To BA on BA

Sunday, January 8th 2017 – almost two and a half years since last anything was posted here. There have been a few attempts, but nothing got as far as being published. Here are a couple of samples:

‘But I have travelled. Immediately after America there were short visits to Paris and Florence. Then there was an extended visit to Cambodia and Thailand in early 2015: that was relaxed and enjoyable despite the 2000 miles driving at all hours of the day and night! Quite an adventure – driving through Bangkok at a snail’s pace and discovering the far south where New is now based.

It seemed that I was no sooner home than the visitors began and the Summer was full of road trips around England and Wales introducing Ann and Somjit to places they hadn’t seen before – and seeing places I hadn’t seen myself for more than twenty years.

I remember in winter 2015 constantly complaining that I MUST go on holiday in the Spring: I hadn’t been away, I would never survive a full winter. The days were grey, there was a lot of rain and little sun as I recall. But suddenly, Spring arrived and by then I had three trips booked for later months. Of course I survived the winter!! AND complained of boredom with jobs still undone.

My journey in these months has been of another kind: I have been travelling the road to improved photography, more appropriate photographic equipment and taking photographs with a bit more style. Lifelong learning it is for me! And fun, too, especially when it involves finding interesting new places to photograph – into the Arctic Circle later in 2014, Cambodia in 2015, Cuba in a month or so and then South America. I cannot believe how blessed I have been and am.‘

‘I don’t believe it!

For a few months now I’ve been thinking “MUST add to the blog”, I’ve been thinking…. but not finding time to DO anything. And then I realised just how long it is since last I added anything, so here I am sitting at the computer and trying to write something coherent. I even started writing once as a quick glance at my ‘saved drafts’ shows!

Cambodia and Thailand 2015

thoughtful-monk — *Thoughtful Monk at Angkor Wat*

Many events SHOULD have been documented – significantly an extended visit to
Cambodia and Thailand from mid-February until mid-April 2015. It was indulgent to go back but it was fun. The highlights of that were driving from Chiangmai to Nakhon Si Thammarat – pretty well the lengthy of the country, and really enjoying the variety of scenery. I had last been to Cambodia with a group from Lampang in about 2002 and I wanted to take the opportunity to go again as there were things I hadn’t seen. That, in itself, was a treat. I travelled with a small group of photographers to Angkor Wat via some country towns and river villages and then had a few days in Phnom Penh on my own at the end.

On one of those days a friend loaned me her driver for the morning and he took me wherever I wanted to go. High on my list were the Killing Fields – I had seen the prison at the beginning of the trip and that had been moving, but quite distant. The experience at the Killing Fields though was more intense. It reminded me of visiting a concentration camp and seeing the spot where shootings had taken place in the hearing of the officers’ families who had no idea what was happening on the other side of the wall. Most striking was the fact that there are still bones strewn around very near the surface and I felt the need to be careful where I walked. There was a memorial to the children. And I was horrified to think that these atrocities had taken place in my adult lifetime and I had been unaware of their horror. I remember Vietnam clearly because of TV images, but I think I must not have had access to television during the Cambodia years. I don’t like to think I may have ignored what was being reported…’

There was much more that could have been said about that trip!!

Last night sitting in an extremely quiet and unhassled Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport, I started seriously to write an account of my current trip – South America, as yet completely unknown to me despite various links over the years. I first became aware of the Amazon and its tribes as a teenager. I thought that a poem which greatly impressed me at the time was written by a missionary to the Amazon: it was in fact written by Bill McChesney a missionary to the Congo who was martyred there in 1964. I was impressed by his ‘ordinariness’. I thought missionaries were special people – not wanting things the rest of us want. I’ve since learned that’s not what makes them special!!

My Choice

I want my breakfast served at “eight”, with ham and eggs upon the plate;
A well-broiled steak I’ll eat at “one”; and dine again when day is done.

I want an ultramodern home, and in each room a telephone;
Soft carpets, too, upon the floors, and pretty drapes to grace the doors.

A cosy place of lovely things, like easy chairs and innersprings,
And then I’ll get a small TV – of course, “I’m careful what I see.”

I want my wardrobe, too, to be of neatest, finest quality.
With latest style of suit and vest, why shouldn’t Christians have the best?

But then the Master I can hear, in no uncertain voice, so clear,
“I bid you come and follow Me, the lonely Man of Galilee.”

“Birds of the air have made their nest, and foxes in their holes find rest;
But I can offer you no bed; no place have I to lay My head.”

In shame I hung my head and cried. How could I spurn the Crucified?
Could I forget the way He went, the sleepless nights in prayer He spent?

For forty days without a bit, alone He fasted day and night;
Despised, rejected – on he went, and did not stop till veil He rent.

A man of sorrows and of grief, no earthly friend to bring relief –
“Smitten of God,” the prophet said – Mocked, beaten, bruised, His blood ran red.

If He be God and died for me, no sacrifice too great can be
For me, a mortal man, to make; I’ll do it all for Jesus’ sake.

Yes, I will tread the path He trod. No other way will please my God;
So, henceforth, this my choice shall be, my choice for all eternity.