Autumn is slipping in Antwerpen's door ... just as winter slips out another door in New Zealand, slamming it, in the form of one final, unexpected snowstorm. Fiona had written of lambs being born up at her place in Dunedin, and every one else was talking of warm temperatures and an early Spring. Meanwhile, Antwerpen is still getting 20oC during the day, but the nights are cool, and there's less heat in the sun now.
I'm all out of Vegemite here, but I did find some odd, almost runny Marmite in a supermarket. I guess it's the British version. Mmmm, it will be good to get home one day and stock up on things that I didn't know I would miss.
Like the Turks, Dutch and Americans, my toast spread of choice is avoided by Belgians. Everyone seems to think I'm trying to poison them ... choosing not to believe me when I explain we were given little Vegemite 'soldier' sandwiches as a first solid meal after an illness.
I had a book incident yesterday ... De Slegte is a rather superb secondhand bookshop here, and I was there, after meeting Gert for lunch at the Port. I found Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar', I'd been curious about since writing an essay on it ...
I wandered downstairs and was browsing the shelves, when suddenly, Colin Monteath's name leapt out from a book spine on the top shelf. His coffee table-sized book - 'Under A Sheltering Sky - journeys to mountain heartlands' ...was there above me.
I knew Colin from my days when I was studying NZ climbing literature and interviewing climbers for my book. He owns and runs a rather spectacular photo library back in NZ - http://www.hedgehoghouse.com , he's also a climber, skier and Antartic expert.
Last time I was home, I sold most of my collection of climbing books to him, as he also runs a small secondhand climbing book business ... some of you might know the story that follows, but this is what happened.
During my first year in Istanbul, I was online one day and met up with a guy I mistook for a NZer. It was his nickname that created the confusion. We talked, and it turned out he was a Pakistani climber, and the more he talked, the more I realised that I had read all around his international climbing world. He runs a trekking company, and is one of Pakistan's top climbers.
I flew back to NZ last August, and made the decision to start getting rid of some of the library I'd left in storage. I had, at least, 400 books being stored all over the place. I began with my climbing collection and that's how I met up with Colin again. We went through my books, then wandered through his collection. He had a book that was a collection of essays by top international climbers ... he'd found it in a bookshop nearby, and that it was only $25nz.
I left, just on shop closing time, raced off and with the last of my cash bought the last copy of the book ... they were closing the doors as I ran in. I was delighted, and took it as another piece of hand luggage.
But more about Colin. He'd just come back from a trip to the base camp of K2, in Pakistan. He and a team had skiied in, pulling sleds behind them. I mentioned the Pakistani climber I'd befriended, and he laughed ... he often used his trekking company to organise his trips and knew him well.
Later, I was standing in the check-in queue at Christchurch Airport, and a rather lovely Brit started talking to me. We agreed to meet for coffee, as we were catching the same flight as far as Singapore. He'd been living in Queenstown for some time, was a skier, and was heading over to France for his sister's wedding. It was the skiing that sparked the connection. I mentioned having seen Colin, and the Brit said that two of his Queenstown flatmates had just come back from a trip a trip to K2 with Coline, he'd already seen the photographs ... sometimes, its a very small world don't you think.
And writing of spectacular photographers. I'm not sure I put a link to Dave's site anywhere. David Wall is one of New Zealand's top photographers ... he has an incredible photo library online, and you can wander in it, checking out NZ, region by region, or by theme. He also has collections of photos from Africa, Australia, and Fiji. He has had a number of books published, and regularly appears on the cover of, and in, Lonely Planet Guidebooks. http://www.davidwallphoto.com/gallery.asp
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