When I left for my class this morning there was much hustle bustle around the nearby big street with bars and restaurants. There were metal barriers and rows of policemen in uniform, listening attentively to a briefing. There were horses corralled off in one side street. A little further and I saw what was going […]
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Another crack
Another crack appears in our world as we currently know it. The build up was frightful: troops sent to the region, then tourists and pilgrims made to leave, then political leaders put under house arrest, then rumours spreading, then a blackout and curfew and then a constitutional travesty. I don’t see how this will not […]
New normal
I have been watching, appalled, the most recent Brexit antics by all that miserable gaggle of deplorables in Westminster. What seems to me absolutely shameful, and it is something that the way the media is structured to react to the current-shiniest object, is how it has moved the spectrum of possibility from Leave vs Remain […]
No walking
Today we were supposed to go for a walk, from La Catedral, formally Pablo Escobar’s prison and fortress, past two waterfalls, and through forests to a lookout point. I was the first to drop out due to a niggling medical thing that turned into a small crisis (by which I mean I will have to […]
Unconscionable
An unconscionably late post. (Soon I will run out of embarrassed titles for late posts and then there will be a reckoning). Not much has happened in the past week. I have been going for my lessons and finding out a little more about Colombian history and life in Laureles from my teacher. It’s a […]
In centro
Today, Saturday, the GF and I walked over from Laureles to Centro for a spot of tourism. (The GF arrived a few days ago, after my last post). It was not a long walk, maybe about 25 minutes, but along the way it became very different indeed from green, wealthy Laureles. First, walking along the […]
Silly mid
I am reading a really entertaining book. It’s called Chinaman, is by Shehan Karunatilaka, and is a sort of cricket novel. I say sort of, because it’s also about Sri Lanka and is full of people and place. It’s also really funny, quite similar to one of my favourite Pakistani novels, A case of exploding […]
Back to school
This morning was my first Spanish class in Medellin. I left early so that I could bumble my way through buying a notebook – aside from feeble Spanish, my ear is not used to the Colombian accent and I have enough trouble shifting from British to American English. Then to find an ATM to withdraw […]
Quiet neighbourhood
We are staying in Laureles, one of the two on the upper end of the scale, but the quieter, nicer one. Although there is a bar here, which was rather loud. I woke up early despite my tiredness and then went out to find myself breakfast and to look around a little, though I didn’t […]
Lost plane
At 7 this morning a colectivo picked me up from the homestay and took me to the airport. It was a colectivo but there were no other passengers, so it was a quick journey. Of course, it was also 7 in the morning on a Saturday. It also turned out to be a very early […]