A cold start to the day, winter has been promising good things so far…. cold mornings, blue skies, the sun shines and there’s not a cloud in the Sky, I like winter.

After breakfast I went for a walk, I haven’t done this much lately but I’m trying to make the effort so that I can strengthen my ankle in preparation for my next adventure which I think will now be the end of the year all going well.

I went passed Cameron Park, which has an exercise park and so I did pull ups, push ups, and a few weights and seemed to be in competition with a guy 20 years my junior, however when he decided to hang upside down I thought “you win”

Mind you his pull ups were being done the easy way so inside I knew I’d won 😀

It was still cool in the shade and with the slight breeze I was thinking that I should have worn a thicker jacket, however as soon as I was back in the sun and the wind stopped it was great.

Sitting out on the deck at this time of the year is magic. The deck faces north so I can sit with my back to the sun partly in the shade and I can read my book until the Magpies and Butcher birds begin to harass me for food. The Magpies have a real attitude, they look like a couple of thugs getting ready to kick your head in.

Sundays are quiet in the hood and most folk observe this, apart from the guy across the road two doors down who feels it’s OK to get on his very noisy ride on mower to remove the top 2 mm to keep the lawn under control…. He’s a dickhead….we can only hope he falls off and he runs over himself……. Soon!!!

The weekend seems to go too fast and I’m back to my routine tomorrow and so that’s it for another week, I look forward to the day that every day is a Sunday.

I did have a play with an AI image generator and the wee picture on this post was made this way.

My life is quiet at the moment and I’m struggling with that I guess because I’d rather have a project to work on and so I’m trying hard to enjoy this time. A few weeks ago I got my Yamaha amp and 5 disc CD player fixed and it’s been great to go through my vast collection of CD’s.

I can of course play the media on my phone, however there is quite a bit of music on CD that I don’t have on the phone and the quality of the CD is so much better because the bit rate of some of the mp3’s are relatively low. The Yamaha system sounds pretty darn good especially when the speakers are sat on the concrete floor.

I was playing Roxy Music, Supertramp, ABC, Bowie and Dire Straits while I was in the garden and then I decided just to lie down and immerse myself in the sounds and vibes blasting from the Yamaha and as I lay on the day bed feeling the waves wash over me my guilt also disappeared and I began to enjoy the moment.

I’m thinking that I need to be doing more, but listening to music and giving 100% attention to it is really great and I’d forgotten just how much I enjoy this. Listening to music has been a big part of to life since I was a kid. I have many strong memories of my first listen to an album.

On a Saturday morning I would get the bus to the west end of Paisley near the museum where I’d visit the independent Listen Record Store and pick up something new and I’ve still got all my records that I bought 40 years ago.

I remember the time I bought Meddle by Pink Floyd and when I got it home side two would not play properly because it kept skipping, upon inspection it seemed to have something stuck to the surface. I took it back to the shop and the guy took one look at it and said”I think it’s strawberry jam” He gave me a new copy and I went home to conclude the experience.

Music is a big part of my life and it will often transport me to another time and place and mostly I’m transported to home to a time before I arrived in Australia which the older I get become more powerful.

I’m thinking I might have to dig out the turntable and play a few records and reminisce to the sounds of old.

Haven’t written anything for weeks, haven’t really been interested……..life has become one continual repetitive motion that holds few nuggets. Boredom has set in, mind you I did manage to go for my first 10km hike last weekend with little complaint from my ankle so that’s good news. Groundhog Day is in full swing and so more than ever I need to find a way out of this rut that I have become mired in.

Travel is always good for the soul; however that requires “much money” which is in short supply the noo. Stimulating challenges are what I need right now and preferably get paid for my trouble which is easier said than done. The driving is boring me to tears, the cargo are a plague infested cacophony of sounds that I have really had enough of. This week I succumbed to a snot infestation that has left my nose bloody and raw and I need to crank the amp up to 11 just to appreciate it.

I took the week off and it was great to hibernate in my cave, the down side is that the cash flow comes to a halt when I do this. The obvious solutions are of course winning the lottery, change of scenery or a new job…………….I prefer the first option but last night’s draw was not successful for me but there were 7 lucky winners that managed to collect enough cash to keep them fed and watered for many years to come……….

I’ve been home three weeks and I’m bored to tears because I’ve spent most of that time sitting on my arse with my ankle strapped up waiting for it to heal. Three weeks on I can finally walk down the stairs without too much effort but I’m still resting it as much as possible because by the time I settle down for the evening my ankle complains a little and so I put the ankle brace back on.

I’ve cut the grass this week and walked to the local shop and today I returned to work and so I’m on the mend but I’m not doing too much to upset the healing process. However it does make me restless once again and so I’ve been thinking about my next travel adventure which I’m hoping will be either China or Morocco.

