Archive for the 'Travel' Category

One drizzly day in London, a colleague mentioned that his step-sister was just qualifying as an elephant doctor in Botswana. In our air-conditioned office with our identical desks and grey demountable partitions, looking out at the grey streaks over the grey city I was intrigued by the idea of a different kind of career path and a different kind of lifestyle. So I tracked down Elephant Kate and got her to tell me about what it takes to become an elephant doctor.

From Botswana, Kate sent me her responses to my email interview:

YM: First off, give me a quick thumbnail of who you are.

Kate: I am a research associate at the University of Bristol. Curiosity always got the better of me and my childhood was spent peering under rocks for what might be living underneath. However, whilst living in Asia, it was elephants that really caught my imagination. A promise to an elephant, on a visit to an elephant orphanage sealed my future and made me pursue my dreams to be an elephant researcher. Since 2002, I have been living her dream, studying elephants in the Okavango Delta Botswana.

What inspired to become an elephant doctor?

It was on a visit to an elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka at the age of seven that shaped the rest of my life. I made a promise to an elephant that I would help in their conservation. As, we all know an elephant never forgets and so from that day I had one dream and one ambition, to be an elephant researcher.

Can you describe where you are now based?

My camp is based in the western Okavango Delta. I live in a tent so feel very much in touch with the environment in which I life. The view from my tent is typical Delta, a horizon that goes on forever interrupted by islands covered in palm trees with water or flood plain in between (depending on the season). It is pure wilderness, the home of the animals and I am just a visitor. Yet I feel far safer here then I do in a city, where the sharp lines of modern architecture are sore to my eyes, the noise of cars and people living sore to my ears. Contrary to public believe the bush or countryside is never quiet, there is always something going on – at night I am often awoken by the roar of lions, the trumpeting of elephants, the call of the bell frog, or the spotted genet (like a small cat) running around the roof of my tent. When I come back to the UK, I cannot sleep because it is too quiet.

What is your typical day like?

On a normal day, I awake just before dawn when the birds start to sing. My favourite dawn chorus is when the woodland kingfishers are in camp. Slowly the horizon turns pink as the sun starts to rise. As the day breaks more birds and animals join in. I listen for the tell tell signs of predators before I walk up to the kitchen to make a cup of tea before heading out to find the elephants. If I have heard elephants during the night I will head in that direction, particularly if I have not seen any for a few days. If not then I go out tracking the elephants that have collars in the area, at the moment the only ones that have collars are the released elephants. Since 2002, we have released five elephants from a herd used in the safari industry at Elephant Back Safaris. It is always wonderful to see them and she who they are hanging out with and how they are interacting and slowly becoming integrated into the wild social system. When I first started the research project there would be days when I did not see another person. Listening to the radio chat from the nearby safari camp was all the contact I had with humans. I did not mind it during the day when I was out with the elephants, but at the end of the day I felt lonely when there was no one to share my amazing day with. Now I am slowly building up a team and its great to be able to talk elephants with people. I am also more a part of the fabric and have friends at the nearby safari camp, and indeed camp where the research is based has now opened as a commercial camp open to tourist so I get to meet some very interesting people from all over the world. I do sometimes miss the tranquillity of the camp when it was just me.

Can you tell us something about the elephant culture?

Up until recently very little was know about male elephants, as research has concentrated on the more social females and their herds. I study the males and trying to add to the knowledge we have of them. I feel privileged to spend time with the males and I feel I am amongst friends when I am with them. What intrigues me the most is the social relationship of males. It is not random associations, males are choosing who to hang out with – it is these relationships I would like to understand – are they mates from long ago, new friends, relatives? What we do know is that old males are important to the development of young males and integral to the fabric of male elephant society. It is this relationship I see paralleling in our human society. As the social units break down and young males are left without mentors, males to look up to, to learn from and to be disciplined by we see an increase in delinquency and unsocial behaviour and this is evident in both our societies and those of elephants. Perhaps it is time we should learn from the animals.

Can you tell the differences between individual elephants?

