With the recent change in fortunes of our football team, Newcastle United, following the (some would say controversial) sale to rich owners, there is a sense of optimism among the Toon Army. And who are the Toon Army, you ask? They are the fans who follow the Toon (Geordie dialect for ‘town’) through thick and thin, good times and bad.
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'Try to travel, otherwise you may become racist, and you may end up believing that your skin is the only one to be right' The above is the opening verse, in translation, of the song Viaggiate by Gio Evan, poet and songwriter. A friend posted it on Facebook and for me it sums up everything that is wonderful and important about travelling.
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Chowara is a small fishing community in Kerala. While tourism has come to the area, bringing visitors from elsewhere in India and further afield, it remains unspoiled and still focused on that traditional mainstay of its economy, the fish. Our hotel lay right next to the village, so it was easy one morning to forsake the lure of the pool and take a stroll with our cameras.
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Is there room in my blogging life for a new challenge? Possibly not, but when I came across Thursday Trios I was intrigued and decided to see what I could find in my photo archives. Today it is all about people. Finding them in groups of three isn’t always as easy as you might think. Couples are common of course, as are larger groups, but threes less so.
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Whether close to home or travelling further afield, one of my favourite subjects for photography is always the people I see. I recognise that some have concerns about candid street photography, and I understand those. But to me these photos of people living out their daily lives tell you so much about a place. On city streets or elsewhere, it’s the people that bring a place to life.
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It’s fair to say that 2021 wasn’t quite the year I thought it was going to be when it started. Back in last January we were anticipating a possible return to ‘normal’ at some point during this year, with more freedoms and more travelling. That did happen to some extent, but only ‘some’ extent. Never mind, we’re still here and we’ve managed to have a pretty good year, all things considered.
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As I said last week, this is the last in this series of Friendly Friday: meet … challenges, as I’m planning a shake-up for the New Year. So I’m finishing the series by introducing you to some of the most amazing, wonderful, helpful and knowledgeable guides I’ve met on my travels.
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A local guide can make or break the travel experience. A good one will not only smooth the path and tell you about the sights you are seeing, they will also share something of themselves. Spending time together you will get to know each other and learn more about the country than you ever would from reading guidebooks, from the perspective of someone who lives there. They will be able to introduce you to some insider secrets: a little-known site; a café or bar frequented only by locals; a short cut. They will help you navigate local customs so you…
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As we got out of the car we could hear loud music coming from a house just down the road, and equally loud talking on a microphone. It drew us, inevitably, to investigate, and we were very glad that we did so. In the second of my Friendly Friday ‘Meet …’ challenges I would like to take you to a wedding in a small village near Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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How does it feel to step back in time and immerse ourselves in the world our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents knew? There are places where we can do just that, living museums that collate and preserve not just objects but the buildings that housed them and the environments in which those buildings sat. One such place is Beamish, in north east England.
