On my way from Berlin to Paris I stayed overnight in Bonn, kindly hosted by a friend’s son and his partner. I flew from Berlin to Cologne, had a look around and then went down to Bonn for the evening before jumping on the train to Paris. Continue reading Köln (Cologne) & Bonn, November 2015
Category: Travel
Berlin, November 2015
The first leg of my trip to Europe is five days in Berlin, staying with a couple of friends and their awesome two-year-old in the suburb of Wilmersdorf, due south from the western edge of the Tiergarten. Continue reading Berlin, November 2015
Amore Resort, Teshima (Japan 2014 Day 10.2)
The place we’re staying in is the most dilapidated resort I’ve ever seen. Amore Resort on the art island of Teshima, Japan is spectacular.
Continue reading Amore Resort, Teshima (Japan 2014 Day 10.2)
Not our Queen: an encounter
At the Marrickville post office buying a stamp to send a letter to Berlin. It’s $2.75. The woman puts the stamp down. It’s got the Queen’s face on it. ‘Can I have a different one?’ I say.
The woman smiles and says, ‘of course.’ As she tears off the alternate $2.55 and 2x10c to replace it, her friend at the next counter laughs.
She says, ‘it’s not just you. No one wants it. A man the other day paid for a whole new stamp when he realised he’d already stuck the Queen on.’
The Art Island of Teshima (Japan 2014 Day 10.1)
This morning I meet up again with my sister, Aleisha, and a friend of hers, Karen. After a big breakfast in our Okayama hotel, we head south via two trains to Uno, a port town on Japan’s Inland Sea, and get on the ferry to Teshima. Continue reading The Art Island of Teshima (Japan 2014 Day 10.1)
Miyajima (Japan 2014 Day 9)
Today I travel from Hiroshima to the island of Miyajima on a daytrip. The island is a popular tourist destination for the Japanese. Continue reading Miyajima (Japan 2014 Day 9)
Happy New Year and all that [Jan 2015]
Hello!
Looks like the second half of 2014 really got away from me; The last time I sent out this monthly email was in mid-September.
Back then I wrote about ‘chasing rabbits’ – about getting distracted from the things we want to be focussing on by all those things that pop up… yes, I realise there’s a heavy degree of irony to be found there… Continue reading Happy New Year and all that [Jan 2015]
Hiroshima (Japan 2014 Day 8)
One day after the anniversary of the first successful nuclear bomb test, 16 July 1945, I visit Hiroshima – the city that 26 days later was the site for the first successful test on a civilian population. Continue reading Hiroshima (Japan 2014 Day 8)
Full day in Koya-san (Japan 2014 Day 7)
16 July 2014 – Today I spend the full day in Koya-san, Japan. It becomes the midpoint of my trip, where they inner change I’ve come here to execute crystalises. Continue reading Full day in Koya-san (Japan 2014 Day 7)
The day I shaved my beard off (Japan 2014 Day 6.2)
25 July 2014 — Overnight I have a dream with my mother in it. Ever since I read a book of Jung’s writings about dreams – over a decade ago in the Scottish highlands – I’ve taken my parents appearing in my dreams as representatives of my relationship with the two countervailing forces that unite us all: yin/yang, force/yield, pull/pull, masculine/feminine, anima/animus, action/inaction – there are seemingly endless interpretations of these binary polarities. My relationship with my dream mother felt strange, and wrong, so I take it as sign from my unconscious that my balance is off-kilter. Continue reading The day I shaved my beard off (Japan 2014 Day 6.2)