It's the little things you remember ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thirty years ago today I was trekking in the Himalayas and stopped at a hostel that had a short-wave radio. On the BBC World Service news that evening, I heard that the 'Desert Storm' Gulf War had started.

"I can't believe it," I said. "That's my friend, reading the news!" And so it was. My pal, who now works for the Financial Times, was the newsreader that fateful day in January '91. Doesn't sound so special now but, back then, to hear my friend's voice when I was half-way up a mountain range in Nepal was amazing.

By 1992 I was in New Hampshire, where I photographed this 'Desert Storm' train set in a shop window.

It's the little things you remember ..

 

 

A world of difference ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a thirtieth birthday present to myself, I bought an airline ticket and took off on a six-month 'Round-the-World' back-packing trip ..

 It began on the sixth of January, 1991 ..

Exactly thirty years on and I'm living in a completely different world, one in which that dream is now an impossibility. No-one can go anywhere, anymore! The Covid pandemic's got us all in its grip, and even poor old STA travel, with whom I booked my ticket, has ceased trading because of it ..

I was going to call this blog 'The opposite of lockdown' because, flying off from Heathrow at the start of that trip, I'd never felt such freedom in my entire life. Today, people can't even step outside their front doors ..

I'm not writing about my trip to show off, I'm simply marking an amazing personal anniversary and thanking my lucky stars I was to be able to fulfill my dream. How fortunate I am to have such fabulous memories ..

Covid is never going to be a fabulous memory for today's thirty year olds. Here's hoping that their world - and ours - will open up again soon .. 

(Ps: If you're interested, this picture was taken in Moorea, the island across from Tahiti. I've always been fascinated by the 'Mutiny on the Bounty', and the inlet on my right is where they shot some of the Anthony Hopkins' film version.)