Better sleeping (or calmer books!)

Thanks to all of you for the comments and encouragement after the first post the other day. I'm continuing to feel a little stronger every day, enjoying all the extra food that the steroids force (!) me to eat, and trying to fit in a little light exercise each day. Newcastle's win over Everton today didn't do the spirit any harm either!!

One of the main side-effects of the steroids is that I don't sleep right through the night, so I'm getting plenty of midnight reading done. The thing I've had to improve though, is the intensity of my reading material. I was in the middle of 'Angela's Ashes' when I went into hospital and stupidly continued to read it in the first few days post-surgery.

It's an excellent book, telling the moving story of Frank McCourt's childhood during 1930s and 1940s Limerick, Ireland. Much of the narrative focuses on the day-to-day struggle of the family to find sufficient food and clothing, especially as Frank's father was an alcoholic who either couldn't hold down a job or drank his wages on the way home each week. The problem for me was that my mind was not the most settled and I had a number of weird dream sequences of wanting to go back in time to give food and clothes to the McCourt children or wanting to create some kind of home for them here on the lake. It was all very bizarre and probably not ideal recovery reading.

Next up was Lance Armstrong's outstanding autobiography 'It's not about the bike', chronicling his comeback from testicular cancer at the age of 25 and his subsequent seven tour-de-France wins. It's an incredibly inspiring story and I took a lot of positive energy and ideas from it, but again, I'm not sure it was the most settled reading for my sleeplesss nights.

So, last night, armed with a saucer of lavender oil and a copy of Elizabeth Hay's 'Late Nights on Air', I enjoyed a much more settled sleep. It's a novel set in a radio station in the northern Canadian town of Yellowknife and, although it sounds odd, the words just seemed to fall off the page into my mind, without making a sound.

I guess I'll work on this for the next couple of nights, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. All other calming book recommendations warmly received.

A New Beginning (for the blog)

So, I started this blog a year or so ago to record some of my travels and photographs to share with family and friends. That was great fun and I just enjoyed a few moments reliving some of those great trips. I think it now makes sense to use this space, for a little while, to write about the new ‘journey’ ahead of us, whatever that may bring.

I’d like to have a way of sharing some thoughts and progress with friends and family and I thought that this might be a little more discreet than Facebook. Some days I might write more than others. I figured you could just choose if/when you’d like to come and read it. I’m so fortunate to have amazing views of the lake from most rooms of the house, so some days it may be no more than just a couple of comments about the changing of the season.

Today is my fourth day back at home, post-surgery, and the first few days recovery have been much better than we expected. There was a suggestion in the hospital that I might stay in for a week or so and our surgeon was right to stand strongly against that. He wanted me out of harm’s way and believed I would recover much more quickly at home. He was absolutely right to suggest that. Even just the option to take a short walk around the circle can make a big difference to my state of mind.

I’m continuing to work on improving my cognitive functions, which meant we had to buy an iPad in order for me to practice sudoku, word-search etc. Unsurprisingly, that’s descended into a challenge between Anna and I to get our word-search times down as low as possible! (Any excuse to get her hands on the iPad, if you ask me!)

I’ve got my full appetite back and now just need to work on filling out again a little bit. I lost more weight than I expected even just with a few days in a hospital bed. ‘Operation big buns’ starts here...

We’re meeting with both the surgeon and the oncology department tomorrow to discuss the next steps in the plan. Obviously, Anna and I have many questions but still a whole lot to learn about this condition and the best ways to tackle it from here onwards.

Please feel free to interact - ask questions, make suggestions, heckle etc. I’d like it to be a conversation, not a monologue.

I just want to sign off with a truly heartfelt ‘Thank you’ to all of you who have contacted us over the last week or so. It’s been quite an emotional journey and we both drew enormous strength from your messages of support and love. We’ll never forget it.

Until next time, with much love
Barry

Sydney & Wagga Wagga

Wow. What an amazing trip. Of all the places I’ve been so far, this has gone straight to number one on the list of where I’d love to bring Anna and the boys. This trip wasn’t as much of a cultural shock as Nicaragua or India (although putting beetroot on a burger was certainly different), but it was a rich experience all the same. Sydney pretty much ticks all the boxes in terms of a great city – architecture, bars and restaurants, beaches, shopping. I’m going to stop there as I’m starting to sound like a travel agent.

