Daydreaming

I went into the garden to practice tai chi, but was lured by the sweet song of a blackbird and a too-ready glass of wine to sit in the sunshine and drift into one of those out-of-time moments that lift you into a different reality… to Bangkok, walking down Charoen Krung, the old centre of silversmiths and gemstone dealers, genteelly shabby, displaying racks of yellowing silver and countless strings of multi-coloured pearls, amber, coral, jade…. ahhhh, the jade! …. quartz of every hue, carnelian, topaz, thrown together with sapphires, rubies and emeralds, their brilliance hidden under an ever-present layer of dust.

... that dust of the city which permeates every pore down to the very fibres of being, so that long after you have returned home the musky sourness of the streets and the sewers can creep up and catch you unawares.

Although the city is not quite my favourite place in the world it’s where I most often return in moments of reverie, to the pavements of Ratanakosin, the heady mix of utter poverty and obscene wealth, things familiar yet so unknown.