Inspired observations gained from my travels, matched to a music track and made into a quirky blog from a recalcitrant Lancastrian.
recalcitrant
rɪˈkalsɪtr(ə)nt/
adjective
1.
having an obstinately uncooperative attitude towards authority or discipline.
noun
1.
a person with a recalcitrant attitude.
"a stiff-necked recalcitrant and troublemaker"
☯️
Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.
Franz Kafka.
Next trip coming soon….
🇲🇾 Malaysia. A country Split in two by the South China Sea, we will be travelling on the west peninsula home of the Worlds oldest tropical rainforest and the sacred birthplace of the OompaLoompas.
First stop KL Kuala Lumpur for a couple of days city action then depending on where the monsoons are affecting the weather we will head off on foot to explore.
Having survived the cattle market and now penned tightly up, it gave me time to reflect on the mornings inefficiencies of one of the UK’ leading International airports. I was finally overjoyed at clearing the gestapo security to sit down and relax with a ridiculously overpriced cup of coffee from one of USA’s leading International coffee emporiums.
I must warn you not to raise your expectations as this is an old blog format on an old blogger platform, cobbled together by an old muso lying in a hammock, so there will be no Vlogging, podcasting, dancing TikTokking videos or even a selfie stick being waved about annoyingly during the making. This decrepit digital nomad will capture it all in his own head using only eyeballs and an old box brownie and then, like a crazy old Baird, will assemble the resulting musings to magically appear on the blog pages, as and when I deem convenient throughout the trip.
That’s the ground rules covered…
Conscious of being in the late fifties now, all moving parts have been Wax-oiled, lips freshly painted and toenails and teeth buffed up and polished for good measure. The bloodstream has been laced with B1 Thiamine in order to cause some kind of metabolic reaction like some ‘freakish anti-mozzy antidote experiment’, but this could turn out to be a load of old metabollox…time will tell.
With loaded rucksacks at the ready we have packed enough stuff to stop anyone or anything biting, stinging, blistering, burning, bleeding, honking and shitting…so hopefully no more ‘dribble drama’s’ according to my favourite advert!
“Never mind, you’ll probably never look that pretty again…
Your not Nineteen Forever, pull yourselves together”
Anyhow, almost ready to set off as you only get one life so you had better use it…!
Next stop Manchester T1 to get, no doubt, frisked, abused and herded out of the terminal and onto the tarmac by airline staff carrying electric prods and lengths of alkathine pipe, like a couple of heifers at a fat stock market.
Emirates’ biggest bird in the fleet, the Airbus A30, is ready to set sail from Manchester to Kuala Lumpur via Dubai on Sunday morning and as we look forward to tucking into our pre-ordered Kosher crispy bacon breakfast barm #JustEat we will be jetting off to the 37 degree sweatbox they call Malaysia 🇲🇾 AKA Bargain loving Brits in the Sun’….
“Your Not Nineteen Forever
It’s not big, and your definitely…not clever”
Off the album St.Jude by the wonderful Manchester band from Middleton, The Courteeners….never bounced as much in my life seeing this band at KGH…enjoy!
For what it’s worth, I’m just wondering about having a bit of a blogfest again as preparations are being made for a nice month long trip into Asia…So, I’m currently trying to convince myself that I still have the time and creative inclination to string a few musings together and litter them with some colourful pics as we trot round Malaysia, mainly as a vibrant diary to capture a few memories digitally.
Ok, so decision made…il give it a go…
The blog has had a bit of a re-vamp and is now good to go too.
Looking back, the previous blogs covered last years bike trip with the boys and before that my time living and working in Italy and trips around Europe so we were due some coverage of this ‘long-haul’ respite for the next month.
respite
/ˈrɛspʌɪt,ˈrɛspɪt/
noun
a short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant
ie.Work…
As the last big Asian adventure was to Thailand in 2016 , I’m going to make the effort and keep a log of proceedings of this one in 2024 which will be starting next weekend.
It will mean, I suppose, a whole shedload of new song titles to find from my favourite songsters and I will be diving into my playlists to find an appropriate music song title for each of the whiney, recalcitrant posts for which i will probably continue to make grumpy observations and false allegations, while lying in a hammock. I will be using this platform for capturing proceedings as we trot around the globe, musing and quizzing locals on topics dear to my heart from street food to probably more street food.
So, meet Atmos & Stratos, our companion luggage carriers of choice, for this adventure…and watch this space from now on for future updates!
“There's something happening here But what it is ain't exactly clear”
Buffalo 🦬 Springfield
Enjoy two old codgers having fun with an old, old tune to kick us off.