When I first started my research I knew I wanted to get to know the population and the individuals within it. As I drove around all the elephants looked the same; big and grey. How would I ever get to know the individuals? Slowly, over the years the big grey gentle giants have become individuals, ‘William Wallace, Shaka Zulu, Dingaan, Nelson Mandela, Ganesh, and Oliver Cromwell – when I say their names I can see their faces in my mind and how I differentiate between them is primarily through their ears. Elephant have big ears, we all now that – the infamous Dumbo had the largest of all. The ears are often torn or have holes in and so by taking photos of these and making sketches of them as well as other characteristics such as the size and shape of their ears, or bodily scars help me tell whose who. So far I have identified over 500 males and 100 females, and so whilst there are a few that visit often and who I can tell at first glance, there are others that take a while to ID and others that are new to me.

Do you have a favourite elephant?

People often ask me who my favourite elephant is, and I have many. But if pushed I always say Mafunyane. He is a very special elephant and one I have spent most time with. He signifies the beginning of the project and my living my dream. He was the reason it all began, as he was the first elephant to be released on the 1st February 2002. He first came up to Botswana in the 80’s as he was originally from the Kruger National Park in South African and when his herd was culled as part of the management program there, he and other young claves were brought by the owner of EBS, Randall Moore, to expand his safari herd. It was always Randall’s vision to release the young males when they hit adolescence and it was their natural instinct to leave their herd and become independent. And so when Mafunyane began to show behaviour that it was time for him to leave, we put a satellite collar around his neck and bid him luck in his life outside of the herd. And so for the past five years I have followed him and seen him become slowly integrated into the wild bull society, growing ever more confident to leave the area he knows and explore more of the delta.

What are the challenges facing elephants in the region?

Botswana has a healthy population, the largest population of elephant left in the world at approximately 120,000. But elephants all over the world are losing habitat and struggling for survival. Slowly as time ticks by they are slowly loosing the battle as the areas they are allowed to inhabit and utilise become smaller and smaller. Most populations are small fragmented populations and we have to manage them more and more, moving individuals around to ensure genetic diversity and sustainability. Ivory is still very much in demand and the price per pound is on the rise, carved into beautiful objects the tusks are a poor reminder of the beautiful beast it once belonged to. With the rise in the price of ivory there is the evitable rise in poaching in certain areas. We have to decide if we can give them the space they and other species need and the protection they deserve.
For me a world without elephants would be a very poor world indeed and one I am not sure I would be able to live in.

What are some of the things you miss about the UK?

  Family
  Friends
  Pubs
  Long English summers
  English villages
  The Welsh Coast
  The theatre
  The sea
  Mountains

Anything else you’d like to share?

I feel very privileged to be living in the magic of the delta, living my dream and have a chance to pay something back to Botswana . This would not have been possible without the help and support of Randall Moore of Elephant Back Safaris. He and I are joining forces once more to enable us to give something back to the country and animals we love so much. We are setting up the Elephants for Africa Trust to be able to continue with the research but a large aspect of this trust will be to provide funds for a Motswana Scholarship Fund to enable local students to carry out their postgraduate degrees. Our first student is about to embark on his Masters degree and I look forward to supervising him and working with him.

To find out more:

Go to Elephant Research at http://www.elephantresearch.co.uk

There are some great profiles of the different elephants, with each of their individual stories in the Elephant Profiles section.

You can also help by adopting an elephant in the Adopt an Elephant section. Or you can support the cause by buying cards, notelets etc or giving a donation via the relevant links on the site.

If you do contact Elephant Research, do mention that you came to them via Fusion View!

This is a cross-post from my social media blog ZenGuide, in case you’d like to see my pics of Slovenia and the IABC crew.

I have uploaded my photos of my trip to Slovenia for the IABC Leadership Institute on a new ZenGuide Flickr account. The collection of photos shows the speakers at the conference as well as some of the delegates and some snaps of the gorgeous capital city Ljubljana.

Ljubljana is perfectly set along the banks of a small meandering river, with cobbled streets and baroque (?) architecture that reminded me of Austria. There were cafes and restaurants spilling out into the streets and people strolling and cycling at a leisurely pace. The Slovenian Tourist Board describes their country as the place where Germanic efficiency and order meets the Mediterranean good life and Ljubljana definitely seems to fit that description.

