TCM 3 (Consultation)

Above:  Christmas programmes on TV on the life of Jesus carry this warning. Jesus is also a prophet in Islam – which means he should not be depicted and the storyline may differ from that in the Quran. Two days after the second treatment I felt that my middle back wasn’t too good. The benefits […]

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TCM 2 (More blood-letting)

Above:  Second blood-letting treatment, this time on my lower back. I opted to return to the Chinese physician today for a second treatment, this time it is for my back. This had seized up during my 11h of airborne hell from Auckland to Hong Kong. It had been overshadowed by the butt issues so I […]

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TCM1 (Blood-letting)

In February this year, I had a fall which saw me use crutches for 6 weeks. While my knee injury healed nicely, a complication left me with recurring pain in my left butt, glute, piriformis, whatever.  And it radiates down my left leg some times. Despite visits to the physiotherapist, acupuncturist and osteopaths, it seemed […]

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Flying home for Christmas

My 1050 flight to Kuala Lumpur was perfectly timed. I woke at 0700 and grabbed a quick shower and caught the bus to the airport from across the road. It got me to the terminal some 2h20 minutes prior to departure which meant that I didn’t stress out at check-in and was able to enjoy […]

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Killing time and catching up with an old mate

It was a 0600 arrival into Hong Kong and that saw me reach downtown Nathan Road by around 0730. I’ve been let into hotels at this time before but luck wasn’t with me today. For a start, the hotel reception didn’t open till 0900 which meant that I had to go sit at McDonald’s with […]

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Eleven hours of airborne torture

I checked in for my flight to Hong Kong with an ETD of 2359. As I’m travelling on standby, I had checked the loads for this flight several times in the lead-up. The flight had been quite full but seemed to have cleared a little. So I was surprised that I could not be issued […]

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Arrive home (blank)

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Homeward bound already

I was going to take the public bus into Apia today for a look-see before my night flight. I realised at breakfast that the owner was going to see the Prime Minister today to try get some funding for tsunami repairs required by the village. They offered me a ride for WST20 and dropped me […]

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To Sua Ocean Trench

Samoa is very Christian but perhaps not as much as Tonga. I was surprised to learn that dive shops are open as in Tonga, all activities come to a halt. As I had been to church before (in the islands), I didn’t go here. The singing is supposed to be very good. After breakfast, I […]

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Upolu

We dived with Aquasamoa while on Upolu, Samoa. At that time, they were the only dive operator on the island as the other ones which we had read about appeared to have gone west. As with any dive outfit, the experience depends on who your dive master is on the day. We were very lucky. We […]

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