For the rest of this year I’ll also focus on repairing the retaining wall and getting the house ready for this time next year when I’m hoping that the market will have recovered and I can sell up and move on.

I’m also going to see if I can get another Chinese visa and research the possibility of another stint living there or if I can find a better job then I’ll maybe move to plan B which is to buy another house up north with the intention of renting this house out. Who knows what the future will bring but I know I’ll need to change my current trajectory.

Egypt broke me mentally,

Jordan broke me physically,

Turkey chilled me to my core,

Greece, the coffee I do adore,

And for Doha, well you were a bore…………..

Julie was kind enough to pick me up from the airport after my 14 hour flight from Doha and it was great to see a friendly face. She also got me bread and bananas for breakfast which was bloody marvellous, no need to worry about going to the shops.

The house was exactly the way I’d left it, although there were a few more cobwebs and I found one cockroach in the kitchen dead and the remains of one near the front door, so I guess the Gecko’s must have had lunch one day.

I flicked on all the power, hot water system and the aircon etc. Turned on the gas and the water and everything seemed to be back to normal. It was good to be home. The house was remarkably tidy and I guess I must thank my pre-holiday self for making sure everything was done well.

I made some tea and sat in front of the huge TV that I have in my living room, so much bigger than anything I have been used to over the past few weeks. It’s not long before my bed beckons, I went to have a shower and then realised that I had no hot water………..

No alarm but I wake around 5am and get up to the sound of the butcher bird and the magpies having their morning chat, it’s nice to hear them again. A simple breakfast is also very welcome including a nice coffee for a change. The sun is shining and as I look over the garden I’m surprised that after nearly two months away it’s not looking too bad, in fact it seems to be thriving however as usual the weeds are always one step beyond.

In the afternoon I went to see Doctor Muhammad about my ankle, he tells me that he won’t send me for an x-ray simply because it has been a few weeks since my adventure and my ankle has already begun the healing process and he is convinced that the ligament damage will repair. I buy a compression stocking and have been told to rest as much as possible for the next three weeks and I should be able to get back to business as usual, no site seeing for a while. My ankle does feel slightly uncomfortable and I think that this is due to the fact that I sat for nearly 14 hours on the flight from Doha.

Before going to see the Doc I had to see if the olde Ford would fire. I reconnected the battery and then turned the key and she burst into life and after a wee cough she was sitting quite happily spouting CO2 into the air, very happy about that.

The rest of that day is spent sitting at my desktop downloading the camera pictures, phone pictures and putting them onto storage before formatting my new phone and setting it up properly. It’s great to look back over my travels from the camera as I had no idea until now what I had captured, my only regret really is that my camera will not take pictures inside without the flash going off and so there are no real close ups of the tombs, however the pictures from the phone are still very good. My new phone, which I bought in Doha, has a 104MP camera 🙂

So now it’s just after midday Sunday, I’ve been up for only an hour and a half so I guess I’m still on another time zone ……but’s ok I have no plans and I will follow the doctor’s orders and do as little as possible for the time being.

In the past few weeks I’ve been through four Muslim countries and my only complaint really is the call to players when your hotel is near a mosque. This morning I was awakened around 4 am as I have been many times over the last few weeks and I’m not going to miss that, usually at my house it will be the cats or the dogs making a racket on the odd occasion or sometimes the birds will get up too early if there is a full moon.

The food, well I have not enjoyed much of the food I’ve come across and I’ll be looking forward to eating at home. Many of the flavours and more so feeling satisfied afterwards was a rare experience. A couple of meals in Egypt and the food in Wadi Rum was good. I had a couple of good meals in Greece but I also felt the fat attaching itself to my waist line. The Pudding Shop food in Istanbul I think was the best, the snow outside also helped me to enjoy the soup and the Goulash and I didn’t get that fatty feeling afterwards.

In Greece at breakfast there was always salad and cold meat on the breakfast platter but I need more than this to start my day. I’m not sure why they say that the Mediterranean diet is good for you, I didn’t like it and I would rather lose a few years of life to enjoy my food a little more.

I didn’t have much fruit and I’ll change that when I get home. Yoghurt and almonds and good coffee, Greece was the best place for coffee and not too expensive.

Qatar is not a place I’ll return to unless I transit the country, there’s not too much of interest here and everything is expensive, apart from some of the electronics.

And on the subject of Qatar, I tried to talk to someone about the compensation due to me because of the initial flight delays, no one can help me. I need to contact customer service by email they tell me and the real customer service in the airport can’t help me, they can’t even send an email to anyone to ask them on my behalf, why I’ve had no response for the past month.

And they have won the best airline for 7 years!!!!!

I will be composing another long email on the coming days.

Is definitely worth coming to see, this is a proper museum with artifacts from times gone by. There was an interesting side exhibition on Baghdad showing what life was like before the many troubles came to disrupt life as they knew it.

