Soapbox

There has never been a better time to be a conscious of ‘wellness’ than now while we are facing a worldwide pandemic of a new and exceptionally virulent virus: COVID-19. While here in Bali we have been – up to now – less affected than many places, the simple fact is that no–one and nowhere […]

It’s funny how some people just can’t enjoy the delights of food and drink. They are only interested in the nutritional value, the calorific value, the balance, the origin and the composition of their food. “Sustenance” rather than food, just fuel to keep the body going, but increasingly fine-tuned to all the critical factors above: […]

“Love is a Many-Splendoured Thing” I’m pretty sure that expression came from a gooey Hollywood movie but it says it – all tongue in cheek! The love that St. Valentine expressed back in the 1st century, was actually one of sacrifice and that’s a very hard thing to do or  even to contemplate. But is […]

One hundred years ago the world was still celebrating peace in Europe after the devastation of World War One; America was in its first flush of modern lifestyle and invented the speakeasy, filled with dance, sing and happiness, fuelled  by the beginning of a huge booze trade. It was the ‘Roaring Twenties’ when anything was […]

Many years ago in Europe, but it was probably the same all over the world, festivals were very much centred on religious celebrations. Many of them were agriculturally based too like  ‘Thanksgiving’ for a good harvest (or sometimes a human sacrifice because the harvest was bad!), and were usually at very fixed points of the […]

There was a time, not that long ago, when it was really possible to get lost in Bali. To wander down unmarked roads and lanes and sit quietly under banyan trees in unnamed villages. There was nature in Kuta and fields in Seminyak, there wasn’t a single building in Nusa Dua nor a villa on […]

Sustainability is the hot word of the moment. Encompassing environmental friendliness, economic viability, community sensitivity and ethnical employment. It is a huge and complicated subject. But it’s not just hot, it’s important. Almost everything, no, actually everything needs to be sustainable. While most of us think of sustainability as an environmental issue and absolutely abhor […]

British Poet John Masefield wrote his famous  poem ‘Sea Fever’ in 1902 which so beautifully expresses our fascination with the sea. The second verse sums it up well: “I must down to the sea again, for the call of the running rideIs a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied” We […]

The art world is one that is very hard to understand, and I think those that control it want it to be that way! Which artist fetches the top dollar for their work? And why? It doesn’t always seem to be about what we (amateurs!) call quality, in fact some of the absolutely hot, top-grossing […]

I suppose most people want to be fit, and everyone wants to be healthy but isn’t it amazing that we don’t try very hard to achieve either? We bumble along putting off exercise schedules and programs and delay health checkups as if these were causes of the problems not the solutions. Don’t deny it! Part […]