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“…can I see the original..?” The whole world is living in interesting times.  For millions that ‘interest’ has led to sickness, misery and death. It has resulted in running out of oxygen, pressure on critical care beds and nurses in tears after a long hard shift helping people merely to breathe. Doctors and nurses inContinue reading “Peace and Security”

One of the many benefits of travel is meeting new people. One of the many drawbacks of travel is meeting new people.  I’m on a day trip to the mountain city of Taif, some 80 kms south of Jeddah and 6,000 feet higher, which as I have already mentioned makes this a far more pleasantContinue reading “I promised you a rose garden”

Having got out of bed at 0430, driven for 2 hours across the desert, and survived the festering concrete block toilet at the edge of the little town of Al Hadr, Catherine and I were ready for breakfast. The toilet had been an apocalyptic experience almost certain to be brought up in future therapy sessionsContinue reading “Breakfast in Arabia”

Sometimes an alarm ‘clock’ is unnecessary. Notwithstanding the fact that many of these clocks have been replaced by a mobile phone, it is the case that with the gathering of dust and years, one’s anatomy and slowing failing physiology does the job of jolting oneself awake, perfectly adequately.  It is with a regularity normally associatedContinue reading “Wake up and smell the roses”

People say the funniest things, we say stupid things, and we say things we are not even aware of. We say this stuff most of the time, and we do so while bypassing our brains.  The English language has a vocabulary containing more words than the grains of sand on a beach, more than thereContinue reading ““You know…””

(Warning: there might be a really rude word in this) Once upon a time there lived a faerie. Rosemary Dingleberry Fattarse lived under a rock near the red capped white spotted toadstool, sheltered by the fallen oak, riddled with the bore holes of wood lice and beetles, in a green fern shaded glade in theContinue reading ““I can hear clearly now…””

What do you do when the temperature reaches 36 on average, so that an ordinary walk to the shops results in rapid dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and heat stroke? Walking at a pace that is above what we would call ‘ambling’ creates the conditions for sweating like a half-naked stoker feeding the coal fired boiler of aContinue reading “The Saudi Stone”