Nagbahal, Patan

Mon
Daily life in a courtyard filled with Newar traditional architecture, in the heart of Patan: chaitiyas (places of Buddhist worship and prayer), and a beautiful hiti (stone spout) and phalcha (a rest place for travellers and for religious rituals, e.g. dapha songs). Phalcha with a nag (snake) Entrance to the…
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Street art around Patan

Mon
Ancient traditional Newar architecture and paintings, and contemporary issues displayed on the city walls through funky graffiti. Stories of people and stories of places, witnessing the traffic and the busy urban life. [caption id="attachment_558" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Hakha-Chusika nani galli, Mangal Bazar[/caption] [caption id="attachment_559" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Jawalakhel Road[/caption] [caption id="attachment_560" align="aligncenter"…
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Thamel is struggling

Mon
Construction sites and closed businesses. A walk in Thamel can easily give the measure of how much the area has struggled because of the Covid19 pandemic and the lockdown. It really looks like a ghost of itself without tourists flooding the area. After the government decided on a complete lockdown…
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Malpensa Airport

Mon
At Malpensa Airport, torn between the excitement of returning to Nepal for the new research, and the concern of the ongoing destruction and suffering caused by Putin in Ukraine. It's got harder and harder to follow the news. On the train to the airport, various conversations that I overheard were…
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Breakfast in Paris

Mon
From station to station to station. Besides reading quietly, the rewards of reducing one's carbon footprint when travelling this time included breakfast in Paris! Gare de l'Est is so close to Gare du Nord, where the Eurostar leaves, so plenty of time for a stop in between. Returning to London…
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The research goes on…

Mon
After a break of a few years, mostly do to teaching overloads and various industrial disputes to save jobs that limited the time I could dedicate to following up on my research (and really made me plan for a totally different job), through the project "Heritage as Placemaking" I can…
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Oxford charm

Mon
Lovely little exhibition of the Divina Commedia at the Weston Library in Oxford, from early manuscripts to the manga version. Not tempted to re-read it yet though, after it was a compulsory reading in high school for three years😅 I remember The Inferno with all the tortures was interesting, then…
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Van Gogh and glitter

Mon
"Quickly, as if she were recalled by something over there, she turned to her canvas. There it was - her picture. Yes, with all its green and blues, its lines running up and across, its attempt at something. It would be hung up in the attics, she thought; it would…
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Roots

Mon
A faded photo on a tombstone in a cemetery in Wallonie. On the left, a plaque bearing a miner lamp. On the right, another plaque with a cross. I fill the missing parts in my uncle's photo through recollections of the same photo that my mum has kept on a…
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Staycations

Mon
"Making the familiar strange", we say in anthropology - looking at known places as if they were new. Not easy, although the emptiness in this post lockdown Venice helps at the moment - at least by removing the masses of tourists from the sight. But another way of doing this…
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Still empty, Venice

Mon
First trip after the lockdown has started to be lifted, at stages. Now fortunately staying in second homes within the region is allowed. But Venice feels like such a different city. Sadly beautiful: rethinking at the many times I thought the number of tourists should be regulated and reduced while…
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