Reasons for Reasons
I was ‘raised’ – to use a phrase from our American friends – in south Lakeland and it has always remained home. Even though I left to study when I was 18 and didn’t return untill September 2010. A lot of years.
During those interim years I have had a great life, travelled and met some wonderful people and also have a managed to bring up my son fairly successfully. So, it although it was sort of ‘on the plan’, my move back North was not without trepidation.
As part of my ‘self affirmation’ that I had made the right decision I started a Facebook album ‘Reasons To Move North’. This has had wonderful comments from my friends but I never had the courage to make it public. Then recently I went on a Travel Writing Course with Zoe ,and much to my delight and surprise received more affirmation from positive comments on my travel writing. Something else which has always remained strictly within closed leaves.
A mindful review of my first year here followed and I realised that I had had an amazing twelve months. Yes, I have travelled away, but I have also done more here in the North West than I would have previously thought possible. And I have had so many visitors! People like it here! I have become a guide for friends and acquaintances who then spread the word about how wonderful the Lake District is. This led to my providing itineraries for weekends or longer visits. Some I accompanied, others I simply provided a ‘bespoke’ itinerary, with or with accommodation booked.
So, now it’s time to go Global!
And now I have built my own blog I have used my technical, from a previous life in IT, to build one for the Howgill Harriers. If you would like one put together then please contact me for a quote.
Letter to the Internet
The internet is driving me insane. The need to check my bank account. I can’t get on to see if my money is still there. This may appear irrational when I am the only person in with all the codes and pins and passwords, but a few days ago I found my account down by £175. Withdrawn by Amazon for a purchase I did not make. Fraud. There was no doubt I had not purchased a watch from Japan to be sent to my niece at an address she last frequented when a student, several years ago in a city 200 miles away from where she now lives. ...
read moreEvening Entertainment
Just when I though life was becoming a bit mundane. No problems, no dramas, just work in another city, I went to the hairdresser. Thankfully my short, rather wayward hair does not require much attention and having had it cropped to within an inch of my scalp before I left the UK it has survived swimming and motorbike helmets. But it has grown and was needing a little attention in the colour department. The humitiy makes it curl even more than usual and I did feel I was begining to look like a rather scruffy poodle. But where to go? Blond...
read moreIndependence Palace
Ho Chi Minh is a vast city but there are not many tourist attractions, still after nearly two months I have a few to tick . With nearly a full day free from work I donned tourist shorts and t-shirt and headed for the Independence Palace. A vast 1960s structure still preserved as it was the day the tanks rolled into its grounds in April 1975. Not quite as opulent as the Mezhyhirya Palace in Ukraine , there is still a gaping chasm between it and the average citizen of Vietnam. There has been a palace here since the...
read moreA Few Months Later – in HCMC
Yorkshire and the rocks of the Coldstone Cut are 10206.6k from Ho Chi Minh. I had no expectations of how my life would before I crossed the miles. It was all just too far away to contemplate. Even now I occasionally find myself wondering if it is really all happening. Realisation it is reality just makes me smile as I am generally on my scooter. The things I see carried on motorbikes still amazes me. Photocopiers, ladders, trees not to mention tiny children strapped into seats and babies strapped on to their mothers. I thought the ultimate...
read moreBananas in my Backyard
I have bananas in my backyard. Thinking of how life is different from my Cumbrian norm, bananas growing outside my window is most definitely. This week I have opened a bank account, been carried, sidesaddle, on the back of a motorbike and driven my own scooter through a magnificent storm. I need a bank account to be paid, fairly mundane but on the list of experiences it rated highly. There is a love in Vietnam of paper. Bits of paper to prove this, to show that. Each photocopied in triplicated, scanned and stored and checked. Anything,...
read moreBehind the Blog – Tales of a TEFL Teacher
My ‘reader’ recently emailed me, but what is it really like there? Behind the pictures and tourist trips, what is happening to you? In the two months since I left the UK there has been interest, fun, perils and pitfalls. Life has settled in to ‘living here’ and as there are no literal hills to climb, I figure I’ll just have to write about the metaphorical ones. I’m no longer a tourist. I’m working, teaching English. Language schools appear on nearly every street corner. It would appear everyone wants to learn. If they don’t learn in school,...
read moreMekong Markets
After five weeks of the confines of city concrete I become a tourist again. Early Saturday morning I bumbled, bleary eyed, round the backpacker district, with my backpack, trying to find my bus out of the city. Even at 7.30am the comfort of an air conditioned coach caused me to melt in to the seat as I watched the change from traffic chaos to open sky and paddy fields as we travelled south to the Mekong Delta. By the time it reaches Vietnam the Mekong forks laconically, spilling silt laden water, enriching soils for five rice crops a year....
read moreRent and Ride
Last time I pressed the key to post I muttered something about ‘new experiences’. Having moved out to the sort of ‘leafy suburbs’ I need someway of getting back into town to work. Taxis may be cheaper than the UK but they can rapidly eat into a pay cheque. The solution, take the plunge, enter the melee, and hire a scooter. Two weeks ago motorbikes randomly appeared from nowhere, round corners, up pavements and, almost, into street cafes. But after riding a few motorbike taxis it didn’t seam as bad belonging to the stream as playing the...
read moređi bộ – Walk Saigon
A year stretched endlessly before I left the UK, now, suddenly 6 weeks have passed so quickly I feel it will be no time at all before I’m packing my bags to go home. So I more determined than ever to try to squeeze as many experiences as I can between the mundane facts for earning some money. Though even that is an experience. Teachers here are far higher in the social scale than back home so it really is a joy to teach, everyone wants to learn English. Since arriving in Vietnam I have not been out of Ho Chi Minh city. But then it...
read morePigs and Palaces
At first I was doubtful if any Vietnamese lived in District 2, but with a little leg work I found a few. Nuyen Van Huong, traces the inside of a loop in the river. It is wide and airy and has ideas of grandure with trees planted along the sides. Construction of the road and planting of the trees obviously took place some time ago. The trees not informed of their required growth and size have now corrugated the pavement with escaping roots. Building construction is catching up. At the moment District 2 is dubbed as being ‘green and...
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