http://www.willholt.co.uk en-gb willholt.co.uk 2011-5-29T00:00:00Z willholt.co.uk http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#95017 Picture titles drawn from idle chat If you want a zebra you paint a horse.No I havent got a beard. Its just a tattoo.Youre a good mental youre a bad mental... and not sure about you.I used to live in a house with no sun.That mad guys got a tree growing through the middle of his house.We put the crocodile in an old fashioned coke bottle.Its like making the French stick the Sphinxs nose back on.I like the idea of her having a round face though like a perfect circle.Of course she died she swallowed a horse... and she was a midget.Cows get up at the same time as we do.She would imagine a world full of toys.Hes the guy we set up with his twin sister. 2011-5-29 17:21:59 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#95016 January May 20112 JanuaryHe feels surprisingly fresh for the second day of the year. No lingering hangover no obvious cold or flu symptoms and a workable number of hours clocked in slumber. Red green olive the colour of the coats of the passengers standing immediately beside him on the tube. All wearing lace ups two carrying unbranded white carrier bags. Liverpool street one off and five on. Sardines in a tin consciously avoiding each others fishy gaze. The train is ready to depart please mind the closing doors. A mild head ache begins to surface. He assumes that this is typing related. He wonders for a moment whether he has undiagnosed dyslexia and then remembers his father telling him that in the valley of the blind the one eyed man is king. He is a republican but the sentiment rings true. Change at Oxford circus. Victoria line and a seat. He sees a strange reflective quality in the glasses of the man sitting opposite. Are all these people robots The girl beside him glances at his ... 2011-5-20 17:14:17 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#89744 The traveller returnsAfter many months ok almost a year of undiagnosed writers block I return to my blog with belated words of wisdom. As I write this I am sitting on the highspeed ICE train returning to Munich from Berlin where I have spent a very enjoyable weekend indulging in art life and German public transport. The rollercoaster transporting this particular survival machine from birth to death has been particularly up and down of late. I return to the keyboard after a year of experiences that have been both testing and joyous in equal measure but on reflection I am definitely a year older and one can only hope a year wiser. And so to the present. And Deutschland the industrial heart of mainland Europe where we have installed a seven and half metre high wicker man onstage at the Bavarian State Opera. Seemed the natural thing to do. When in Munich build a large effigy for human sacrifice. Its one of the five mustdo activities listed in the rough guide.My first few days in Munich I s... 2011-3-21 15:35:33 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#60285 As I approach the end of my time in Cambodia my only real regret is that as an Englishman abroad I probably havent discussed the weather nearly as much as is my birthright. This blog aims to rectify this apparent neglect.To put it frankly it is hot.There are basically three seasons in Cambodia 1. hot 2. very hot3. hot and wetBeing so close to the equator the sun sets somewhere between six and seven oclock all the year round which is good if youre a creature of routine but a little relentless I imagine if youve been brought up closer to one of the poles.My stay has been during the slightly cooler dry season a time when the population of Phnom Penh increases due to the seasonal influx of agricultural labourers who return to the paddy fields later in the year for the harvest. This explains the vast number of people sleeping in hammocks on benches and basically any surface that will hold a person horizontally. I had not seen a drop of rain in two months until yesterday when having remarked... 2010-3-11 04:26:03 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#59740 Approaching the bottom of my stairwell and the bars that separate the building from the street I interrupted a balding British man in his sixties with a pillow in one hand fiddling with the padlock in his other.Morning he said in a thick cockney accent.Hello I repliedI dont live here Im looking after the flat for a friend Ive just done the washing I use it from time to time say no more.I smiled and kept on walking. Therein lies the riddle of Cambodia.You see them everywhere the pasty ageing overweight caucasian men with pretty Cambodian girls sometimes young enough to be their grandchildren. Wined and dined on the riverside and then taken to empty apartments to seal the deal.The moral codes that would apply to these people at home are swiftly discarded as they take advantage of Cambodias lax culture. For the girls the fat old white man represents the ultimate someone who can look after them in a way far grander than the probable shack in a backwater of rural Cambodia that they grew... 2010-3-4 04:46:08 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#58712 Chinese New Year is big in Cambodia. They like new years celebrations as a general rule they also have a week off work for Khmer New Year in April as well as presumably having some sort of a bash on December 31st for the benefit of the western population here. So last weekend for the best part of about four days not a lot of work was done whilst people embraced the year of the tiger. I was invited to a drinks party in what will be the reception area of the big yellow building which will eventually house my radio station set. It was an allmale affair made up mostly of construction workers and police officers. It was a little bit scary and unusual having more and more beer pushed into my hands by groups of armed and legless policemen in uniform all thoroughly enjoying themselves dutyfree you might say. Worried they may decide upon a five gun salute I retreated into the shadows.Im becoming a creature of routine. Up at 7 the alarm on my phone bleats out the opening few notes to smokestack... 