Category: Postcards

Images from my travels

home thoughts from abroad

Home thoughts from abroad is a new series on Travel Words featuring a single photograph that reminds me of a country visited and showing something that uniquely identifies it as being ‘abroad’.

It is my birthday today. A significant number though not one of the BIG ones. Seems big enough to me though. So I am going to indulge in a bit of nostalgia today. This photo is from a place I used to live in, a place I used to love and where I spent several years with my then young family, the youngest of which was born just a few miles further along the coast from here – he is older now than I was then.

Muizenberg is my favourite beach in the entire world. I might be slightly biased as it was my home for several years and I lived only a 5 minute walk away from this beautiful white sandy beach with its iconic beach-huts; a favourite beach with surfers with stunning views across False Bay to Cape Point. It was a dream location with the added bonus of seeing whales in the bay during the winter. A sight I shall never forget no matter how old I am.

postcard from america

We arrived in San Francisco in February 2010 on the day of the Chinese New Year parade (Year of the Tiger) so having dumped the suitcases in the Argonaut on Fisherman’s Wharf we headed back into the city centre to observe the preparations of various bands and participants and then took our places on Post Street to watch the floats go by. We loved the dancing lions and the kindergarten children dressed up as little tigers, the different bands and the dancing. The fire crackers were loud and the elaborate costumes colourful. A great experience!

home thoughts from abroad

Home thoughts from abroad is a new series on Travel Words featuring a single photograph that reminds me of a country visited and showing something that uniquely identifies it as being ‘abroad’.

Wearing Feetbells (Ghungrus)

India. 2008. Almost exactly 35 years since my first visit in 1973 as a young woman travelling overland from England. This time I wasn’t roughing it, but staying in a resort at Fisherman’s Cove near Chennai. A comfortable beach cabin with a marble bathroom. Buffet meals with dosa pancakes for breakfast. The sweet scent of frangipani and the wild waves of the Indian Ocean sending me to sleep at night.

Just looking at the dancers with their feet-bells brings back the memory of the gently resonating bells representing precisely the rhythmic movements of the dancing feet.