the camera never lies or does it?

I am always the one taking the photos in my world. At family and friend gatherings it is as if I was never there as I am always the one documenting us. But in the last few months due to meeting new and lovely people, who also capture the world through the lens, this is all changing and I see more and more photos sneaking around of me mostly captured un - aware.
I still find photographs fascinating that they capture that moment and how you are portrayed by others through their images.
So this is me, capturing me !

armchair journey

Welcome on an armchair journey through Laos and Cambodia as seen through my eyes !
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13363109@N02/sets/72157626317290114/

The knife man

On the streets of Siem reap in Cambodia you can find this wondrous creature, known to me as the knife man. He carries around a mattress his knives attached in a circle of wire and his hand held stereo playing hard core techno as he pounds the streets looking for people to watch him jump through his circle of knives surrounded by a ring of fire. I used to actively seek him out he is fascinating , he never talks to anyone. He is one of life's enigmas with great scars which is obviously an occupational hazard and wonderful tattoos that somebody says he does himself.
I want to learn to dive through a flame filled knife ring!

sleep little one

This one of my favourite images captured whilst in Cambodia in the market a child sleeps in a hammock whilst surrounded by the snake catch of the day.
Children are up against it in Cambodia with poor medical health care, although that has changed dramatically in the last 6 years since I have been travelling there. Schools are slowly popping up in even the poorest and remote villages and there is never much money around with the average wage being around 2$ but in the villages it is far less than that. But for all of that children have the most important thing their freedom and Independence from their most earliest age, which has been lost over here in the UK and makes me sad!!!!

offerings

One of the most beautiful things across Cambodia Laos and Thailand are the wonderfulSpirit houses where offerings are left, in the form of food, incense, water, lotus flowers or garlands of heady jasmine sold by the wonderful flower sellers.. Each one is unique to each place from the and ostentatious spirit houses of the large hotels to the very humble spirit houses found in or outside a shack held together with string. The purpose of the Spirit House is to provide an appealing shelter for the spirits, or celestial beings, who would otherwise reside in the heavens.
I used to love getting up early and watching the daily ritual of offerings to the Spirit house , it seemed to bring a sense of calm in a somewhat crazy world.
I now have many drawings and photos that I am working from to make a series of paintings based around the idea of offerings.

A strange encounter at Wat Xieng Thong

Friday 4th March hot hot hot..............
Lhuang Prabang Laos
Got on my push bike this morning and headed of to explore a beautiful place. The first thing I notice if the hundreds of butterfly's the ones you seen in dreams and books, that you never think real but they are here. I had long wanted to visit Wat Xieng Thong it really was like walking into paradise, a pristine yet crumbling temple of clover pink, turquoise, white and as always saffron orange. The temple is home to around 40 monks who can be seen all around getting on with their days. I do love that there was a washing line in the middle of their sacred place where all their saffron robes were catching the very small breeze. We had a strange encounter with a very talkative monk shading underneath a bougainvillea tree he was there practising his English so we sat for a good while talking about Buddhism, Laos, and then world language Wayne Rooney and how Liverpool had got on. It was monk Pau's very guilty pleasure. He is not permitted to play or watch it. So he lives out his games through the people from all over the world who visit the temple. The faded temple with it's sun drenched colours only add to its infinite beauty, the room with a 1000 Buddhas, the smell of incense who's smoke plums above the temple and the heady intoxicating smell of the frangipani flowers makes for a giddy environment of sensations. There was hardly anyone there and it felt that the temple was all ours. As we left the temple when we thought we couldn't be anymore inspired, the mighty Mekong river stood before us, and we were quiet with it's beauty.

Stitch miles

As I sat on the plane chasing the night, sewing at 30,000 ft I tried not to think of the thirteen hours ahead of me. For the last two hours I have been travelling over snow capped mountains and following never ending rivers like great serpents devouring the land beneath. It always makes me wonder who is down there? What are they doing and what are they thinking? I prefer journeys across land as you always get that sense of arriving in another land. Where as on a plane you land, and your first impression is of an airport which could be anywhere in the world. I was listening to all the conversations around me one was all about air miles. I don't even know how you would get air miles. I then thought to myself that I had paid for my plane journey solely by stitch miles. I then started to wonder how many stitches I had sewn in the last year to take me on my 6000 miles to Laos and Cambodia. It must be zillions! I was going to blog whilst I was on my journey but instead decided I was going to write a proper diary in pen on paper with drawings so I did. So for the next few blogs I will tell you some tales of a precious journey to the other side of the world.