Our overnights stay at the Ibis in Boulogne was a handy stop off for the ferry out of Calais the following morning.
This post is only so I can use up some photos and squeeze in an aptly titled song by one of my favourite artists, Conor Oberst, here with his band ‘Bright Eyes’. I have been a little obsessive with this guy over the years…”Under a microscope of apoplectic vision”….What is there not to like about a lyric like that?…a great singer songwriter, enjoy a live version of this wonderful song here…
This was the final days riding of the 2023 ‘Tour de France’ and it was going to be the longest route. The 40 mile loop would take us south, down to Caen and back up the river to Ouistreham. One way or another, it was going to get quite hard…
In preparation, we deliberately stopped off in the harbour at the family run stall of local fisher-folk ‘Fanny and Charles’ to breakfast on some fresh oysters 🦪 (huitres) that are famous on the Normandy coast to give us energy for the days ride.
We probably shouldn’t have ordered a kilo each but we got them slipped down, one by one and I have to say, you haven’t tasted oysters like them until you’ve tried Fanny’s…!
Starting to feel a little amorous and bilious at the same same we set off gingerly with bellies full of fresh salty water and slippy molluscs but it wasn’t long before we had to pull over for a strong coffee to settle the stomach.
By the time we had got to Caen I had eaten the same one about 7 times…each time it seemed to taste a bit better…
We stopped off in Caen for a crepe and felt a lot better for it before heading back up the river to complete the circuit.
As we arrived wearily back at Coursuelles-sur-mer there was not much left in the tank…or the pot of ‘Sudocrem’.
Try to keep it all down as you boogie on down to a great ‘Underworld’ track.
Unexpectedly it covered the whole street and offered a plethora of French gastronomy from local unpasteurised cheese, stinky sausage and foie gras to Calvados, Crepes and a massive pan of authentic Spanish Paella!
I opted for a coffee and sat down to watch the proceedings.
Question….Why have folk started to carry domestic animals around?
It seems bizarre to me that a perfectly fit border collie needs to be manhandled or a skanky ginger Tom carted round in a wicker basket strapped to your chest??… where will it stop?…will they start to fetch other pets out for a look round the market?…a tortoise in a harness perhaps, a ferret in a specially designed compartment in your handbag or maybe a gongoozling goldfish carried aloft in a bowl on a turban?
We must persevere with the trend until it becomes a little too passé I guess….I digress as I really just don’t know ‘who’s in control?’.
To ease the pain in my brain I opt to head for the sea for a swim. The temperature of the water took my mind off the wonderings so I returned to the gite to catch up with the boys over lunch.
While they went off for the afternoon on the 🚴🚴 I opted for an amble around the harbour and then settled down in a quiet brasserie in the square with a chilled bottle of ‘Muscadet’ and imagined I was cycling down the Loire Valley….also a bit easier on the arse after 3 days in the saddle!
Who’s in Control was a song by indie band British Sea Power…just to wake you up and get u 🤔thinking!
Todays ride was off to have a look at the famous carpet town of Bayeaux.
Pongo’s tours had the riding gadget set to record and as soon as Buster Gonad had got back with his unfeasibly large baguette and fresh croissants from the artisan boulanger we were ready to cock our legs over the saddle for day 3 in sunny Normandy.
We stopped off on the way at the coiffure for a morning coffee and continued off down the lovely rural backroads arriving at Bayeux for lunch.
The Impressive Cathedral, where Norman the Conk started his big -nose crusade from, was where we parked the pushrods. He was a famous fella round these parts for the Frexit rebellions of 1066 when he came over to the UK to rape, pillage and take our jobs but it turned out not to be as good as he thought after he got into an altercation with a bloke called Harold who he stabbed in the eye and then thought, “bugger this for a game of soldiers”, and returned home to open a carpet shop.
To be honest, the honour of being the first carpet in the world to be invented was a petite disappointment, it was a lot smaller than as it’s made out to be in the brochures so I’d go as far as to say that it’s more like an ‘off-cut’.
After more poignant remembrance of the fallen at Bazenville with the war graves, sadly some without names or identities, it was time to head home.
With heads down and pedalling hard we were blowing out of our arses up the penultimate hill on the last leg when a rather large lady in her 80’s rang her 🛎️ and with a cheerful “Merci “ and a rather large smile blew us all off and shot off into the distance with the power of the 🪫 on her bicyclette…
…Oh, how we laughed!!
Just enjoy the old French track about bicycles and move on ….
