Narration problems.

Arthur and Simon could sit in Nana Plaza forever drinking beer and reminiscing …..but I can’t. I’ve got to get my boat over to Barbados.  I’ve been battling the wind from Grenada all the way across and I’m still not halfway. Ocean all around me and underneath. Hurricane Irma. I’ll be glad to see Speightstown. There’s a place there by the fish market does a nice rice and peas and I need to stock up on Mountgay..

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll have a basic idea what it’s about. It started as two schoolboy friends who read ‘On the Road’ and decided to be beatniks. One thing lead to another. They hitchhiked to India in the Sixties, came back, and went their separate ways. Arthur got a boring job running a tobacconist shop, Simon got into writing art reviews and ended up with his own TV show. When Arthur’s wife died he sold the shop and went to live in Thailand. Simon visited him there. It’s all in the archives.

Me? I’m the narrator. I live on a boat in the Caribbean. And I’m getting fed up with narrating. So I’m going to skip a lot of stuff and fast forward. I’m finding the whole blogging business depressing to be honest so I’m going to make a few more posts and that’s it.

So here’s the plan.

Bangkok. Simon really doesn’t care that much about the BBC documentary he’s supposed to make. So he hands it over to his production team and flies to Chiang Mai with Arthur. They go to stay in Arthur’s village. Simon wants to see the ‘real Thailand’. Arthur hopes he won’t be bored stiff.

I continue on to Barbados to meet up with my 'friend' Oscar, semi-retired porn magnate, who is still upset about losing his treasure to Blackjack. We may be dropping in on Simon Cowell for some celebrity gossip. Sir Julian will be there on his so-called plantation. I could write a novel.

Things will happen along the way. With luck there will be a thrilling climax and we can all go home. How’s that?

Pussy Riot update.

This is a special post for all my Russian readers.

As you know I have long been a keen follower of Pussy Riot. I am especially fond of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. She has come a long way since she stuffed a chicken up her vagina. That was an art project of course. I'd slip her some KFC myself given half a chance. And who can forget the famous cathedral dance which earned her a place in jail from Putin (boo, hiss) followed by appearances on American talk shows. She even got to meet Madonna and she has made several outstanding videos. In a recent one she appears bathed in blood, a powerful statement about something or other.

So I was sorry to learn that Nadezhda and Mariya Alyokhina are no longer besties. In an interview Mariya doesn't exactly spell out the problem but it seems the members of Pussy Riot have gone their separate ways.

Mariya has written a book about their adventures. I haven't read it yet but she talks about how it all began, their problems with Putin (boo, hiss again), Neo-Nazis and getting whipped by fake Cossacks. Good timing. Antifa types will love it so she'll probably make a few roubles.

It's the third member of the group I feel sorry for. Yekaterina Samutsevich. She can't get a job. So if there's anybody out there looking for an au pair drop her a line.