Monday, April 16, 2012

Places Far From the Madding Crowd

London. The height of summer.

After spending many hours on the plane getting to London, I spent many hours trying to get away from it.

Thankfully, it was a spectacularly freezing summer. But unfortunately that did nothing to deter the hoardes of tourists. Staring at the Egyptian mummies in the Bristish Museum together with a hundred people loses all the mystique and awe that ought to accompany it. And while on the topic of awe, since when did Topshop on Oxford Circus become a tourist detsination?

Luckily I have relatives who live in the sticks. Penn and the area of around it is where I spent many of my impressionable teenage years. I remember the wide open commons fringed by trees, to which we sneaked out of school in the evenings to meet boys (or rather, stare at them from afar). I remember picking wild blackberries and eating them on the railway bridge. I remember chilly summer evenings lying on dry grass, rolling them into 'joints' and trying to smoke them without much success or pleasure.

Duck feeding - a must in the sticks


Country walks cook up huge appetites and the need to eat, al fresco!

The fruits of our hard labour.
Good times. I'm glad I got to relive them again and to share them with my son.

Wide open space!


A Soft Landing

One of the highlights of my trip to the Maldives last year...apart from the amazing fact that I was in the Maldives, was that I would get to fly in a seaplane.


Small but sturdy (I hoped)

For me, it conjures up such exciting associations, primarily with a particular British spy who flies them, beats baddies up in them and then blows them up. Seaplanes are to me are as glamorous as pink champagne and ordering room service. Makes me feel really chi chi.


Footless pilot doubled up as the porter. Multi skilled. I was reassured.
 

And of course, what a priveling to travel by seaplane in the Maldives, which where these atolls look their best, hundreds of feet up in the air. Hope you enjoy these pics as much as I enjoyed the flight.