In no way ever could I compare myself with a street kid, and it was wrong of me to have used the expression in the piece I wrote yesterday. I was on the street a lot as a kid in Cambodia, but I had a home, I had food and I even had money. Street … Continue reading Wild child ? →

Taken at Angkor Wat, c 1956 Disclaimer: Anything that I write is not intended to be a Booh-Hoo ballad. Whatever may have happened to me, by comparison to a vast number of my contemporaries, I have had a charmed life. Happiness is a bonus if you are able to create it. In my dark moments, … Continue reading Growing up in Asia →

Things happen to me that I am sure never happen to normal people. It's been this way ever since I can remember. Take for example the old Datsun I drove for a while in the '70's... A'67 Ford Falcon that got me through my college years started to have periodic mechanical issues which were exacerbated … Continue reading The Datsun story →

Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers converge, Quay Sisowath, Cambodia 1956 Quay Sisowath is a short walk from the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I would scarcely recognize it from recent pictures that I've seen but for the palace which seems unchanged. It is one of very few things that were not destroyed in the … Continue reading Mekong memories →

ANTARCTICA - 1981/01/01: Antarctica, Cruise Ship Ms World Discoverer. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images) It's feels a bit strange to know that three of the ships I traveled in went to the bottom, although, technically, only one did that. One languishes on a beach in the Solomon Islands where she ran aground, and … Continue reading That sinking feeling →

The road to Dalat where some of my troubles started A nasty little gitIn hob nail bootsHas always lived in my headPut there the day I was bornBy Dad, not pleasedThat I'd arrived.Always thereTo just ensureI'd never get above myselfToo happyToo pleased.If I did, the little gitWould stomp about"NO! NO! NO!"And give me somethingTo sulk … Continue reading No big thing →

"Going to be a hot one!", declared Grant, contemplating the mist obscuring all but a few trees in the foreground of our customary vista. I don't like hot weather, but this wasn't always so.Following my banishment to a "safer" British boarding school, (run by Sisters of Charity), I shivered miserably under 6 layers of blankets … Continue reading Changes →