The flip of a coin ..

What awful news has been the earthquake in Nepal. My heart goes out to all the lovely people of the country. I was lucky enough to spend time in Kathmandu and Pokhara - both severely affected by the disaster - and I really hope that all the people I met and photographed there are safe..

Hearing of the boat disasters in the Mediterranean also brings a shudder. I once covered a story in Libya and, to get there, I made a God-awful 14 hour ferry crossing from Malta to Tripoli - and back again! Shocking to think these are the very waters that are taking people to their deaths. By the same reasoning, I suppose, I've been to the top of the World Trade Centre at least three times and, like everyone else, have trusted my life to pilots I've never met or will ever know.. 

Life is just a flip of a coin, isn't it? Pure luck decrees where you live, how healthy you are, what abilities you are given and what will happen to you on any given day. Today, with my thoughts going out to all those poor people, I'm just appreciating how lucky I am. I hope you do the same..

Bobbing along...

Abstract, eh? But I thought it would make an appropriate image for today's blog. It's the last look I got of Tripoli, as I left Libya on a boat after covering a story there for the Manchester Evening News. (You couldn't fly directly to Libya in those day!) Those streaks are the lights of the harbour as the boat bobbed out to sea towards Malta, shot on Kodachrome 64 at who knows what?..  A second? (They never did figure out a way to record shooting details on film did they?) Anyway, point being, of course, that we can only hope this is the last look Gaddafi gets of the country one day, as he's taken away somewhere nice and cosy for the rest of his life! All I can say now is that if we're all pally and mates again with Libya, can I have that bottle of whiskey back that you confiscated at the port? Ta very much!