The apple seller and his fruit-net hat. Ganeshguri market, Guwahati, Assam, India. 2017 https://www.facebook.com/bloggingaway/
Feeling down: the 6th Week Blip
Six weeks in to my volunteering placement in Rwanda I felt down. I had hit what psychologists call the ‘6th…
A weekend in the rural beauty of Rwanda
One Friday after work, I took a bus from Kigali till I reached a sleepy village called Gahini beside a…
Miss Freeman’s woodwork class: the end of my days of mischief
It took a moment of brilliance from a school teacher to turn me around and push me on to the straight and narrow. Her name was Miss Freeman and she taught woodwork .
The Resilience of Hope
I passed the cream-coloured boundary wall the next morning, its smooth surface was now pock-marked with a spray of holes,…
Travel Advice in Pictures: Modern British Queuing
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A Festering Malice: the Grenade Attack
What kind of person would throw a grenade at a cemetery? What must happen in a person’s mind for them…
Photos of our walk in York
Last weekend we visited York a quaint walled city in northern England, full olde worlde charm, cobbled streets filled with…
The Day When Time Slowed Down
Einstein said that the faster you travel, the more time slows down. In fact, if you travel at the speed…
Moonlight on the Waves
When lovers first meet on a chance encounter, there’s usually a chain of random events unfolding up to that moment.…
Leisure pursuits: tennis, jogging and painful stomach-flattening (please do not try this at home)
I settled in to the small bungalow. My social life revolved around a good circle of colleagues and friends , my work…
Paris in the sun
Last month, I made my 7th visit to Paris. Here’s a few of our photos from our weekend in that…
The Spotless City
How could a city in a developing country be so completely litter-free? From the airport taxi, the streets of Kigali,…
Politicians and Popstars
Over the years the Kigali Genocide Memorial has been visited by countless celebrities and dignitaries; Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Natalie…
Where to propose in Paris
I had always said to my then girlfriend Sarah that I would never propose to her in Paris; ‘it’s too…
My friends, the survivors
I settled in to my role as an adviser at the Kigali Genocide Memorial – I got a desk, there was…
The Chatter of the Raindrops
Continuing the series Letters from the Heart of Africa. My first few nights in Rwanda brought me shallow, dreamless sleeps;…
The Revenge of the Typo: How a Print Error Nearly Ended My Career
We all make typos don’t we? Of course we do, because we bloggers are human and proofreaders are luxuries. Nevertheless,…
Kivu: The Shimmering Lake in the Shadow of the Volcano
In the very heart of Africa, between Rwanda and D.R. Congo, is a silvery, majestic lake framed by breezy palms…
Stolen socks and missing underpants
One morning I phoned my friend Thierry. “Someone’s stolen my clothes.” “I can lend you clothes,” he said. Thierry was…
Banana-leaf balls, making friends and a bitter falling out
The twin pillars of passion in Rwanda are Christianity and English Premier League Football. The sides of the small buses,…
We Need To Talk About Why People Kill Each Other
Continuing the series, Letters from the Heart of Africa No narrative on Rwanda can really ever avoid the genocide. Its magnitude…
What is Cambridge blue?
Last weekend we went for a long punt in Cambridge; we glided on the glinting River Cam in a flat-bottomed…
The Little Fish Mystery
This is a true mystery that happened in my kitchen – it involves multiple murders, male-only breeding, a sex-change and…
The importance of memory
Continuing the series, Letters from the Heart of Africa. We all want to go places, forwards, like a car, pressing…
Things to do in Assam: The blue hill and the temple of the goddess of love
Assam, in India’s north-east, is known as the Land of the Red River and the Blue Hill. The Red River…
The fox in the box
One evening a fox was dying in my back garden. Its fur was patchy, its eyes were sad and watery,…
Help! I’m a businessman going to work in an NGO in Africa
One of my life goals was to volunteer in Africa but I was never quite sure if my career path…
Things to do in Formentera: Go down a hole and across a cliff
A hole appears in the ground before us. The huge white lighthouse to our left stares south and to our…
Things to do in Formentera: beach towels and helmets
We’re on Formentera, a small island just 19kms across, to the south of Ibiza, it’s the worst kept secret of…
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