Morgalogue

I’ve fallen a bit behind lately. It’s now June and Nepal was in April !! The computers in Myanmar were just too slow and expensive to bother with posting but now that I’m back in Thailand briefly (going to visit Marten in Krabi tomorrow) I’ll hopefully catch up - I’m determined to see this through to the end. I don’t yet know when the end will be. Possibly a little earlier than August. The next stop is China but try as I might, I can’t seem to shift an overwhelming desire to visit the small, rainy country of Scotland. I think I’m getting a bit travelled out - missing things like work, cooking, even having a room to tidy … not to mention guitars, you lot and The Pub. Anyway … if you could see the beautiful island I’m moaning from, you’d have less sympathy. On to the point : (more…)

Hi all. Thanks once again for the nice comments about the rambling Morgalouge. Posts will be a bit erratic for a while however as publication has gone ‘underground’. Lidka and I have begun our trip around Burma - so far an extremely beautiful and friendly country but as you know, under the grip of a pretty nasty regime. I just tried to check my hotmail and got a message from the junta telling me ‘access denied’. We’ll be mainly in rural areas from now on anyway, so parents, if you don’t hear from me, please don’t worry. A friend who I met travelling mailed me from China to say that Wordpress (the engine that powers my blog) is blacklisted, so things may become trickier still. Morgalouge shall prevail though ! - I may need the help of a virtual publisher, provided I can smuggle out my words.

Anyway, the next entry, once I’ve cobbled it together, will be observations from 3 lazy weeks spent with my cousin in Thailand. Riveting stuff.

Well, I hope May is filling all of you with summer optimism. Lidka and I are having a great time (Lidka: despite the mosquitos!), tell you all about it someday soon.

Aye … it’s happened to me too. The age of no more excuses. I’m staying with my cousin in Phitsanoulok in Thailand. He’s hurrying me out the door, so a short post - I have loads of stuff half written, which will no doubt appear over the following weeks. I’ve been trekking in Nepal and even managed to tick that classic ‘before you’re 30′ box : summiting Everest … OK, in a plane. 

The Sonkran Festival is about to kick off here - 3 days of nationwide drunken waterfighting - My cousins mobile is +66 86936 8633 if you’re feeling flush.

OK, hope you’re all well. Thanks for my present mum !!

I’ve installed a spam filter on the blog so hopefully that will stop all the dribbling viagra salesmen from calling at my door. I had forgotten that anyone who signed up for a reply on the comments you left would be getting all that stuff in their inbox. Apologies for that. Cheers Rick for putting me on to the filter, much apprecieted.

This was meant to be my christmas report, then an account of a workshop I ran in one of the villages, then a goodbye Sri Lanka post, It’s been a hectic few weeks. I’m now writing from Kerela, South India where we are having a well earned rest at Kovlam, a touristy but really pretty nice beach resort. My camera has been stolen (along with my diary by baggage handlers) so I’ll spare you the photos. Our last weekend in Sri Lanka was spent with our affectionate surrogate family. We joined them and the chronically unfit Sri Lankan masses on a pilgrimage to the top of Adams Peak (2200m) to watch the sunrise. (more…)

Hope you all have a great Christmas and if you’re too pissed to say hello before … a good New Year. I’ll not deny that I’m jealous. That precious moment you step into a busy, warm boozer, remove a soggy jacket and over the raucous noise are presented with an xmas pint from a beaming mate is what makes all the xmas stress worthwhile. Thankfully I’ve avoided all concept of xmas and haven’t taken my jacket out the rucksack … a poor trade-off none the less.

Looks like Lidka and I are going to go on a trip up north to see the Dambulla caves and an enormous brick that fell from space into the jungle called Sigriya rock. We’re going to my workmate’s ‘Alms giving’ ceremony tonight - It’s kind of a funeral wake for all your ancestors - dinner for 200 followed by a talk from a Buddhist monk and then chanting from 11pm till 7am. Like a sober night in Glastonbury … sure it’ll be funny for the first hour ! Expect a full report soon.

Take care all,

Morg x.

One of the most enjoyable points of my working day is opening my laptop in the morning and reading through some of the hundreds of raving, obscure junkmails sent to the Energy Forum account, from perverse Spamtrepreneurs from all over the world.

I’ve been pretty lucky over the years – with a fatal sounding e-mail address like nagromksi, it’s normally my mails that get quarantined rather than the other way round. So, maybe you’ve seen all these before but I haven’t so thought I’d give you my Spam Hall of Fame thus far. (more…)

When you’re leaving a comment, there is now a little check box asking you if you would like to recieve an e-mail when your comment is replied to. You can also easily unsubscribe yourself if the conversation degerates into total pish, and your secret identity is hidden from all but me, the all-powerful administrator.

I need some feedback as to whether it works (or whether anyone is in the least bit interested), so give it a go.

Well, it’s official. The Poles are invading Sri Lanka too. A one-woman wave of imigration is headed this way on the 13th of December - my lucky day. By complete co-incidence Lidka has found herself a swanky job at the UN in Colombo doing geogphical data mapping. Conveniently enough, that’s where I live, so we will be living together for a month before spending Feb travelling South India. My surrogate family are going to let her stay because I’m ‘like a son’ to them (haven’t I done well !?). Otherwise, it’s a highly unorthodox move - my workmates have been seeing their fiances for 4 years and haven’t yet spent the night with them. Can’t be worse than a ’Wrath o’ God’, B&B up north. Can it ?

I have never been so well behaved in my life.

If you’ve heard about todays bomb blast in Colombo, don’t worry, I’m fine. It happened about 15 minutes ago yet I’m sure by now every Sri Lankan knows about it. The target seems to have been the Defence Minister . My workmates are all crowded round the TV drinking tea, eating biscuits and tutting …. A lone cameraman is wondering around the site being continually waved off by harrassed looking soldiers. It’s a weird, unedited, live feed. A car is still on fire and the soldiers rush off to move adjecent vehicles before they explode. The shaky camera sneaks off to explore, finding the remains of the suicide bombers moped and a gruesome, twisted body flung on to the roof of a car. It’s unbloodied but for the lack of a head. You can see the cameraman trying out a few compositions before moving on. Nobody seems particulary rattled by this sort of image … it seems that everyone in this country has seen a severed head or worse. I’ve seen two now. Yech …