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WHITTLING OUR NICHE

Some years ago I wrote a poem - Whittling our Niche - which attempted to explore the concept of our singular, but miniscule existence on this Mother Earth. Seen through a galactic microscope, each of us has a unique mountain to climb, a discrete rock-wall to scale, on our track from cot to coffin. This portfolio of stories and poems, photographs and sketches, along with comments on contemporary issues, is a reflection of my own minute presence on our eternal globe.

Reading for me is not a hobby, it's a way of discovering how others have scaled their rock-walls ... fact or fiction. And so to writing: the other side of the yin and yang. To paraphrase Christopher Hitchens 'If I had known I was going to read so much, I would have done more writing to match'. Now I begin to even up the kaleidoscope.

I hope this site can inspire others to do the same.

Duncan Gregory

CHICKEN RICE IN TAIPING

Half the fun of travelling to faraway places and intermixing with different cultures is to be found in the simple - but most essential – daily task of eating and drinking. We think all the answers are at home … until we go abroad. Often, as well as new foods that unlock new taste buds, it’s the setting around those foods that provides extra divergence from our norms.

A TEENAGER ALONE ON HIGH SEAS

Oriana inched away from the dock, snapping streamers and breaking bonds. I stayed on deck in the fading light, watching our wake, all the way down The Solent and into the Channel, excited about the voyage to come, and places due to enter my viewfinder. But a few hours later, when we hit a violent storm in the Bay of Biscay, I was no longer thinking of exhilarating settings. ....

HOME AGAIN TO ENGLAND

It was like a fast-action video game acted out in real-time: The French Connection with a faster car. I watched in horror as we zig-zagged back and forth across three lanes, powering on past a sprinkling of vehicles out for a Sunday morning drive. Glancing across at the speedo simply increase the alarm: 140 miles per hour! ....

CALAMITY IN KERICHO!

Dust was coming back to earth as we scrambled out. A discord of voices in panic. People lurched from the smoking mess to hug each other; thanking The Almighty for the fortunate continuation of their lives. Upside-down, I struggled to release my seatbelt, then crawled through shattered glass, to safety, bleeding and in shock!

BANGLADESH: LET'S GO RURAL!

My minders collected me from this relatively grand hotel in central Dhaka. We piled into a jeep; boss with driver up front, negotiating the traffic bedlam of the morning rush. Slowly the suburban slums gave way to palm trees and paddy fields. The road to the south of the capital was a single lane highway; smooth and straight.

'COUNTRY ROADS, TAKE ME HOME ...'

I had never been to Canberra before, and this was a fleeting visit. Arriving on the early Monday politician’s express, I taxied from the airport to pick up the truck, as arranged. It was all ready, fully loaded with tractor and machinery. By ten o’clock my six-wheeled friend and I were on our way, following an 800-kilometre cross-country trail back to Adelaide. ...

MY GATEWAY TO INDIA

Returning to India grew to be a second homecoming. Touchdown was always Mumbai, which for a decade or two I knew as Bombay. Each time, as the aircraft powered forward, dipping towards the runway, those glimpses of a hazy, undulating terrain would return to my porthole view. In reality, it was the most extreme lifestyle interface one could imagine: high-tech planes gliding in over squalid slums .....

NIGHTMARE RIDE TO BUKIT LARUT!

“Hi, I’m Andy.” The man opposite held out a plump hand. “Where you from?” We were eyeball to eyeball in the back of the Land Rover. No escaping his question. “Australia,” I responded. “How about you?” He told me he was Chinese but lived in Kuala Lumpur, which like everyone in Malaysia, he referred to as KL.

KENYA RANKS IN RENEWABLE ENERGIES, BUT WE COULD DO MUCH MORE.

In terms of world rankings, most people know about our marathon runners, but not so many are aware that Kenya competes with the best in terms of renewable energies, standing alongside Sweden, Uruguay and Morocco as a world leader. All aim to derive 100% of electrical power from renewable sources within the next decade or two.

PUTIN'S WAR COULD RESULT IN MORE SUSTAINABLE CHANGE

Any war is disgusting and repulsive, but the current conflict playing out in Ukraine highlights the futility of warfare more than most. For the first time in decades Europe is host to a major war. Russia, one of the planet’s superpowers, aims to subjugate its neighbour Ukraine: to pummel its so-called brother-state into submission. The result of this aggression is that Ukraine has resisted with all the strength it can muster, backed by the western alliance.

23rd November 2020

EMMA'S VIEW: a newborn babe with 2020 vision!

My granddaughter Emma was born on 31st December 2019. She had been expected to meet her world on 15th February 2020, but perhaps pushed her arrival forward to coincide with the dawn of Covid-19. By the time she was six weeks old and had reached her due-by date, the corona virus was rampant in Wuhan and threatening places beyond China ....