To see the photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/zenguide/tags/iabcslovenia/ or click on the photo below.

Concluding my email interview with poet Rob Mackenzie:

YM: You also spent 4 years in Italy. What were you doing there? Do you speak Italian?

Rob: In Turin, I worked for the Waldensian church, a tiny Protestant denomination which holds claim to being the oldest Reformed church in the world. Much of my work involved giving support, advice, and help to asylum seekers, refugees, and those who were in Italy illegally.The church ran a support project, which linked up to other projects and organisations ran by the local council, the government and the Catholic church. I do speak Italian, although Im not fluent, and Im probably getting worse after two years in Scotland. I translate Italian poetry now and again, partly to keep fresh whatever language skills I have left.

Was there a cultural difference/ culture shock when you were in Italy? I would imagine there to be less of a difference as Italy is in Europe but perhaps there is more of a difference?

I think there was less of a difference, but because I could understand the differences more easily, it sometimes felt as if there was more of a difference if that makes any sense at all. To be honest, I think most British people would be very surprised to find how very different living in Italy is from the UK, as we tend to go on holidays to Europe and not notice the differences other than the obvious ones i.e. food, sun, wine etc
The bureaucracy drove me crazy, the TV was awful, the emphasis on family felt exclusionary at times to outsiders like myself (although the Turin people have the reputation as the least friendly people in Italy), and Italians shared with Korea this idea of letting you hear what you wanted to hear, irrespective of what they actually planned to do.

On the other hand, Turin was a beautiful city, my daughter couldnt go ten yards along the street without being fussed over by complete strangers (and its true that children and young people are far happier and valued morein Italy than in the UK), and we did make some good friends there. Not to mention the food and wine!

How has having lived in three cultures influenced you? What have you taken away from each of them?

From Scotland Ive taken a misguided pride, a black humour, and a stubbornness that must be a national characteristic. From Korea, Ive learned what generosity and hospitality towards outsiders really involve. From Italy, I can identify strongly with the sense of being European more than just Scottish, and I also have this grim sense that when our politicians say they are going to tackle the problems affecting young people in this country (drink, violence, hanging about the streets bored etc.), they are starting from entirely the wrong perspective because the problems go deeper than they think, and no change will come unless they tackle the root problems. I think they could learn a lot from looking at Italy.

What was it like coming back to live in the UK? And specifically in Scotland?

At first it was good. Everyone spoke English, which was so much less effort than Italian! And we could get things in the shops that were hard to come by in Italy. But soon we began to realise that these things didnt matter so much. I liked my local grocers shop and the market stalls in Turin where all the staff knew me. I liked the way you could hardly find a ready-cooked microwave meal, and I really, really missed the dry winters and the warmth of the other seasons. Would I go back to Italy in the future, given an opportunity? Yes.

Do you feel that you are now “home” in Scotland?

No, although there have been advantages. Ive made contact with the UK and Edinburgh poetry scene that I felt far away from in Turin. HappenStance may not have been as interested in publishing my poetry chapbook if I had been based in Italy, as selling it requires doing readings etc. My wife is firmly part of the amateur theatre scene in Edinburgh, which is what she loves more than anything. My daughter is getting on well at her nursery school. So well be here for a while yet, but I dont think well stay in the UK for ever.

Will you share a poem on Fusion View as my other poet contributors have done?

Will this do?

TAXI

We take the Eurostar from Oulx and shift
two Filipinos from our pre-booked seats.
Outside the Porta Susa station, roadworks
attack the tarmac and the senses, force
the taxis fifty metres from their rank.
Kebab and couscous overrun the pavements.
A Lega Nord pamphlet pins robberies
on refugees. Our daughter shades her eyes
against the winter sun that casts white walls
in negative. Two black women arrive,
toggle their overcoats to sap the chill
from the wind’s whine, and then a cab draws in:
we gather cases, cot and pushchair,
a dropped teddy bear. Footsteps slide past us -
the women test the taxi doors. The driver
waves them away. ‘Priority for kids,’
he says. Only in Italy, I think.
‘And we were here before you anyway,’
I tell the women. They shrug their shoulder pads
and claim to head some queue. ‘So are you blind?’
I ask. They turn towards the newsagent
where billboard headlines hawk the evening scoop
that boats sank close by Sicily, fifty
clandestini dead, and thirty-five
half-starved. The driver shakes his head, observes,
‘They are not blind, but African,’ and bangs
our case into his boot. ‘Priority
for whites,’ he really means, and at our gate
the price is way too high, and still we pay.

