wise if she wants to get another job in the field - as you have to at least pretend to believe in it. But her book does give a small glimpse into the massive waste of money and energy that the multitude of international NGOs represents. Im sure this book will be eagerly read by people who have had the dubious pleasure of working in Afghanistan themselves. But its a book that will be enjoyed by anyone, whether theyve been there or not. Its an excellent book and it deserves to do well. A Burqa And A Hard Place is only published in Australia at the moment. I bought my copy from Abe Books, but it seems to have disappeared from their catalogue for some reason. If youre not in Australia and youd like to buy a copy, you can probably find a bookshop to buy it from in the Pan Macmillans online [...] The end of Sally Coopers book, A Burqa And A Hard Place, made me sad. Not so much because it was about the sad goodbyes when she left Afghanistan, but more because id been enjoying reading it and now it was finished. I had the [...] Will Kemp 00:03:52 sally-cooper, a-burqa-and-a-hard-place, afghanistan, reading, sanjar, birthday, community, radio, kabul, irin, un, united-nations, organisation, city, book, working, bubble, claustrophobic, dodgy, australian, mafia, burqa, the-ghan, train, adelaide, alice-springs, afghan, camel, driver, transport, railway, development, industry, ngo, international, abe-books, pan-macmillan, bookshop no http://snapandscribble.com/20080928-anniversary http://snapandscribble.com/20080928-anniversary#comments Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:24:50 +0000 will http://snapandscribble.com/?p=427 http://snapandscribble.com/20080928-anniversary/feed My father died at the wheel of the Thames sailing barge Thalatta twenty one years ago last Sunday. By a strange coincidence, on that day i had a hog roast job at the boatyard at St Osyth, where the Thalattas being rebuilt. Naturally, i took the opportunity to go aboard and see how the work was going. I went there and had a look in early February and work had pretty much come to a halt because of lack of funding. There was still no funding, so nothing much had happened since i saw it last. But this time i went down into the hold, which i hadnt done before, and got a closer look at what was down there. They call the process rebuilding the old barge, but its really nothing of the sort. Whats happening is theyre building a new barge - and including a few timbers from the old one. Its good that theyre building new barges, but its a bit misleading to claim that theyre the same barge as the one theyre replacing. Apart from anything else, a lot of the character of these old barges comes from the smells and the wear and tear that comes from many decades of sailing around the Thames and the nearby rivers laden with big cargoes of all sorts of stuff. I havent been aboard one of the new ones yet, but i cant imagine it would feel much like the original. So it was good to see that theres a few more timbers left of the old Thalatta than id thought there was. Most of the bottom ribs are original - for what thats worth. Once the works finished, of course, you wont be able to see them, as theyll lie underneath the ceiling (the name for the floor in a ships cargo hold). The people rebuilding the Thalatta are getting a grant from the lottery fund, but they have to match it with money they raise themselves - and they havent been very successful doing that recently. Id guess the job is a bit less than half done, so it could be a long time before the old barge gets back on the water again. For more information (mainly out of date!), check out the Thalattas web site. Anyway,  it was a beautiful day last Sunday - sunny and wamer than its been for a while. High tide was about four in the afternoon and if i hadnt have been working i would have been at Heybridge Basin swimming. It would probably have been the last swimming day of the year - until i get to Australia in a few weeks, that is! Ive just about booked all my flights for that trip now - ten out of eleven of them, anyway! Im flying with Sri Lankan airlines to Singapore and then from Singapore to Darwin. Ill spend a few days in Darwin, a few days in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, and then a couple of weeks around the Byron Bay and Brisbane area. From there its back to Darwin again for a few more days, then three days in Singapore - or, more likely, Malaysia - a night in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and then back to England to freeze my arse off in late November! Im looking forward to the trip to Australia - and to catching up with some old friends that i havent seen for ages. But i think, after all that travelling, when i get back ill need a holiday to recover! My father died at the wheel of the Thames sailing barge Thalatta twenty one years ago last Sunday. By a strange coincidence, on that day i had a hog roast job at the boatyard at St Osyth, where the Thalattas being rebuilt. [...] Will Kemp 00:03:19 