2010-2-19 05:38:14 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#58658 Here are some Cambodian images in no particular order. 2010-2-18 05:51:30 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#58164 Three and a half weeks in. Three and a half eventful weeks. Little did I imagine what was possible in three days.After three weeks of working in Phnom Penh I was allowed a long weekend away to visit Siem Reap and the Temples in the north of Cambodia. I was up early on the friday morning and eventually caught the Mekong Express the coach which would be my transport for the next six hours. A Cambodian gentleman sat down next to me and gave me his business card. We exchanged pleasantries after which he nodded off. We were on the front row of seats just behind the hostess a bubbly young thing caked in makeup who proceeded to offer titbits of local trivia in Khmer and English as we bumped our way through the various provinces.As we passed through endless villages and paddy fields I was struck by how different it was to the British landscape I grew up with. As usual there was an endless stream of people on motos and bicycles sucked into our slipstream and left far behind. The skinniest catt... 2010-2-11 06:30:00 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#57244 As I write this sitting on an old leather sofa in a humid office in the middle of Cambodia I will take a deep breath and allow a moment for reflection.Ok...No its still no use. Quite how life works and why is a mystery to me. One minute you are trudging across a snow covered London the next you are in the roasting hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh where all the sounds smells textures colours and routines are different.The flight was a classic no sooner had I sat down then they informed us that no reading lights were working effectively subjecting the passengers to an enforced darkness for however many hours it takes to cross from Northern Europe to South East Asia. Out of the airport and led to a waiting car the next thing I knew I was deposited at a street cafe in the centre of the area of the city that Im now so familiar with. Around me characteristic Cambodian sights the flaking architectural remnants of its French colonial past the people sleeping in hammocks on street corners the do... 2010-1-29 04:53:37 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#43748 Im reading a good book at the moment. It makes the subexistence of travelling on Londons public transport network almost bearable. I step into the carriage find a seat if Im lucky and enter into the world of mexican wrestlers baby soothsayers and flowerpicking soldiers. However it is not the content of the book that I wish to share with you but the spine. Amongst a sea of old paperbacks this is a beautifully illustrated hardback that until recently had stood out for its singular design. Until yesterday when I inadvertently poured the majority of an orange candle over it. Hmm. Hang on tightly let go lightly as a great man once said.Nonetheless this afternoon I found myself bent over said book with sheets of brown paper in one hand and a hot iron in the other. Outside the sun was shining the sky was blue and the world quietly got on with other matters. Indoors and focused on the task in hand I stared at the large lumpy orange growth that hung onto the cover of my book. I lay the fir... 2009-6-23 14:44:35 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#42009 I was listening to the radio the other day and was amused to hear one of the lead items on the news was about how the conventional school tie was being phased out to be replaced by the clipon tie as worn by the police. I hate to sound like a stick in the mud but this really is health and safety gone mad.The traditional variety of neckwear as sported by people both young and old for centuries is now deemed a significant health risk to our nations children. Thankfully this danger has been identified and dealt with. I shudder to think how many more hangings strangulations or freak accidents could have taken place were it not for this timely intervention. However were I a teenage killer or merely a depressed toddler with a suicidal streak I would not worry too much. The palette may have been restricted but there are plenty of other options. Indeed as much as anything this move by the powers that be can be seen as promoting lateral thinking amongst all children with darker impulses. Added t... 2009-5-21 11:05:18 http://www.willholt.co.uk/page9.htm#40915 Hello. Just back from Sweden thought Id christen my blog. Have not been in the habit of writing my thoughts down for many years heres hoping it may be the beginning of sustained reflective and engaging output. Perhaps.I had a very similar experience to two and a half years ago where not much more than twentyfour hours in the city seems in retrospect to have been much longer. I nearly went to a sauna by the sea ended up by an abandoned crazy golf course took in the show ate drank and made merry into the early hours. The opera itself was in Swedish as were the surtitles so much of the production was frankly lost on me. However as a spectacle it was great to watch. Above all it was good to catch up with old friends as well as making new ones.I was presented with a bit of a mystery on waking up on the friday. Looking around me I noticed that two of the pictures that had been on the walls were no longer there. Bleary eyed I got up and looked around. One was facedown carefully placed... 2009-5-2 16:25:10