from The Clown of Natural Sorrow (HappenStance Press, December 2005)

Copyright Rob Mackenzie

Photo: thanks to unep.org

I’m delighted to introduce you to Rob Mackenzie, a poet based in Scotland whose blogs at Surroundings . We got rather carried away when I interviewed him as he had some many interesting things to share so this interview is in two parts.

Rob was born in Glasgow in 1964. He lived in Seoul, Korea for 18 months around 1989-90 before returning to the west of Scotland. He read poetry at the Bar Brel in Glasgow through the mid-nineties. Then he and his wife and moved to Turin, Italy for 4-5 years, where their daughter was born. For the last couple of years they have lived in Edinburgh. He has published poems in many literary magazines in the UK, in a few webzines, and in a poetry chapbook, The Clown of Natural Sorrow, on HappenStance Press www.happenstancepress.com

YM: What drew you to write poetry? When did you write your first poem?

Rob: I wrote my first poem aged 13, but it took me twenty more years before I got any accepted for publication. That first one was set in English class at school. We had to write a rhyming ballad, so I wrote one about a mouse that chaseda terrified cat around a house. Then I fell under the spell of Gerald Manley Hopkins. I loved his sounds and rhythms and I wrote some awful imitations.

In my twenties I got into French existentialist fiction (Sartre, Camus, de Beauvoir) and made the mistake of trying to write poetry that took its bearings from their ideas. It was really pretentious stuff! But in my thirties, I began to find that I had something to say of my own and that language could be utilised to do interesting things without all the pretension.

How often do you write now? What inspires you/ gives you the idea for a poem?

I write more or less every day. I am quite disciplined about it. I dont always write poetry, but Im always jotting down ideas, phrases and thoughts. A poem can come from a real life event (although I tend to change things if change helps a poem), from a title, image or line that pops into my head and seems to demand continuation, from snippets of conversation, or from thoughts Ive had on any given issue. I tend to write best if I let the initial idea simmer in my brain for a few days or weeks and then sit down with the opening few lines already in my head.

Can you tell us something about the kind of poetry you write?

I tend to try my hand at lots of things. Im comfortable with free verse, rhyme, loose metre, strict form, even the occasional experimental piece. People tell me my poems can be quite complex, which might be true. I always write to communicate with readers, but sometimes a poem can take more than one read through to become clear. I write a lot about relationships, identity, faith and doubt, political issues, endings of one kind or another. That sounds very serious, but I use a lot of humour in my poems too!

Is being Scottish a strong part of your identity? What does being Scottish mean to you?

I’m not particularly nationalistic, until someone criticises Scotland. I am Scottish and Im sure thats shaped me in all kinds of indefinable ways. Its not something Ive explored all that much. Maybe I should. That might well be a future project.

Is your poetry Scottish poetry? (as opposed to English poetry/ Welsh poetry or just plain old “poetry”)

I feel its just plain old poetry. I dont write in Scots or Gaelic and while Ive written a few poems about Scottish identity, its not a theme Ive majored on. I know some of my poet-colleagues here are far more interested in doing this than I am and are influenced mainly by other Scottish poets. I like several Scottish poets John Burnside, Edwin Morgan, Norman MacCaig, Don Paterson, Roddy Lumsden they are excellent writers. But my influences come from all over Rilke (Germany), Roy Fisher (England), Charles Simic (USA), Miroslav Holub (Czech Republic), and many others.

You spent 18 months in South Koreain 1989-90. What were you doing there? Do you speak Korean?

I did various things. I studied Korean Minjung theology, a kind of liberation theology that incorporated bits of Korean folk tradition, Marxism, and the Bible. I worked a couple of days a week in a smallish church, and I taught English to a few people. But I spent most of the time meeting people, travelling, eating the fiery food, and drinking maccoli (rice-based alcoholic drink). I learned enough Korean to ask for things in shops etc very basic stuff, nearly all of which Ive forgotten. It was a very difficult language.