died, wheel, thames, sailing, barge, thalatta, hog-roast, boatyard, st-osyth, rebuilt, hold, timber, cargo, ribs, lottery, fund, sunny, heybridge-basin, australia, flight, trip, sri-lanka, singapore, darwin, adelaide, melbourne, sydney, byron-bay, brisbane, colombo, malaysia, england, travelling http://snapandscribble.com/20080914-booking-flights-again http://snapandscribble.com/20080914-booking-flights-again#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:03:14 +0000 will http://snapandscribble.com/?p=408 http://snapandscribble.com/20080914-booking-flights-again/feed Listen to podcast of this post: Download podcast I worked a fourteen hour day yesterday - doing hog roasts at two separate events. The first one was a gathering of the Essex Hogs Chapter of the Harley Davidson bikers club and i managed to get the van bogged just outside the farm where it was happening! The boss had told me the job was in a village called Matching Tye, about thirty five miles from the depot.  But when i went to pick up the van and the pig yesterday morning it turned out it wasnt in Matching Tye at all. After a bit of confusion we worked out it was in a village called Much Hadham, a different place altogether - and about ten miles further away. The boss had printed out directions from Google - which, of course, are no use when youre driving, as you cant keep stopping to read the next step of the directions. And the last few stages of the route were missing off the bottom anyway! I did eventually manage to find my way to Much Hadham though, after going a bit out of the way. But i had no idea where the farm was where i was supposed to be doing the hog roast. So i phoned the organiser and got directions, but i missed the driveway into the farm and ended up a bit further up a narrow lane, with no real idea how far back i had to go. I started off reversing, but realised i couldnt reverse that big van all the way back to where i had to go - particularly as i didnt really know where i had to go. But there was no room in the lane to turn round. Against my better judgement - but knowing i was running late and the pig had to cook for at least another hour before i served it up and that there was no other possibility for turning the van round - i decided to turn in a field entrance. I considered going in head first, as that would leave the driving wheels on the road and reduce the chances of getting bogged, but that would have been a tricky maneuvre and i stupidly decided to go in backwards. But there was a slight slope and, of course, i couldnt get out again! So i phoned the event organiser and told him i needed help. Luckily i was very close to where i was going and half a dozen or so leather-clad bikers came to the rescue. It didnt take much of a push to get me out of there and i was soon going up the right driveway and getting to work. It was a pleasant enough job. The bikers were friendly and there was a leather-clad singer performing old rock and roll songs, with a pre-recorded backing track, to an audience who were seated on a semi-circle of hay bales. Driving the van out, i had to pass scarily close to a long line of shiny Harleys which were parked leaving just enough space for a big old pig van. Naturally, i got lost again on the way back, and had a pleasantly meandering, but pointless, half hour drive around some very narrow country lanes! I got back to the depot just in time to load up a pig and some salads for the second job of the day. This one was in Upminster, which turned out to be not much more than an easy half hours drive away - which was a relief after the earlier drive. Kim, another casual hog roast worker, was working with me. She was going to do the salads etc while i took care of the pig. That one was a fairly unremarkable event, really. It was a fortieth birthday party, with a marquee in the back yard of a suburban house. It was pleasant enough and not too drawn out. We got away from there at 11pm and i was back at home not long after midnight. Im feeling a little bit shell-shocked today, but nothing unusual for a Sunday after a hog-roasting Saturday. I worked Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week, too. On Wednesday, i did a couple of hours gardening for an old woman who my sister met while she was working. She was looking for a gardener and Lucy suggested me. It was nice to work in a garden again for the first time since i left Maningrida, nearly a year ago now. But the afternoons work involved [...] Listen to podcast of this post: Download podcast I worked a fourteen hour day yesterday - doing hog roasts at two separate events. The first one was a gathering of the Essex Hogs Chapter of the Harley Davidson bikers club and [...] Will Kemp 00:05:40 work, hog-roast, event, essex-hog-chapter, harley-davidson, biker, club, van, bogged, field, matching-tye, much-hadham, google, directions, confusion, farm, driveway, lane, organiser, judgement, pig, cook, upminster, salad, gardening, maningrida, blackberries, stinging-nettles, finger, procrastinating, australia, flight, singapore, darwin, adelaide, melbourne, sydney, byron-bay, brisbane, microphone, headset, podcast, feedback, listen