My arrival back in the UK will give me two days of rest before the trip to Bangalore for a PhotoReading course, on one of these days is a Bank Holiday.
The work that I do now means I have left the 9 to 5, Monday to Friday working environment. I work any day, any hours, anywhere. So I do not know what day it is sometimes.
It seems that I do not sleep in the same bed, the same town, the same country, for more than ten days.
The food that I eat changes. Although the ingredients are the same, with variations in ingredients and in the vegetables (grass), I will eat the same meat, mostly tasting of chicken. What differs is the way the food is prepared and presented, the combination or selection of the food on the plate, are there potatoes, chips or rice, and the spices used to change the tastes, from salt to chillies.
Where am I, what day is it? Sometimes I do not know.
One of the first exotic (to me) countries I traveled to many years ago was Singapore, on a trip to South East Asia.
As we came into land at Singapore’s Changi Airport, we flew over hundreds of ships moored at sea, waiting to take on fuel, load and unload goods to be shipped to all parts of the world.
We drove into the main city center to my hotel, passed high rise apartments, on what seemed to me a very crowded populated but extremely clean country.
I felt I was breaking into new worlds, like the presenters who produce the travel documentaries on TV.
The illusion was broken when I came across a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant take away. It should have not been there, this is not Great Britain, how can KFC be in another exotic country? I get the same in Turkey. How can there be a Domino’s Pizza take away, Marks and Spencer, Top Shop, Zara in these far away countries?
It is said we are becoming a global village. It is true. Walk down any High Street in the UK, and you will see the same shops, selling the clothes, electrical equipment the same good, at the same price. Walk down the main shopping streets in major international cities in the world, you will see United Colours of Benetton, Zara, Top Shop, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, they are all there, charging the equivalent prices. No longer it seems do you get cheap goods, unless there is a change in currency rates, or they are counterfeits.
But you do get consistency, the food is the same, the presentation is the same, the taste the same, I know what I am going to get, and if I cannot speak the language I can point to the menu. Sometimes like a bit of the UK, what I have grown-up with, what I am used to.
So I had a Nado’s Chicken yesterday. Their restaurants are in many town in the UK, serving the famous PERi PERi sauce, made with some fiery little chili combined with special herbs and spices, lemon and a touch of garlic, giving its unique flavour. Chips, oh chips. My mouth watered.
, olives with cloves of garlic, chicken with spicy hot PERi PERi sauce, and loads of chips.”></p>
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A salad, (grass), olives with cloves of garlic, chicken with spicy hot PERi PERi sauce, and loads of chips. Ha, I feel better.</p>
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Why is there a Nando’s restaurant in Penang (Malaysia) International Airport? </div>
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<div>Am I back in the UK?</p>
<p>Where am I today?</p></div>
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