I don’t think many in the west realise just how much mathematics, science, planetary movements and the like had its birthplace in the Islamic world only to be used by many famous people like Copernicus or Galileo for that matter as a basis for there findings and further studies, but a lot of the ground work began here.

The past few weeks has been a mixture of many emotions. The journey got off to a bad start with the flight delays and it seemed such an effort just to get to my first destination. My mood is not good.

When I woke up on my first morning I just sat there soaking up the moment whilst I was waiting for Hadama to bring me breakfast. It was cold which I didn’t expect but what was nice was the peace and quiet of my surroundings after many chaotic days.

In hindsight I feel that going to Aswan was maybe not such a good choice as the first stop because I was gently eased into the way of life in Egypt and I think that a smack in the face baptism of fire welcoming would have been better to prepare me for the weeks ahead.

Egypt has so much to offer the traveller however there are many individuals that will cross your path that will begin to shatter your love of what’s on offer. You are just a piece of shite and you attract copious amounts of flies and dung beetles to your orbit and every one of them want to feed on you. I was not prepared for this onslaught and I was way too polite and should have told many of these flies to just fuck off.

I didn’t get really ripped off but I did pay a wee bit over the odds a couple of times, but because Egypt was so cheap the amounts were small. All of these flies and dung beetles blindside you to the good folk that cross your path and that’s sad. If there’s a next time then I’ll be better prepared.

The history of Egypt is staggering and if you have the opportunity to go you just have too. What’s been left behind for us to marvel at is breathtaking and it’s just a shame that many of the visitors don’t take the time to savour the moment through their own eyes, instead they’d rather see it for a split second on the screen of their phone before it’s sent to the ether to be cast before swine.

Jordan was next on the agenda and it was great to have arrived in a country that felt more civilised and the chaos of the last few weeks melted away ever so slowly as the days passed.

Petra was the highlight of this part of the journey and day one was spectacular. I wandered around for eight hours and met three young travellers along the way. A great first day and I was already planning the next two days.

Day 2

I went to Little Petra to walk the track that runs to the Monastery. I got off to a good start but after about two hours I realised something was wrong. After checking the map I had the choice of two paths and I chose the more difficult of the two.

I ran into a few dead ends where the only way was down and possibly it would have been the last thing I would have done. After what seemed like a lifetime and many scratches from the small trees that grew here I made it back to the beginning of the path. I looked at the time and it was only just after 1pm, so I thought that’s still time to get to the Monastery.

This time the map and me were in sinc and all was well. I veered off the track slightly and so to correct it I made my way down this steep gully full of loose rocks but every so often I could see the foot prints of a previous traveller and so I was confident that I was doing fine and I was taking care to place every step due to the nature of the terrain.

I came across a section where I had no choice but to drop down about two metres. I eased towards it and looked for some holds. I placed my left foot into a depression and my right into another and got a hand hold and prepared for my next move, however before I even took a breath gravity took over and I was flying through the air.

I landed with a thump on my back. My right leg came clattering down and it screamed. I scrambled to get a hold but I was still. I lay there trying to figure out what had happened and to survey the damage, checking body parts to see what the damage was. To my surprise there was almost no claret but my right foot, my ankle in particular was shouting at me. I moved my toes and then tried to move it up and down and then side to side, everything worked thankfully.

I sat up and found my phone, the screen was cracked but it had survived. I looked back at where I’d come from and still couldn’t understand what the hell happened. I tried to stand which I could do but now my ankle was beginning to complain. I moved to a shady spot and drank water. I realised I was shaking. I’m still a fair way up this gully and I’m lucky I’ve only dropped a couple of metres.

As I eat, I’m looking to see how to get out. Fear is genuine now because I can’t really believe what’s going on. After a while I realise I need to pull myself together and find a way out. I try getting back up the way I came but the holds available to me are precarious at best and I just can’t reach the one I need. My only choice is to go down to the bottom and look for a way out.

I re-tie my shoes and make them as tight as possible. I’m favouring my left side and doing my best to not fall again. As I reach the bottom I can see there are maybe three options. The first is through soft sand and between rocks but this comes to a dead end. My second choice looks promising and as I proceed I hear again the sound of the bells from the goats and I also notice that there is a fair bit of goat shit on the path, a good sign?

As I exit onto a small plateau I can see further down on the valley floor, a four wheel drive and some tents, civilisation. The goats come around the mountain so to speak and one of two look bemused as they cast their eyes on this bedraggled human. I video them as they walk on. I hear someone shouting at me, telling me to come down. A young girl was waving at me to come down to where she was. It’s still a bit difficult so I ease my way down to her and I could still come a cropper if I rush now. If I’d only found the path the goats had used.