http://snapandscribble.com/20080907-deranged http://snapandscribble.com/20080907-deranged#comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:41:30 +0000 will http://snapandscribble.com/?p=396 http://snapandscribble.com/20080907-deranged/feed Listen to podcast of this post: Download podcast The last week has been completely deranged. After a couple of weeks of nothing happening - not even any work - everything seemed to happen pretty much at once! I worked the Saturday afternoon and evening. It was a job in South Woodford, which is on the outskirts of north east London, near Epping forest. They were pleasant people and the job went very smoothly. Then on Sunday i went to London for Sanjars birthday. Sanjars a friend and workmate from Afghanistan whos been living and studying in the UK for a while. We were supposed to meet up at Richmond park and the plan was to go on a boat trip on the Thames, but it was raining and the venue changed to Sanjars sisters place in Westminster. I had a very pleasant afternoon in London that day. Getting there and back by train went smoothly and getting around was easy as it was a Sunday and central London wasnt too crowded. Somehow i managed to get there an hour and a half early though. Id checked train times online when the venue was Richmond and it didnt register that those times were earlier than necessary anyway. We were supposed to turn up at about 2pm, but i got to London at about 12.30, so i decided to get off the train at Stratford and catch the Docklands Light Rail (which i hadnt been on before) to the river somewhere and then get a boat up the Thames to Westminster. Id been thinking about going to Greenwich, but i changed my mind and got off at Canary Wharf instead. My brother works at Canary Wharf, but id never been there and didnt really have any idea what was there. It turned out to be a hideous jumble of high rise architectural disasters, thrown together on a bit of the old London docks. The buildings were obviously designed by some moron who thought Gotham City in the Batman comics looked cool! But at least you could get to the riverside and look out onto the open water. Heres a picture of the other side of the river. As you can see, it was a very grey day - sort of classic London, really! Anyway, i caught the ferry from there to Waterloo, which is just across the river from Westminster. The ferry reminded me of the Brisbane River City Cats. It was a similar design, but possibly slightly bigger. I hadnt been on a boat on the Thames since i was the mate on a small freighter back in the mid 70s, so it was nice to get out on the water and check it out - even on a grey and rainy day like last Sunday (its the same today, too!). It always strikes me, mostly when im in Brisbane, the similarity between the stretch of the Thames that runs through central London and the stretch of the Brisbane River that runs through the city. Im sure thats why they decided to build Brisbane at that point on the river. The architecture along the river in Brisbane isnt particularly exciting, but its a million times better than the hideous buildings that have sprung up like a disease along the Thames over the last couple of decades. London really must have some of the most appalling architecture in the world! Which is hardly surprising, really, as they dont seem to be able to manage to do anything properly in this ridiculous country. It was good to see Sanjar and Sonia again, and i met some really cool people and had some interesting and entertaining conversations. It was the most pleasant trip to London id had for a very long time! I went to London on Monday, too! After months of successfully managing to avoid the place - i think id been there twice in 9 months - i was going to be in London three days in a row that week! On Monday, id arranged to meet Terry, and old friend from Australia. Ive known her for twenty years now, but i hadnt seen her or had any contact with her for at least the last ten. Terry runs a cafe in central London and [...] Listen to podcast of this post: Download podcast The last week has been completely deranged. After a couple of weeks of nothing happening - not even any work - everything seemed to happen pretty much at once! I worked the Saturday afternoon and [...] Will Kemp 00:06:15 work, job, south-woodford, london, epping-forest, afghanistan, study, uk, richmond, boat, trip, thames, raining, westminster, train, stratford, docklands-light-rail, canary-wharf, thames, greenwich, architectural, disaster, gotham-city, batman, riverside, water, ferry, waterloo, brisbane, city-cat, freighter, disease, architecture, country, australia, cafe, circle-line, signal-failure, underground, sardine, liverpool-street, station, evidence, parking, ticket, knee, operation, hammersmith, web-site, chopping, vegetable, hog-roast, birthday, party, basque-country, story, podcast