I started this blog in March 2008. Nervously. I’ve been a closet writer for years although the handwriting (despite the italic training – ‘hold the pen lightly, never too tightly’) has not improved. The desire to write has been a constant and I have become a natural documenter. Now, as the short term memory begins to soften and blur, the desire to document is driven by a need to record least I forget. The films seen, the feeling and vision then, moments with friends or strangers when a light falls, or a view shifts. When I am on the road, journeying, when the writing comes most naturally, with a glass of wine, roll-up and notebook at the end of the day. Much the same, I was delighted to find in a recent travel across Eastern Europe, as with Patrick Leigh Fermor.
This photo was taken by Giri (Giridhar Manandar)
in the compound of the Shiva Puri Baba, Kathmandu, around 2008.
My life in brief
After school – with a stammer which I needed to mask – I studied Drama in Winchester, a place chosen at random, far away from familiar Norfolk. I lost the stammer, got a BEd, and travelled.
I returned to Norfolk to embrace my love of art, but as a restorer of paintings, studying under Michael Chapman, (an excellent artist), and eventually set up self employed in London (Curzon Street, Holland Park)
Restoring other peoples art, stuff of the past, and working alone, eventually challenged me. I sold a painting, and through the Manpower Retraining scheme at the time, re trained as a C Programmer. I landed a great job, at Imperial Cancer research Fund (Lincoln’s Inn Fields) as User Support Manager. This could have been my secure life, but I was challenged again – a woman in a mans world – I left, bought Times Atlas of the World.
So began the second stage of my working life. Travelling. First to Africa, east, climbing mountains, then to India for 10 years. Here I learned about activism, India, Buddhism, and Bob. Together Bob Edwards and I wrote a book, Life in Plastic. Later I wrote and other book, Bird of Passage (a biography of a buddhist I met in India)
The third stage of my utility life began after I sold up in the UK preparing to live in India, but instead stayed and got involved in a local community project – Metfield Stores.
Now rooting unexpectedly, I bought the woodland, called after my beloved dog Kali, in 2014. Through meeting Mell, set up Kinda Forest School. The extension of the land in 2022.
My CV
