A Gentleman Traveller

Of all the seas and oceans that I have ventured through on my journey, it's the atlantic that is the most awe-inspiring, and that makes this massive ship feel like a ship should. It's the fact that no other stretch of water I have encountered can make this ship rock and roll, any wear near as much as the Atlantic.  It's this motion of the ocean that reminds me of the supreme power of nature, its something that you cannot deny.  Most of all the Atlantic reminds of the fact we are at last on our return leg, my final few days that have been confirmed even further as I received my travel information, from Amsterdam to London Heathrow on Thursday the 26th, I can unashamedly say that after I recieved this piece of paper, and had placed it in my lockable drawer, I went up to the highest part of the ship, on top of the bridge took off my shirt and basked in the sun, placed my head phones in my ears and began to dance, a dance of pure joy, not caring who saw in fact I...

When I woke at 6:30 it was still dark reminding ke that the further north we travel we enter in to winter it's a strange feeling. At 7:30 the early gimpses of sunrise appear a new day about to be given birth, and by 8:15 I stare uncontollabley and await paintently to see the sun rise in the east.  The condensation marks of a plane that passed by minutes before becomes a red streak across the sky which gets brighter as that inevitable moment comes closer to fruition, changing colours as life comes back to an eternaly dark planet.  A sight that I have seen a thousand times before but now I see it with my eyes open for the first time, the colours as the whole sky begins to light up hours before this moment. To the dark clouds as they begin thier slow retreat, their time will come again but not just yet.  The planes trail now becomes a glowing firery multitude of colours, as light begins to come and make visible ships on the horozion, the whites horses leap in...

I have spent my life trapped in a prision of my own choosing, a prison with no doors, windows or walls, only a screen, a controller and a console.  Living out my life as which ever character in which ever story, I was playing at the time. I have only self control to thank that I never discovered the world that is Warcraft. Other wise, I cannot help but think that I would be lost, lost in a world that does not exist in the physical relm, but in the ever expanding digital realm, the realm where dreams can be visualised, and night mares realised. A realm where the difference of life and death is but a save, or a restart away.  Where you can be what you want, do what you want, whenever or however you see fit.  But this world is expanding, this relm and ours seem to be ever merging, how soon till what we now know as reality becomes fantasy, and what we know as fantasy becomes reality?

As I enter the Suez Cannal, the gate way to Europe, I feel a familiar chill in the air and I welcome it. It's a sureal sight to see on one side a near barren desert, and on the other a thriving metropolis. The Chill in the air reminds me that Europe is in winter where as I have been stuck in an eternal summer, as I have crossed the world from West to East and back again.  As the Sun rises it slowly warms my skin, it's a wlecoming feeling, as I know that in the next few hours, the temperature will rise to a balmy 30-40 degrees. But on the desert side you see derelict buildings, scrap metal and tyres littering what would other wise be a pleasent landscape, and I remember that this strech of land is more than likely one of the most fought over in history, and that on more than one occasion it must have run red with blood and I weep. For mans abiltiy to create is nothing compared for his desire to destroy. The Desert is cold, in a place of such warm colours, sand an...

Have we have arrived at a point and place in time, where over-sensitivity to certain aspects of religion, are holding the human race back from advancement?  Where in certain creative media (video games, films ,theatre and literature) which attract anger and outrage if they use religious aspects, the creators are scrutinised, and bullied by the media all because they risk up setting people's systems of belief. Some Video Games designers in their computer games have in someways addressed this issue, and others such as homosexuality with allowing their stories to incorporate these and allow players to follow their own path on different levels.  This aspect of free will is one of those things that many religious groups, especially those followers of the "Big Three" (Christianity, Islam and Judaism)  have a major problem with.  Where as it is deemed more than acceptable to those religions that have multiple Gods and use them and imagery of them in these me...

My second true experience of the Asian continent, and my first experience of a Chinese way of life. Even though Hong Kong is a mixture of Western and Eastern, it is in this melting pot where Extremes are created.  On first arriving in Hong Kong, I was pleasantly welcomed by familiar sights, English style road signage, cars driving on the left and Uk style license plates. That was where the similarities to my native homeland ended.  Hong Kong is one of the cities that I have found embodies what I like to call "Disciplined Insanity" on every level.  Seeing Asia's ability to adapt and to evolve is as invigorating as it is depressing when I think of how the Uk has become and it's people for that matter on every level. A bunch of blind fools who cling on to past victories as if they happened yesterday, every closing line from an English man in an argument they can't win  is "Well we once controlled half the world". England no longer has an Empire ...

Sometimes I think back to times long gone, to events and periods in my life  that I never thought that I would ever miss. It's not the events themselves, but certain experiences that came with them. Now my mind drifts back to a time when I was naught but a lost soul, a man with no compass to guide him and no sail with which to send me on my way. To a place where I went which was not of my choosing. A place where as much I felt the warmth of friendship, I also felt the peace that solitude brings, and now I again long to taste that solitude once more. To feel that peace that being away from human civilisation brings, even if it is for but an hour or day.  To once again be immersed in mother natures beauty. To be in a place where the hum and racket of machines cannot be heard, where music comes from the wind whistling through the trees, to hear the delicate songs that the birds sing, to be in aware of the sight of eagles soaring on wing and to once again be at...