Several friends have commented about how interesting they found the picture of the tree roots devouring the temple at Ta Prohm. So here are a few more pictures of that temple, and the neighbouring Banteay Kdei, both being assailed by jungle. You can see the damage that the tree roots are doing – the walls […]
I wrote in several of my Christmas cards that I had survived another year. One of my friends (hello Lucy!) called me up on that, saying that it looks from this blog as though I’ve more than survived. Well, perhaps she’s right. It’s difficult when one is concentrating on putting one foot in front of […]
I’ve had some requests for the recipe for pomegranate lamb, which I cooked before Christmas. Now that I’m back home, and within reach of my cookbooks, here it is. The recipe is taken from The Book of North African Cooking by Lesley Mackley which seems to be out of print but available secondhand from Amazon […]
One of the reasons for going to Cambodia was to scatter some of Christopher’s ashes at or near Angkor Wat – somewhere that had very firmly been on our list of places to visit. All through the holiday I kept thinking about how much Christopher would have loved it – he would have so enjoyed […]
I managed to see nine temples in the three days I was in Siem Reap – out of the thousand or so temples that are in the Angkor area. And, believe me, nine was enough – even I was getting all templed out by Boxing Day! They are all built on much the same plan, […]
Yesterday was my last day at work this year, as I’m taking two full weeks off on leave over Christmas and the New Year to recharge my batteries. I’ve had an extremely busy week, with several long days traveling to and from customer sites, all topped off by a report which was due yesterday. And […]
On the whole I think I’m doing OK. I’m finding this time of year hard, because it was just before Christmas two years ago that we discovered that Christopher had oesophageal cancer and our lives turned upside down. So Christmas brings with it some tough memories, which I’m in general facing up to. I’m working […]
I missed my team’s Christmas lunch today, as I was at a project meeting at our Hampshire site all day so had to send my apologies. However, yesterday I had my first (and almost certainly last) Christmas lunch of the year, with a group of about 20 colleagues from work. I nearly called this post […]
My recent relationship with Malvern Theatre is a bit like Samuel Johnson’s description of a second marriage: “A triumph of hope over experience”. I don’t think I’ve had a totally satisfactory or wholly enjoyable trip there since before Christopher died. I suspect that’s partly down to me – I’m hardly finding life a bundle of […]
I have a day off again today. Just as well really, it’s been a manic week at work with two long days out visiting customer sites, and I’m shattered. I’m meeting a friend and ex-colleague for lunch in a few hours time, and have spent the morning doing my Christmas shopping. Having signally failed to […]
