Tag Archives: x-pro1

On walking

Walking is in my blood. My father was never one for it, but my mother is a walker. It wasn’t unusual for her to walk for hours for the hell of it, with unfailing regularity. Now in her mid 60s, with troublesome knee joints, she still possesses enough enthusiasm to out-walk many people half her…More

A camera built to endure klutzes: the Fuji X-Pro 1

I bought the X-Pro 1 with the 35mm f1.4 lens in July 2012. Earlier that year I’d sustained a neck injury that meant DSLR gear was too heavy to lug around. I wanted something smaller and lighter, which still delivered DSLR quality images with good low light handling. Until that point, I hadn’t come across…More

Somewhere down the crazy river…

Yeah, I can see it now The distant red neon shivered in the heat I was feeling like a stranger in a strange land You know where people play games with the night God, it was too hot to sleep…. – Robbie Robertson, Somewhere Down The Crazy River Singapore. Home to eternally anxious masses, the…More

Life, death and gratitude: A year of gypsy living

2013 has been the best year of my life so far. I say this not only for the great parts of the journey, but the shitty bits too. I say this because through it all, it felt like I’d actually lived for the first time in my life, rather than just existing for no discernible reason.More

On bright stars in dark nights.

2013 was year where my desire to go walkabout with possessions in a bundle at the end of a stick – or a couple of bags in my case – came true. I’ve been on it for a year and a week today, but rather than some far flung locale, I’m writing this post from…More

Numbering loss

My entire understanding of my father’s death at this point, rides on numbers. September 4 – the stage of cancer he was diagnosed with.More

Time and tide, Tangier

September 2013 In Switzerland, they have watches. In Morocco, we have time. They, and by extension, we, had time in Morocco. This is a place that where frequent periods of lengthy rumination have intrinsic value. The bustle, while ever present, never intrudes. There is time to read and write and sit and stare, watch the world…More

Vanishing Monument

April 2013 “Look outside!” spat a scowling Flemming, pacing in front of the heavy sliding doors while I sat up in my corner of the room, rubbing my eyes. Still foggy from sleep and the wintriness of a spring morning on the Colorado Plateau, I duly complied, and was greeted by the sight in the…More

Transient vagaries

In close to ten months of travelling, the hardest and most constant challenge I have had – beyond the isolation, helplessness at otherwise ordinary tasks of everyday living in a new place, utter loss when everything is going wrong and no one is speaking the same language – is being sick.  More

Ukendt Kunstner

I first heard Ukendt Kunster’s Neonlys album (free – yes really – download here) this past April, somewhere in the sweeping wilds of New Mexico. Hooked off the bat. Ukendt Kunstner – Danish for “Unknown Artist” – are Hans Philip (rapper) and Jens Ole McCoy (producer). All their lyrics are Danish. I don’t speak Danish.…More

Ten

…the number of months of gypsy-jangling, not the Pearl Jam album. Every month i survive on the road, intact and sometimes even flourishing (to ongoing amazement), I come back to this sign. This was painted inside the bus stop near my eldest sister’s home in Washington state, where I spent the first three weeks of…More

Wonderful Copenhagen: On Impossible Things

“Wonderful wonderful Copenhagen!” was the refrain that greeted me over the phone line, every time my Dad was reminded it was where I was heading in July for another, extended Mad and Magic Raving reunion. It turns out that centuries ago, Dad had a pen pal from Copenhagen, and it’s been a European city that…More