that this be the first entry in this journal on ethiopia is not at all deliberate. it just happens to be my meditation for the last few hours. and it's the weirdest thing. when i retreated from ethiopia i didn't return immediately to jamaica. i spent two lovely carefree months in london in transit. it was a glorious time. i was in high meditation. i did my yoga and deep breathing twice a day. when i finished in the morning i would go wherever my footsteps would take me. be it to the british national library (and even the little one round the corner) or to the museum. or the park. yes i loved the local park and the ones closer to the centre like st. james park and hyde park. it was lovely. i spent time reading a wonderful thought provoking book by an irish author john o'donohue. anam cara spiritual wisdom from the celtic world. rather inspired work.

being in london again reminded of a previous visit there while i had been a foreign language assistant in france. i visited this terrifying tourist attraction named london dungeon. it was bloody gruesome. scary effigies of various viciously killed or tortured characters from london british history popped up in creepy dark corridors. guillotines with too red blood dripping from the mouth. a boat or train ride (i forget which) down a path that was supposed to be the coup de grace in scaring us shitless. the only thing is by then i had already been scared so much that my protective mechanism kicked in and i just couldn't scare anymore. it made a big impression on me though.