We arrived in Sydney two weeks ago at around 7am Saturday morning and feeling like 4pm the day before! So, the best way to fight jet-lag is to go for a long walk. Here’s what we saw…

The William Bligh (of Bounty fame) monument.

I love a good people photograph and this guy sitting outside the Irish pub was irresistible.

We jumped on a ferry to Manly (great name for a town) and got this shot of the Opera House. It truly is an amazing building.

Manly is a pleasant beach town about 30 mins across the harbour from Sydney. I foolishly started the day in jeans and boots thinking that it’s autumn so it’ll be cold outside. A quick visit to a surfer dude shop in Manly and I was all set for the beach.

The following weekend we had pretty much a full day at Bondi Beach, which is more of a bohemian surf community than just a beach. The beach itself is gorgeous – a long crescent with cliffs at both ends and fine, golden sand. The highlight for me was the waves – they were between 6 and 8 feet high and I learned how to body surf by watching the locals: swim as fast as possible when a big one approaches and it just picks you up for a ride if you time it right. What a blast. It did flip me over a couple of times, but it’s a fairly soft landing!

Here’s a picture of Flat Stanley hanging out with the very friendly ladies from Bondi Surf Rescue.

Last Sunday morning I walked alone through ‘The Rocks’, an area of rugged cliffs now turned into a marketplace which leads to the Harbour Bridge. After some boomerang hunting (looking for boomerangs for the boys, not hunting kangaroos or anything), I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art and was unexpectedly blown away, especially by the aboriginal art. At first it looks like thousands of randomly placed dots, but a friendly art gallery assistant later explained that each painting has a story behind it, normally related to the Dreaming – the indigenous Australians belief system. Fascinating stuff.

Other memorable moments of this trip…

• Going to see the Sydney Symphony Orchestra last weekend – I couldn’t quite believe that I was sitting inside the Sydney Opera House. What a treat.
• Bumping into a Rubik’s cube pub crawl in Wagga – some newly-graduated local students were out on the town in various items of clothing in primary colours and the idea is that they swapped clothes throughout the evening and had to end the night all in one colour. Sounds like a fun night out to me!
• Wandering around Paddington – an eclectic area of Victorian terraces and offbeat shops.
• Playing rhythm sticks along with the didgeridoo guy on Darling Harbour.

As beautiful as Australia is, it wouldn’t be the same with the Aussies – laid-back, warm, and fun-loving people. They like a beer, they like their sport, and they can give and take the stick as well as anyone I’ve met. A fun couple of weeks – I hope I’ll be back.

I’ll finish with my favourite photograph of Wagga (taken about five minutes after chasing Kangaroos in a 4x4)…

Stanley in Sydney

I'll write more about wonderful Sydney in another post - I just wanted to get these photographs up to show what fun Stanley has had so far...

We took a boat-trip to nearby Manly, and probably the best shots of the Opera House and the bridge are from the water.

Sydney Harbour Bridge, also taken from the boat, is pretty impressive. Built by a company from Middlesbrough, England, who also built the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle.

There's an option to take a 3-hour climb up to the top, but Stanley doesn't have a head for heights (and, more importantly, a spare $150!).

Here's Stan scaling the side of the Opera House. The fact that he's a little bit hard to see has given me an idea for future photographs...'Spot Stanley' (a la Where's Wally). What do you think?

The outside of the Opera House looks a little like snakeskin from a distance, but actually it's covered in over a million glossy and matte tiles, imported from Sweden.

Stanley enjoying the view from the Sydney Tower, the tallest structure in Sydney. If you look carefully, you should be able to see the top of the Opera House by the water.

Stanley and the security guard

So, word on the street is that I write a better blog than Mr. Barry – haha! I’ve left him crying in the corner and I have the laptop again. :-)

We drove five hours on Friday night from Delhi to Agra and stayed at the best hotel of my life, the Jaypee Palace (picture of me below in the comfy bed). The drive there was interesting to say the least. Long stretches of the road are two lanes (often with four lanes of traffic!) and you have to pull out into oncoming traffic to pass the tractors and slow-moving trucks – my nerves were shot!

On Saturday morning, we drove out to the Taj Mahal, only a mile or two from the hotel. We had a short walk to reach the entrance to the grounds, with monkeys roaming freely on the path beside us. We bought the tickets and the little white shoe covers that you have to wear inside the mausoleum, and headed for the entrance. As we went through the security scanner, the guard stopped Mr. Barry and said that he couldn’t take me in, as I was a toy.

