A Few Days Of Sun: Introduction
Let me first acknowledge that it presumptuous of me to think anyone is remotely interested in a 55-year-old white male writing a blog of any sort. So, from the start of this thing… for however long it my last… my reasons for writing this at all have to be personal. In other words this oeuvre has to serve me… And what serves me at this time sitting here at my desk at Albany, Mayfair on this grey January morning, is to keep a personal written and photographic record of the past and present experiences that have shaped my life, amused me, irritated me, inspired me and so on, so that in my dotage which appears to be arriving at a lightning speed, I can whilst enjoying ‘a few days of sun’ somewhere splendid, look back on my chronicled adventures, contained herein, and smile.
I benefit from a rich life. Rich in texture, in family friends and adventure. Mine is a handsomely speckled career of up and downs as fully expected in the case of any polymath, and polymath I admit here to being. Movies and culture, art and commerce, great adventure on mountains and at sea, and of course food of every type, are the happy ingredients of the dreams that have shaped these last 35 years of my life’s work. And of course, no story can or should exist without the sublime participation of the fairer sex. I shall then include all these elements in this blog, this diary, this confession of mine!
Notwithstanding any of the self-depreciating drivel about no one being interested in me… I avow that am forever being asked for advice and ‘tit bits’ of information on how to live life well? … I suppose to be seen as an oracle of good living is quite a compliment and some acknowledgement to the fine veneer I have enveloped myself in – presented myself and mascaraded being! Most often I am asked; Where to go for a few days of sun? – for the name of a good fish restaurant in Genoa or Positano, or for Goat Stew in Oracabessa, Jamaica, or Conch salad in the Bahamas.? Less frequently inquiries might be… What fly do you use on Mount Kenya fishing for the tiny Trout, or which tobacco shop in Roma still makes hand made pipes…To answer these questions and others of more impertinent nature such as…Where did you get that suit? Who makes your shoes…? do you really own ALL of that boat…? This tome may actually be rather useful.
My formula of living life well is about balance and self-discipline, and NOT about living hard, and paying hard, an Icarus philosophy many of my more glamorous friends have adhered too closely too with disastrous consequences. I am one man contented with the quiet peace of a river bank somewhere lost in Connemara…or of a quite morning hiking in the dry Tramontane Mountains or the Santa Monica canyons. I believe peace must come from inside first. From a warrior like philosophy of simplicity and stillness. I need for little and have much and probably I learned this from being the child of a family who had much and lost all.
I will tell you about myself, my tastes and beginnings more as this thing develops. For the moment though, I welcome the few of you who might take a read of this.