Today we fly to Lalibela, to see the famous rock churches tomorrow. Along the drive from the airport to our hotel, at large crowd of people were marching in our direction. It was a funeral procession. When someone from these villages passes away, the entire community mourns. I discreetly managed to get a video of the procession from inside the…
This was a really good, practical book. I go through phases where I meditate regularly, and when I do, my life is much better. But I sometimes let my travel schedule distract me from the practice, and I forget to do it on the weekends, and before I realize it, I’ve let the practice of meditation fall by the wayside. …
Mark’s main interest in life is food. He is a big-time foodie, spending nearly every evening watching cooking videos, thumbing through cookbooks, and perusing cooking blogs. When we go into a bookstore, he visits one section and one section only: the cookbooks. There is a travel video blogger named Mark Wiens who makes videos which are a perfect mix of…
The flight from Mombasa to Addis Ababa was only 2 hours, 15 minutes, and passport control was pretty fast. This hotel offers a free shuttle service, so they were waiting when we arrived. A nice big van, just for me and Mark. This hotel, the Golden Tulip, was pretty nice. Accommodations in Addis run the gamut, from major luxury to…
Once upon a time, I spotted a sexy, shirtless young guy on the dance floor of the Roxy. I looked at him, and he smiled at me, but we didn’t speak to each other. Later that week, I exchanged pictures with a guy in an aol chatroom. Lo and behold, it was the guy from the dance floor! He lived…
Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya after Nairobi, and it’s on the coast. There’s city stuff to do, and beach stuff to do. In all of the guidebooks that I had read, they recommended staying at a beach hotel and NOT in the city proper, as there are potential safety issues for tourists. Diani Beach was the recommended…
I mentioned in a previous post about how Mark overpaid for a bowl in one of the souvenir shops. Mark doesn’t like to haggle, and neither do I. It’s demeaning to negotiate prices with someone, especially when you know this is how they make a living and you want to pay them a fair rate for their goods. And yet,…
Mittens 2005 – 2020 On Thursday night, January 16th, my dear cat Mittens lost her short battle with colon cancer, two months shy of her 15th birthday. My history with cats is long and wonderful, and this ends another touching chapter in that personal history book. Next month will mark 20 years that Mark and I have been together. When…
An oral history of Jethro Tull, put together by Ian Anderson, with commentary from the dozens of band members who have come and gone over the years. The book is in coffee table format, with big, excellent photos throughout. It’s a chronological account, with lots of artifacts from the early days. Jethro Tull was my favorite band in high school. …
Our first full day in Nairobi was a memorable one. We woke up early, grabbed breakfast at the hotel, and then Uber’ed it to another hotel, the Kenya Comfort Suites, in downtown Nairobi. It was the meeting point for our tour. On tap this day was a tour of the Giraffe Center, followed by the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. About seven…
This book attempts to cover the entirety of LGBT history from before 1492 to the present day. The first two thirds of the book didn’t feel very much like a history book. It tried to cover about 500 years of LGBT history in 300 pages, which was a formidable task, and most of the time it just came off as…
Although I didn’t like seeing neurology cases as a veterinarian, I seem to have a penchant for reading books about human neurology. This one started out slow, but got better and better as it went along. Filled with clear descriptions of how the neurological system works (kinda basic for me, but probably very lucid for laypeople), the book follows up…
Our departure day finally arrived. Our visas were in order (I had taken care of that online, through the e-visa program), our bags were all packed, Mittens was safely nestled into her hospital cage (see the last post), and we were ready to go. It’s a very long flight to Nairobi: 14½ hours. I had selected our seats for the…
I’m in Amsterdam, up to my neck in Dutch vocabulary, learning the language. Although free time this trip isn’t plentiful, I did manage to slide in several engagements. Stopped by the Poezenboot today after class to say hi to my feline (and human) friends. Took some nice pics of the kitties and sent them over. SEE ALSO: ALL ABOARD THE…