What cultural differences did you notice?

So many of the cultural differences were in the mind and kept there. Sometimes people would grin at something I said or did, but when I asked why, they would never tell me. Its OK. No problem. Just Korean culture. Its OK, you are a Westerner! The Koreans were such hospitable people. I made a lot of friends there.

Relationships with women were fraught with problems. I found it impossible to know the etiquette, the rules of engagement. Korean women often seemed to flirt with me, but I think it was because the idea of going out with a westerner was so ridiculous to them (due to family expectations and tradition) that they felt safe getting close to me.

But sometimes it got confusing. I remember a woman called Hae-jang. I went out with her a few times and had no idea of how to progress the relationship. Then I met another woman, Jeung-wha, who I fell in love with in a matter of days.In fact, probably within five minutes! I didnt think it would matter to Hae-jang. I was convinced she saw me as only a friend. How wrong I was! Apparently she was furious, but she, and all her friends, refused to speak to me ever again.And then it didnt work out with Jeung-wha who ended up going off to a Zen temple in the countryside and.. well that was the last I saw or heard of her.

I once invited a woman named Gil-sun to have a coffee in my room (we were standing outside it at the time). It was an entirely innocent invitation. Yes, she replied, as she began walking away.

Well, lets go, I said, pointing. Its up here.

Yes, she said, and kept walking in the other direction. Life was full of moments like that! The answer to any question was always what you wanted to hear, even if what then happened was in direct contradiction.

How has that time in East Asia influenced you?

Yes. It made a huge impact on me. I learned what it was like to be utterly clueless, unable to understand a language and culture, and to be far away from home. And Korea was only just emerging from years of military dictatorship and there were strikes, protests, and trouble all the time. I learned the effect of tear gas the hard way. But at the same time, I had a fantastic experience in Korea and I learned the meaning of hospitality for the stranger there.

Did you write poetry while you were in S Korea? Or later, looking back on that time? How do you think the East influenced your writing?

I didnt write any poetry at the time. I wrote about 20 songs and the guys in my band told me they were the worst songs Id ever written. Since that time I have written a few poems about Korea, one of which was published in the Avatar Review . I also wrote one about how I fell in love with Jeung-wha and why it didnt work, which is unpublished and will probably remain so.

I think going outside my own culture has given me a deeper understanding of people. Not that I can understand what its like to be Korean, but that I can understand something of what it is like to be a foreigner.I grew up a lot in that period. Even though it was only 18 months, it took me a while to settle back into life in Scotlandagain. The culture shock on my return seemed stronger than when I first arrived in Seoul.

Come back next Wednesday for Part 2 when Rob talks about his time in Italy and returning home to Scotland. He also shares one of his poems with us.

While we were on holiday in Crete recently, we spent many long, lazy dinners at the tavernas in our little mountain village. The tavernas spread their tables out in the open air under a light bamboo canopy or a shelter naturally woven from grape vines. Looking up at the stars beyond, we could see the nascent grapes begin to bulge on their tiny stems.

After the meal, we would sit back, stuffed on barbeque lamb or pork chops and baclava. They would then bring us a complimentary fruit basket and a small carafe of Raki on the house.

Raki is a clear colourless spirit, like vodka and seems to be a local speciality which the taverna proudly served us with a flourish. You pour it from the chilled carafe into small thimble shot glasses and knock it back. And feel the burn.

It made me think of arak, a clear colourless spirit, like vodka, that is drunk in Malaysia. I wonder whether how Raki found its way to Malaya (as it would have been back then in the past) from Crete to evolve into arak. Or perhaps it travelled from Malaya to Crete? Most likely, it would have been through the traders from the Middle East, just a short hop East from Crete and regular visitors to Malaya and Indonesia many centuries ago - and who still have a strong connection with modern Malaysia. And both Crete and Malaya in that distant time were hubs in major trading routes from East to West.

I savoured the strong aromatic alcohol burning my palate as I enjoyed this unexpected global connection. It was not my favourite taste - rather like medicine, or even methlyated spirits. Still, I toasted the ancient international adventurers and took another acrid sip.

