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TAKING LEAVE
A journal
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Stormy Weather
I’m heading off into a storm. There is a weather warning in place all along the eastern islands of the Philippines as a typhoon called...
Scratch101
Nov 13, 20193 min read
46 views
Solo not Solo
On Saturday, it was exactly two months since I left London. That fact dawned on me whilst I was sitting on a warm, but very windswept, An...
Scratch101
Nov 11, 20195 min read
56 views
Lost & Found
I think I just cycled through a wedding. Sabine, the owner here at Dragon Boat Rock Homestay on the outskirts of Ninh Binh, has a bunch...
Scratch101
Nov 7, 20193 min read
63 views
Hanoi, my Home from Home
Phew! I’m back in Hanoi. Which, when I first arrived, is a sentence I didn’t ever imagine I’d write. But isn’t there something reassuring...
Scratch101
Nov 4, 20194 min read
73 views
Sweet Thursday
I have a confession to make. By the time I got around to publishing my last post, I had already begun to feel the tide turning on my...
Scratch101
Oct 27, 20195 min read
102 views
Look at me, Mum, I’m on the Mekong
I’ve had two moments like this since leaving London. The first was on Koh Tao when I descended through a school of yellowtail scad on my...
Scratch101
Oct 24, 20193 min read
66 views
It’s A Jungle Out There
I made my first logistical travel error (not counting getting on the wrong carriage on an Indian train which now seems like a lifetime...
Scratch101
Oct 20, 20194 min read
76 views
Because We Really Are Fish
My last day on Koh Tao and here I sit, in Koppee, drinking a mango smoothie and smelling of camphor and coconut. I’ve been pummelled,...
Scratch101
Oct 16, 20194 min read
74 views
Certified
I have just taken grinning fool to a whole new level. I came up from my second dive today and did that thing that world record breaking...
Scratch101
Oct 11, 20193 min read
91 views
Breathing Underwater
I’m nervous. The most nervous I’ve been since leaving London. And I feel I’ve done a few fairly nerve-racking things this last month. At...
Scratch101
Oct 9, 20193 min read
85 views
Kerala Post Script
Eating sweet jalebi and mooching through Mullakkal market before heading to the beach for one last Keralan sunset was the perfect end to...
Scratch101
Oct 5, 20192 min read
59 views
God’s Own Country
Banu picked me up where Raju dropped me off. In a huge old canoe that he manoeuvred as if it were a natural extension of himself. He has...
Scratch101
Oct 4, 20194 min read
71 views
Ashram Escapees
This time it was Shubham, a PhD student from Mumbai that came to the rescue. Two little scallywags caught me doing the perfect impression...
Scratch101
Oct 2, 20195 min read
77 views
Monkeys and Trolls
On Sunday morning, on the way back from a hike to see the sunrise over the Western Ghats, this monkey greeted us. He was just hanging out...
Scratch101
Sep 26, 20193 min read
60 views
Busy relaxing at Sivananda Ashram
Since arriving here on Sunday, I feel like I’ve been running from one place to another in order to lie down. Or at least sit down. All...
Scratch101
Sep 19, 20192 min read
102 views
The Boatman
Yesterday afternoon I took a tuk tuk to meet The Boatman. This was how he introduced himself and unsurprisingly, it is one of the few...
Scratch101
Sep 15, 20192 min read
71 views
For my brothers (but perhaps not my mother)
I had heard that I’d get Bob Marley on a loop in Varkala but I didn’t get it until day two. I got my first Arsenal shirt too. In the same...
Scratch101
Sep 13, 20191 min read
73 views
The Kindness of Strangers
The kindness of strangers got me onto the right train, but the wrong carriage. It wasn’t until I sat down that I saw the painted sign on...
Scratch101
Sep 12, 20192 min read
100 views
Welcome to Kerala
Yesterday afternoon I made my way through an almost empty terminal at Cochin International Airport, Kerala. I was last off the plane...
Scratch101
Sep 11, 20192 min read
66 views
Have you got everything?
Well, no. I'm pretty sure I don't. It’s a peculiar thing to pack a bag with a year in mind and I’m finding it's verging on the...
Scratch101
Sep 8, 20191 min read
157 views
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