Miscellaneous Waffling

I am known to occasionally attempt to produce literary articles of varying quality and dubious interest. Read any of these at your peril.

The following pieces of writing all relate to some travelling I did in 1996. I have traditionally been a photographer, but this time attempted to catch some of the memories in writing rather than on film. Of course it takes rather longer, but I hope the results bring some pleasure (at least they did for me, so that's the main thing!) Please feel free to comment on them (all feedback very welcome), or indeed ask related questions, but most of all enjoy.

• A Grand 72 (and a half) Days Out. This is a bit of a travel saga concerning ten weeks in a small car and a small tent chasing wildlife around Australia in May and June of 1996. The report is not entirely serious and is in a diary format. The trip goes from Adelaide to Darwin to North Queensland and then back down the east coast. For connoisseurs of these things, many bird lists and mammal sightings are included.
• In Search of the Flying Rhino. The Flying Rhino is a very big bird and well worth searching for. This is a birding trip report of a month on peninsular Malaysia in July of 1996 and includes full descriptions of sites visited and birds seen. An annotated list of birds and mammals seen during the visit is included. The report will of particular interest to first time visitors to Malaysia. I also hope that there is enough of interest here to make a non-birder smile a little bit, so don't be entirely put off if you're not ornithologically inclined.
• Postcards from Japan is a list of snapshot memories of a week spent in Japan in August of 1996. The writing style reflects the type of impression that such a short visit leaves, slightly erratic, very varied, fragmented. It is a bit different, but don't be put off!
• Where to find tourists in Australia, the essential guide. This is a blatantly flippant piece of stereotyping and is an attempt at humour. Please don't take any offence if you feel your nation has been hard done by. I just thought it was rather amusing that these tourist stereotypes kept popping up time and time again in my travels...

• Ten million sparrows can't be wrong is a report of a short visit to Beijing in November 1997. Again this was written as a frivoluous bird report, but there's a little bit more to it than that. If you are about to make your first trip to Beijing then there might be something there for you. (This page is also of note as it was the only hit for the word "spoggy" on an April 2000 yahoo search.. now how many words have you ever searched for that had only one hit??!)
• It's a Red-vented Bulbul, Stupid! covers a two week trip to the rather excellent island of Sri Lanka over Easter 1999, with the usual emphasis on things that hop and fly and crawl and bite. There is no such thing as too many curries for breakfast.
• Pura Vida Costa Rica is an illustrated report of two well-spent weeks in Costa Rica in April 2000. There are a ridiculous number of species of birds in Costa Rica and we did our best to see at least a few of them.
• Bonjour Nancy describes a long weekend in the French Lorraine looking for Hoopoes and things like that.

Some other pieces of flotsam and jetsam from my keyboard:

• A review of Womadelaide 95. No more flames please!
• A Scottish armchair fan goes through an incredibly complex series of emotions as he watches England's exit from the France 98 World Cup.
• In 1998 an enormous human figure was carved into the red soil of the South Australian desert country to the north-west of the town of Marree. This caused a considerable amount of interest in the World press. Further astonishing events in the South Australian outback are reported in The Yunta Vegetable.

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