Photo: thanks to AcornMan at virtualtourist.com

UPDATE 23 JUNE 2007: NICOLE HAS INFORMED ME THAT THIS SURVEY IS NOW CLOSED.

I received this email from Nicole Le Maire who is doing a survey of the expatriate experience for a study on The Hidden Depths of Global ambition. She is looking for people who have worked or are working in a country that is not their home country to do a short survey.

I started to do it and the questions made me think that I’m actually a local in the UK so I’m not sure I qualify. I came here as a child to school and stayed on for Uni and Law College, then got a job here. So I’m not sure I’m an expat (ie Malaysian expat) - am I?

Anyway, take a look for yourself (this survey is open to all genders, not just women):

Are you living or have you lived, studied or worked outside of your ‘home country’?

Has your organisation sent you abroad to complete an international assignment?

My name is Nicole Le Maire (Dutch) currently studying for a MBA qualification at TiasNimbas, The Netherlands. I am undertaking research on the topic of The Hidden Depths of Global Ambition, looking at the various ways how organisations and people decide to take the decision to work abroad. Do males/females receive the same opportunities to develop and work abroad? Is it nowadays standard that people accept localised terms and conditions?

This study will only take 10 minutes and the information received will be treated as strictly confidential. Its only purpose is to support this research.

To participate in my study, please click here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=372813890362

(If the link does not work, copy and paste the URL into your browser)

As a fellow ‘expatriate’, I hope you agree with me that learning more about the Hidden Depths of Global Ambition is important. I would be grateful if you could pass this along onto any ‘expatriates’ that you believe would be willing to take part in this study.

I would be very grateful for your participation.
Thank you for your time!

Nicole Le Maire
email: ndlemaire [at] hotmail.com
http://www.tiasnimbas.edu

Photo: thanks to fischerhuder from flickr.com

As a child in Malaysia, I used to read everything I could find about the Ancient Romans and Greeks. I knew all the stories of daring heroes and jealous gods, beautiful women and powerful goddesses - Theseus and the Minotaur, Diana the huntress, Zeus and his desire for women, Helen of Troy. Their world, in my mind, was one of craggy mountains and turquoise seas, bright meadows and dark caves; these humans and gods glowing with bronzed skin against white tunics. There was also something about the idea of long-gone civilizations that was haunting to me back then as a child - and is still haunting to me now as an adult. I could not imagine back then how it could be that great cities that had once flourished and thronged with people could somehow be forgotten and lie undiscovered for centuries - and even millenia. Looking around at the city I lived in then, it seemed impossible that it might one day crumble to dust and be erased from memory.

We spent a week on Crete recently and all these haunting thoughts came back to me during our holiday on this bright Mediterranean island, once the crossroads at the centre of the Ancient World. Today, it is part of Greece, one of the newest members of the European Union and also among its poorer nations. For much of the last century, it was primarily an agricultural economy and while many coastal villages and towns are thriving from tourism as seaside resorts, it is still relatively unspoilt inland and retains its rural charm. In contrast to the wealthier First World European regions like the UK, Germany and France, Crete felt like a step back into the Third World. Whole families ride around on one scooter, the kids jammed between their parents; food is very cheap; decor is plain and simple; traffic is chaotic; buildings and houses look tatty and laid-back. There are still many sleepy villages surrounded by olive groves and orange trees where herds of sheep are shepherded down the main street and may wander into your garden to eat the geraniums.

Crete is also the home of Knossos, the home of the legendary King Minos who is said to have kept the Minotaur in the labyrinth beneath the palace - the hero Theseus slayed the monster with the help of the King’s daughter Ariadne and escaped with her to Naxos. The palace and its surrounding city was at its height 3,000 years ago and was an astonishingly beautiful multi-storyed complex of courtyards and decorated rooms. At the opposite end of the island, near where we were staying, was the thriving commercial city of Aptera, a busy urban centre with Roman baths and bustling streets. Both now lie in ruins, undiscovered for thousands of years, their stones taken by locals to be used in building houses and other structures.