A TOY?! A TOY?! I have feelings you know! And, more than that, I have a blog following bigger than Mr. Barry’s!

He argued a little to get me in, but the guard had a gun and he didn’t want to push it too far. So, I hung out in a nearby craft shop while the rest of the group went inside. I’ve never seen Mr. Barry so angry.

He told me later that the Taj Mahal was spectacular. It was built by the Mughal Emporer Shah Jahan, as a symbol of love for his wife, Mumtaj, after she died. It's constructed entirely from Marble, which was brought to the site by elephants from the North West of India. It took 22 years and 20,000 workers to build the Taj and the surrounding buildings. The highlight for him was the intricate pattern of gemstones that were set into the marble on the inside of the tomb. The stones (turqoise, jade, sapphire etc.) were brought from all corners of Asia to complete the design. One of them, Carnelian, is translucent and glows like it's on fire when light hits it a certain way.

Mr. Barry, pretending to be happy, but missing me really.

Next was a short rickshaw ride and then on to Agra Fort, which looks across to the Taj...

Here you can see me with the Taj Mahal in the background. Actually, this is an amazing way to see it from a different perspective, as the land around is fairly flat and the majesty of the building stands out on the horizon. (Also, it’s also the only way to see the Taj if you’re a little on the…erm…flat and colourful side!)


Here are some other pictures of people and places in India…

India Gate, Delhi

Buying peanuts on the road to Agra

The doorman of the Jaypee Palace Hotel

 
 











Gemstones inside the Taj Mahal

Until next time
Stanley

A school in Gurgaon

On Friday afternoon, the local team arranged for us to visit a primary school that is supported by Cargill. The aim of the school is to provide education for the children of migrant workers who wouldn’t ordinarily receive it. It was a modest building with three or four classrooms inside and one caged classroom out in the playground. (Caged to keep the local monkeys away from the children!)

I loved talking to one of the teachers and hearing the stories of how their organization grew over the past seven years. It was started by two elderly ladies in the village offering teaching under a tree to the children that they saw doing nothing. The work was recognised as being valuable by the local community and they gradually moved to outside classrooms with a few tables and chairs, and now to this school building. They provide a lunch to the children to guarantee at least one good meal per day.

One of the problems that the teachers explained is that once the children reach an age where they can work; their parents struggle to see the logic of education. “Why send my son to school when he can work and help to put food on the table?” So, although they don’t pay for the education, they are sacrificing the opportunity to support the family in the short-term. What an impossible choice.

Still, the work they do at the school is fantastic and all of the staff (most of which are volunteers) speak with a lot of passion about the school and the children. It’s heartening to work for an organisation that supports this kind of work.

Flat Stanley's Indian Adventure

We have a guest blogger this week...Flat Stanley...a happy little character created and coloured in by Patrick at school. The idea is that he is sent to friends/family in different places and returned to Patrick with a photograph of where he's been. Take it away Stan...

Here's me outside Qutb Minar, the oldest monument in Delhi. What you can see is just the minaret, but it was surrounded by Hindu temples and ruins, all built in the 12th and 13th centuries. Very impressive.

Mr. Barry (that's what they call him in the hotel - he thinks he's a big shot now!), his friends and me had a driver for the whole day on Sunday and he took us on a whirlwind tour of Delhi. After Qutb Minar, we made a brief stop at a craft shop, where the guy explained how they make Kashmir rugs (fascinating - it can take up to nine months to make a single rug) and then failed miserably trying to sell them to us (have you ever tried selling stuff to a 10", orange, laminated guy?).

Next stop...Humayun's Tomb, a beautiful, red sandstone building which houses the tomb of, you guessed it, Humayun. He was a Mughal Emperor who ruled India, and what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan, in the 16th century. The building and gardens are said to have inspired some elements of the Taj Mahal. (Ooh, get me - I can read wikipedia, just like Mr. Barry!)

Here's me on top of the ruins nearby the tomb. Mr. Barry was trying to look cool, like me, but actually he was a bit scared.

Part of the fun of the drive around Delhi was just watching life on the streets...the rickhaws and auto-rickshaws (which can carry more people than you'd think possible), motorbikes carrying the whole family, cows ambling among the crazy traffic, and my favourite...elephants...

Funniest moment of the trip so far...tonight we went for dinner in a nearby hotel...Mr. Barry asked where the restaurant was and they didn't understand his poor English...they sent him to the restroom. (I laughed my little, purple ass off!)
Namaste
Stan