Some days,

I just feel like giving someone else my user name and password and asking them to write for me...That's when inspiration does not hit the "on" position.

Yet, many thoughts go through the feverish brain, all day long doing nothing, waiting to get better.

Doing nothing other than: speaking on the phone, receiving well-meaning visitors in a dignified manner and watching TV at times when I would normally not be watching TV. I am glad to see that I can spend a little time with Michael Palin at almost any time I chose! Travelling, here, there or in the Himalayas: love it!

I have a very old book (1930's I think). It was a part of an illustrated encyclopedia called "Peoples of all Nations", and the Tome-VolumeVI- I have is from P(Palestine) to S (Sin Kiang). It fascinates me. Listening to ol' Michael talking about the people and places on the Himalayas treck reminds me of the captions in that book. On page 4051 (Peru and its People), one discovers that

"Cashibo Indians eat their aged relatives when they are past work: a custom due to pious desire thus to assimilate the parental virtues".

I can imagine Michael narating this to us without batting an eyelid...

The eurocentrism of the book holds me in a state of amused fascination as do its lyrical descriptions of the photographs:

"Elegant in figure and deportment this girl of Yugo-Slavia displays to advantage a simple yet richly embroidered variety of national dress" .

Now, I don't know whether one can scan pictures and then put them on a blog...Oh yes I do! cf Madeleine! Right! So here is the new challenge, the new nettle which I will graps, jsut so you can see the dubious look on the faces of the ancestor eaters and the Monty Pythonesque glance of the Yugo-Slavia Beauty...That's a promise.

Other gems, at random:

" Small sons go early into long trousers in Central Portugal, and a certain dignity attached to grown up garb is visible in these meninos"

"Jest and repartee enliven a deal in sardines. Thousands of these fish are caught each year, and are much appreciated in the island towns"

"The combined waters of the Ganges and the BrahmaPutra....Bangla Desh has 250 rivers....The "Ostrich" is both local bus and cargo ship..."

See what I mean? I just love the man.

May all your photos have entertaining captions,

Love to peoples of all nations.

Jocelyne