Wandering around Aptera, with its amazing view over Souda Bay in one direction and a vista of the mountains in the other, I was struck by the poppies and wildflowers fluttering in the wind amid the empty stones. This is all that is left of a nation that was once the most powerful and wealthy in the Western world, its heirs now among the poorest Europe. We came across the remains of a villa, just a handful of stone pillars now. We sat down for a rest and had a drink from our water bottles. I noticed a carved pattern on one of the pillars and wondered who the man was who carved it those thousands of years ago - I pictured him on a particular day at a particular time, just doing his job, perhaps thinking of his family or telling a joke to his fellow artisans as he worked. For him, that city he lived in would have seemed as infinite and permanent as I feel London and Kuala Lumpur is today. I wondered who lived in this villa with its stunning view of the mountains and how that family might have stood out on its terrace and looked at the ageless hills as I was looking out at them now. Perhaps they too felt how life was good, as I did in that moment - how fortunate they were to have this villa and the riches of their lives.

I thought of Shelley’s poem Ozymandias:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

For me, that moment by the villa made me somewhat melancholy but it also heightened my appreciation of our week’s holiday - and the fullness of all that I had to enjoy in my life. I think that’s why the Romantics kept a skull on their desk and built fake ruins in the gardens of their estates - to be reminded that “nothing beside remains” and so to feel more keenly the sensations of being alive. There’s nothing like a touch of mortality to wake one up to the vibrancy of life.

Photo 1: ruins of villa, Aptera

Photo 2: detail of carved pillar

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more on Ozymandias, see http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/shelley/section2.rhtml

For more on Aptera, see http://www.greekisland.co.uk/wcrete/aptera.htm

I am delighted to officially announce the launch of my new Social Media Consultancy, ZenGuide.

Interactive web tools like blogging, podcasting and social networking are increasingly being used by businesses to communicate with their customers and stakeholders at a conversational level. Professionals can showcase their expertise. Businesses can engage with customers in a direct and immediate way. The key is a clear, integrated marketing strategy between online and offline media as well as effective blog management.

The ZenGuide consultancy draws on my success as a writer and blogger as well as my experience in the legal and local government sector to offer strategic consultancy to businesses and professionals on how effective use of social media tools can contribute to their business and personal success. We also provide a range of related services from writing bespoke web-content to web and blog design as well as blog editing and management.

You can visit the combined website and blog at www.zenguide.co.uk .

You can find out more about our range of services by clicking on the What We Do tab at the top of the home page at ZenGuide.

For more information about me and my areas of expertise as well as about the associate web design team, click on the Who We Are tab at the top of the home page.

I hope you enjoy reading the ZenGuide blog which aims to bring you views and analysis of current issues and trends in the world of blogging and social media - all in plain English. You’ll see a number of ways to subscribe in the far right sidebar on the homepage of ZenGuide.

If you’d like to find out more about how ZenGuide can help you and/ or your business, do get in touch with me via the Contact page where you’ll find a contact form and my Skype and telephone contact details.

OK, let me start off with a disclosure. Some of my best friends are American and they are super-intelligent and articulate but these folk in the video below - well, it makes me worry that America is the most powerful nation on earth.

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We’re not all about high-brow stuff and books here at Fusion View. Ladies, if you want some eye-candy, a pretty boy, a big slab of countryside hunk, we can help you find one.

Just head on over to Beaut Blokes at www. beautblokes.com.au and sign up for a weekend in the stunning Australian landscape with some stunning Australian men.

The strap line for the site is “revitalising rural communities.” It seems that too many smart women are heading off to the cities for big time careers, leaving too many beaut Ozzie blokes in the countryside. The Beaut Blokes events are aimed at bringing the women back to see what they are missing out on - hopefully, they will find the man of their dreams and revitalise the parched countryside.

This is not a solely Australian problem. In China, there are likely to be 30 million single men by 2020 - partly due to the country’s one child policy where many female foetuses were aborted and partly due to many young women preferring to move to the cities for their careers.

In the UK, farmers in Wales will appear on milk cartons with the enticing invitation, “Fancy a Farmer?” with contact details for the ladies to get in touch if he tickles their fancy over their breakfast cereal.