This has been discontinued in present form... click on link at right... and follow Pondlife's Notes From A Dark Pond

after downloading, it takes me an age to upload... about a month and a half in this case. Thoughts from the deep will have to come from even deeper as "they" have lowered the water level in Lake Geneva...

Although, in truth, we have been to Cuba so our time has been spent negotiating a country that has almost no road signs.

Neither has it many reasonable roads. They haven't a lot of money, the Cubans, and even less since the Russians stopped pumping money into their economy...

So we decided to go see the country before Fidel died. As it happens the day after I gave the verbal go ahead to the agency to book the accommodation and deduct huge amounts from my wife's credit card, Fidel retired.

Even so, Bush could invade at any moment, and the decision to book a vacation there, was fired up by the number of rabid comments read on various Internet newpaper websites from equally rabid Americans. All of whom seemed to very fearful of this little country, that, as far as I could see, merely nationalised a whole load of businesses that were mafia fronts, and liberated about $800 million that no doubt would have found their way to the US authorities in some form or another (taxes/handouts/bungs).

What was good to see; was the huge number of Canadians holidaying in Cuba, spending lots of Canadian$$$$$'s and also befriending and supporting local people, and shipping out Canadian school buses so that Cuban school kids have a way to get to school and go on the odd field trip and such like.

Way to go, Canada !!

I spotted this while wandering through Spittalfields Market one Sunday morning, a few weeks ago, on a quick flyover to see Ma & Pa.

What I liked was the line... The irony of a Jew living in Bacon Street was not lost on (Solly)... and then it goes on to detail his sad death, and later on I recalled that the mother of a girl I went out with about thirty-something years ago, had also been caught up in these events. She was a Geordie, new to London, and heavily pregnant, and on her own, her Cockney husband away fighting somewhere in the War, and as the air raid sirens went off and people rushed to get into the shelter, she stopped at the top of the escalator, and stood to one side the let the people rushing down, pass her by.

That saved her, her baby and some years later she gave birth to a daughter, who became my girlfriend.

If one believes in the chain of events, fate and how small events have a huge knock on effect, it could be suggested, that had she been killed then, I would not be here... odd innit?

I thought it was about time I added something else.... Variations on a theme... pickle jars.

The sky grew dark and threatened a storm, which broke with hail but passed the French shore and pounded the Swiss... Mother Nature fights back...

This is where I was skiing yesterday. It was snowing hard, the flakes large and quietly falling. The snow getting deeper, made falling in it easier. Good fun being had by only a few people...

Delicate stone work at Amber Fort, Rajasthan...

and by way of contrast, here is a snap of artwork at Geneva station... yeah, Geneva, Switzerland. Love it!

I remember when musicians would be arrested for playing in stations. What complete nonsense that was. How London has changed for the better....