Fox on a Boat

via GIPHY What's that echoing sound? Oh, it's just the sound of your footsteps reverberating in my empty blog... Yes, I know... I have not updated in AGES! It's partly being busy, and partly being lazy... and partly not having much inspiration... Last time I posted I was in Brazil. I have of course been back for quite a while, and I had been meaning to post more but days turned to weeks, to months.. and no posts. But I am alive! However, this will not be a proper post... Just a sort of "I'm still here" post. I haven't been travelling too much, nor have I been writing much, but in the next few weeks I'm hoping to write my long awaited post on Morocco, and during April I may attempt NaPoWriMo - writing a poem a day all month long. Well, for now, goodbye - I should be back soon, I promise! via GIPHY

Island Cat Tonight is my last night on Ilha Grande. Tomorrow I head back to Rio, where I shall spend the night, before flying back to London via Sao Paulo on Wednesday night. If all goes accordingly, by Thursday evening I should be at home enjoying a nice cup of tea with my cats. The weather here was wonderful today - hot and sunny. I had planned to go to the beach, then to lunch, then possibly the beach again, but then I remembered the natural pool that I had not yet swum in. So there I went. To get there, one must follow the seafront road, heading right if you start from the pier, facing the town. After a few minutes, you'll see a sign marked T1 - this is the first trail. (There are trails going all around the island). The first part of the trail forms a loop - to the right Praia Preta, to the left, the pool - but of course either way will get you to both these places, it will just take slightly longer. By Lucas César Felicíssimo Mendes, via Wikimedia Commons Th...

Ilha Grande Boats Tonight I am writing from a hostel in Ilha Grande - the Big Island! I will have to add photos later however when I am home with my own laptop.. So far I've experienced a Brazilian wedding, watched a sunset over Rio from Pão de Açúcar, hiked up the mountain to Corcovado (who needs cardio machines!?) and sailed to Ilha Grande, my current location. Here it is a lot more peaceful/laid back than in Rio. There are no cars which is quite nice. I feel a bit like I am in Animal Crossing, which is intensified when I see beautiful butterflies fluttering around the hiking trails. Quick, where's my net? There are numbered trails going all around the island, and I have hiked up the closest two. The others are too far by foot unless you set up camp for the night as you go.. which I will not be doing. My first trail was T1, which goes past a natural pool, an aqueduct, old farmhouse ruins which were used as a quarantine camp, and a waterfall. Had I walked farther ...

View from the first flat I stayed in - Copacabana Favela It's been a while since my last blog post, during which nothing much was happening - until very recently. For one, I am writing this blog post from Brazil! I am sitting on a couch in a small flat in Copacabana's favela - you may have pre-conceived notions of such a place (and the name does have a negative connotation) - but the flat is nice, and the previous flat I stayed in, and the people are friendly. The children will call out "Oi!" as you walk up the stairs - and this is not the "Oi" of Brixton, circa The Clash.. No, it simply means hello. Of course, I could not seem to manage going on a trip without some sort of.. well, let's call it "adventure"... Upon arrival in Rio, after a stop and transfer in Sao Paulo, I realised that my luggage had not made it. I should have grabbed it in Sao Paulo and checked it again, and I had thought it was moved during transit in the same manner ...

Pensive kitten Processing Thoughts It's summer again, but I've been barefooted since February, April, maybe. The natural way of things, trailing dust through the house, washing feet at night just before slipping into bed - wait - open the window Just a tad, to get some air flow. Muggy London doesn't beckon much Perhaps I've been away too long, left a part of me there, missing bits Scattered around the continents, bits of land claimed, names, words Boundaries, creating jagged ravines between one face and another - Two eyes here, two eyes there, one nose, one mouth, the same - Add words, and names - there you have it, there's difference. I'm here but not here - floating halfway up, halfway down - A foot in London, a toe in France - in Canada, half a head. Spain has most of my spine, but my heart is scattered, unwhole. Holey. Phoney. This room strewn with objects. Aloe in a bottle, The Texas mug, full of pens, the wall, cove...

I recently spent a weekend in Barcelona. It unfortunately rained most of the time, but that didn't stop me from gallivanting around town, sniffing out culture like a young poet, fresh off a night bus from Toulouse... Anyway, more on Barcelona will be coming soon in another post, but for now, it's blog-gallery time! By the harbour In the metro In the metro By the harbour

The Boy Next Door Spiralling down the darker corners of the mind 7am, crying, no wailing, like an injured animal, The sound stops and starts like the humming of the fridge, who comes to a stop with a great thudding, trembling the walls - the walls, paper thin, seeping voices flutter to my ears like a black and white TV left on whilst the old man sleeps on the couch. I take a bath, to relax, to unwind, and the voices seep through, drowned out by Italian songs reverberating against the tiles, but I pause it, pause and listen - the shameful curiosity snapping awake, and there it comes, the wailing, and shouts, and then the muffled crashing of a mind at war. No prompt, just some thoughts that needed to come out, somehow.. I'm so behind.