Waste TimeI went to the watch shop to waste timeI went up to the counterAnd proffered her myMovadoIt is fast said IIt holds too much timeIt was heavyGlinted with too much of it in itsBlackShinyBlankFaceShe looked at meTurned my watchPut it in the time squeezerAnd asked how many minutesI'd like to loseContemplating,I briefly thought All of itBut then I realised she wouldn't be able to do thatThat would require more than theSimple time waster she had in her...

This is a quick photo entry showing what I got up to one weekend on Balcony Walk on the slope of Jebel Shams in Oman. We attempted the via ferrata ('via iron') route to the top of the cliff but there was a sign at the bottom saying not to climb it as it was unsafe. So we climbed the safe bit, then went back down ;-)First try doing this sort of thing, was pleased at my ability to focus on clinging to the rock and not looking down. 

Wil of ArabiaThe hot, sandy sun beats The ground like an angry giantBelting a toy drumA year's seasonsAre four brands of punishmentThan a turn of light, Colour, sound, leavesThis is the desertThe streets exist for sweepersPast them we speedAway down the 30 like a bushfire up aSlope of crackling gumtrees on a hot day in AustraliaThis is a land filledWith story tellersOf carpet sellersWho refer to their rugs as babiesRefusing sale to a bad homeWho are so genui...

We have just returned from 2 days in the Masingyong ski resort, near the east coast and 20km SSW of Wonsan just off the Pyongyang Wonsan Motorway. In the past 3 days we have seen the best snow of our lives, seen the national orchestra put on a show to match any other classical music concert I've seen, and viewed the bodies of two more communist leaders lying in state. DEAD BODIESThe first body I saw lying in state was that of Ho Chi Minh, in Hanoi in 2012. T...

This is leg 2 of my Axis of Evil Ski Tour, the first was Dizin, Iran.DPRK Day 1DPRK Photos, video playlist, photospheres  Like China it's bitingly cold in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The people, however, are warm. They are not rigid when talking with us, I even received a couple of smiles from immigration officials and a sense via this that they were keen to make me feel welcome. This upset the stereoptype I had of a country of m...