Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
Holiday in Namibia (6): Damaraland
April 23rd, 2023 by Roger Darlington
The next stage of our busy holiday involved yet another early start and yet another long road journey. So I was up at 5.30 am, put out my luggage at 6.30 am, and had breakfast before we set off at 7.15 am. First, we drove due north along the Skeleton Coast and stopped to view […]
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Holiday in Namibia (5): Swakopmund
April 21st, 2023 by Roger Darlington
On our second and last evening at the Desert Camp in Sesriem, there was bad news, followed by good news, followed by more bad news. The first bad news was that the air conditioning on our bus had broken down, it was not possible for our driver/guide to repair it, and there was no question […]
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Holiday in Namibia (4): Sossusvlei
April 19th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Tuesday was totally another travelling day. From our accommodation near the Fish River Canyon – the furthest south of our trip – we would now be heading north each day for the next week. So it was another case of “seven for eight”: luggage outside our door at 7 am and coach departure at 8 […]
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Holiday in Namibia (3): the Quiver Tree Forest & the Fish River Canyon
April 17th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Sunday was definitely a travelling day. We left the Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch just after 8 am and eventually rolled up to the Gondwana Canyon Village a little after 4 pm, after a journey of 8 hours. We were always travelling directly south, for about two-thirds of the journey on a normal road and for […]
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Holiday in Namibia (2): Windhoek & Kalahari
April 16th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Our journey from Britain to Namibia consisted of two flights: one of just over seven hours overnight from London to Addis Ababa and another of five hours in the morning from Addis Ababa to Windhoek. At Windhoek, we met our guide for the whole holiday, Carlos Mauers. His father was of Portuguese heritage and his […]
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Holiday in Namibia (1): introduction
April 13th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I am about to go on a holiday to Namibia with the company Voyages Jules Verne. This will be the ninth country in Africa that I have visited and the 86th nation worldwide. It will be a challenging trip, especially for someone who is almost 75. I will be away for just over two weeks. […]
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For me, a new year means a new diary
January 1st, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I have a near-lifelong practice of writing a diary and I have an entry for every day since I started. As 2022 ends and 2023 starts, I have now kept a diary for 61 years and the total number of daily entries now stands at 22,278. I find comfort in keeping a diary: I record […]
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A sign of these economically troubled times
December 23rd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
A message today from the hotel in Milton Keynes where I’ll be sleeping this Christmas: “We’re so excited to be welcoming you to stay with us once again. But, much like many businesses across the UK, we’ve been experiencing supply chain issues across a number of different areas, including team shortages, which unfortunately puts some […]
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Word of the day: Twiddlemuff
November 30th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
A Twiddlemuff is a double thickness hand muff with bits and bobs attached inside and out. It is designed to provide a stimulation activity for restless hands for patients suffering from dementia. I came across one today while volunteering in the Older Persons’ Unit of St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
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Are we inching closer to a cure for dementia?
November 22nd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This article offers some hope on the intractable and growing problem of dementia. For almost five years, I have been a participant in a long-term health study with the acronym CHARIOT PRO which has been studying the possible connection between dementia and a protein in the brain called beta amyloid. That study is about to […]
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