by Richard | Nov 1, 2010 | Creative Writing
It’s night. It’s late and there is much to do tomorrow. Life and adventure wait on the other side of sunrise and it’s been a while since I wrote from the heart. So here is something to say I remember. Come once more, little dragon. Away for a day,...
by Richard | Oct 28, 2010 | Africa, Gear, Journalism, Photography, Travel, Uganda
Today was my last proper day of class and the lucky beans are back on the sidewalks. There is one more assignment to be handed in – a whale-esque 5,000 word nonfiction piece – but barring some intervention from the gods of unanticipated disasters, I can...
by Richard | Oct 20, 2010 | Africa, Journalism, South Africa, Travel
Cradock is an unexceptional town. It was founded around 1818 and has served, for the most part, as a stopping off point for people going to other places ever since. It’s a small town, and like many small towns, has come to invest not inconsiderable effort in...
by Richard | Oct 7, 2010 | Africa, Journalism, Travel, Uganda
Grahamstown, and journalism, was never about being a reporter. Like anything really, truly worth doing, it was about something bigger. It was in part about sharpening my storytelling. But also that over the years, travel brought me to realise how deep the shadow at...
by Richard | Sep 25, 2010 | Creative Writing, Reflections
‘Today is gonna be the day…” A sign slicing by reports only four hundred kilometres until Johannesburg, before being lost behind me. Lost in the dead flat Free State fields. I’m not checking the mirror today. There’s enough behind me. “Backbeat, the word is on...
by Richard | Sep 16, 2010 | Africa, Journalism, Tanzania, Travel
There are the days, The ones we will remember forever Tired eyes bear that same light Inexhaustible Tight corners at the smiles Reflected in the tears that never age The laughter and the pain of these days… The Kapiri Mposhi station stands as the whitest of...
by Richard | Sep 11, 2010 | Creative Writing
One block left in the journalism syllabus for the year. An elective we could choose out of a range covering everything from photojournalism to long-form writing. I had intended so absolutely to dedicate my energies to photojournalism – yet swapped in a...
by Richard | Aug 19, 2010 | Africa, Journalism, South Africa, Travel
South Africa’s oldest Presbyterian church lies silently with its brother in the hills an hour and a half from Grahamstown. They have been sitting in quiet contemplation for a very, very long time; and will likely contemplate a long time still. The Glen Lynden churches...
by Richard | Aug 14, 2010 | Africa, Cape to Cairo, Creative Writing, South Africa, Travel
Bodhisatta (n): In the Pali canon, the Bodhissata Siddhartha Gotama is described thus: Before my awakening, when I was an unawakened Bodhisatta, being subject myself to birth, sought what was likewise subject to birth. Being subject myself to aging… illness… death…...
by Richard | Jul 22, 2010 | Creative Writing
Those first blank pages are intimidating. Judgmental. As though the entire book might be spoiled with the careless stroke of a pen. As with any superstition, I don’t believe it. Not rationally anyway. But I go and buy six of my favourite pens. Just in case....
by Richard | Jun 28, 2010 | Journalism, Photography
Today is day ten of fourteen production days at the National Arts Festival here in Grahamstown. Having drunk enough instant coffee to give my stomach a callous, I brought a bodum into the newsroom with me this morning. Mmmmm. Real coffee. The days are spent busily...