We sit together and she asks me what happened and I tell her. I’m so relieved not to be alone and I finally feel safe. She offers to take me back to where I can get a taxi to Petra. It’s about a kilometre and with every step my ankle is complaining and my limp is becoming more pronounced. My young guide slowly walks and turns every so often to see how I’m doing. We share small talk, the usual questions,

Where are you from?

How old are you?

Are you on your own, married?

What’s your name?

At the hotel I grab a towel and soak it in cold water and then wrap it around my ankle and then I sit there. I prod and touch my foot to assess the damage. I’m sure I haven’t broken anything and I continue with the cold towel treatment.

I hobble down to reception and briefly explain the problem and they send out to the chemist for a bandage and cream which I put on as soon as it arrives. I put it on fairly tight but then I have to undo it because I feel my foot is about to explode and my toes look almost double in size. I strap up my ankle again but not so tight and then I try to get some sleep. I can’t believe just how quickly I’ve become incapacitated and with each step I have to hold onto something to steady myself.

When I wake in the morning I’m hoping that it’s all just a bad dream and I can get on with things as normal but reality smacks me in the face when I look at my foot, ankle and lower calf. The swelling has continued overnight and I realise that I’m not going to be able to do much over the coming days if not weeks. I’ve never done anything like this before and I’m at a loss to know what the future holds and what about the rest of my trip, I’m only half way through. It’s at this moment I should have seen a doctor but I didn’t…. Maybe my recovery would have been much better.

I’ve strapped up my ankle and I put on my boots once more and find that this is the best way for me to move around. Getting to breakfast was quite the challenge and instead of bouncing down the stairs I had to settle for the lift. Everything is an effort. I’m not sure if I can continue my journey.

I need money, so I head down to the cash exchange which is a five minute walk away unless you’ve been hobbled.

I have no choice but to stay close to home, my next stop is the desert so that will give me a few days to recover and then I’ll leave Jordan in a week and by then I should be out running marathons.

After a couple of days in the desert I managed to walk down to the spot where you can watch the sunset. It was only about 400m but I managed to walk there and back in a normal fashion with very little distress, this is good news. I really enjoyed Wadi Rum and I would love to go back and combine it with a few other locations and I’d hire a car.

Aqaba was to be three days of rest after all this hiking and walking that I should have done but it served to let me rest my foot a little longer so that when I arrived in Istanbul I’d at least be able to walk everywhere I wanted and this was more of less the case. As long as I wore my boots and kept my ankle supported I managed not too bad although I did walk a bit too far because I felt that it was becoming easier with less difficulty.

It was snowing in Istanbul and I just didn’t have enough clothes, I’d been smart enough to leave them at home and bring more summer clothes because Google assured me that the average temperature would be X, but I did not factor in a global warming component.

I enjoyed the food and the culture trip I went on and would highly recommend going there even although everyone looks dodgy. The Pudding Shop restaurant was a life saver here with its ever changing menu.

Mixed feelings about Greece, Santorini was OK an if I could have walked would have been so much better. I didn’t go there for the sunset or the beaches, however there are some pretty places here worth seeing.

Athens was my next stop and of course the Parthenon is what you come to see. I was targeted by a group of coloured individuals as I exited the metro heading to my hotel. I didn’t know it at the time but they had marked the back of my jacket to let the hunters see their prey.

I saw at least three of them there may have been more and they got wind of that, although one of them an Indian guy was quite persistent but he eventually fucked off because I stopped outside a restaurant and waited till there were more folk going my way. I don’t feel I did anything wrong this time but I guess when they see an old dog limping and bedraggled looking, well I guess I was fair game.

I’ll go back to Greece and chase the culture and heritage on some of the islands and I think and I would return to Athens as there is so much to see.

Qatar is the final destination, I bought a new phone… A Xiaomi phone which is about $200 cheaper here than Australia but then the stop over has cost me around $600 or maybe more. That’s brains fur ye!

Quite the adventure I’ve had. It’s been a long time since I’ve been travelling as much as this and I’ve enjoyed most of it.

I’m looking forward to getting back to the hoose, getting life back to normal, not having to pack my suitcase, eating good healthy food again and to lose the weight that I’ve put on which must be at least 2kg. Mind you this is not just down to the bad diet but to the lack of exercise, if I’d been able to walk everywhere then I would have been in better shape.

I’ll soon get rid of the weight and I’m going to see my doctor the day after I return just so that he can check out my ankle and help me to get that back to 100%. I still don’t have full flexibility and it can be slightly uncomfortable if I am walking on a slight incline where my foot is having to compensate for the right to left aspects. Going upstairs is no problem but coming down is still a bit tricky. So not all is well but I still feel extremely lucky to have been able to continue with my trip.

I still have nightmares about the fall and I can visualise every rock and piece of goat shit on that trail because it has been etched into my brain and I’m sure as long as that is not a distant memory it will hopefully protect me from myself.