The End of the Year is Near

Hello subscribers!

First of all I’d like to inform you that the long-standing promise of a “Belfast and the Troubles” Blog post has finally been fulfilled. I uploaded it yesterday. Do go and take a look!

The photo above was taken from that new Blog post and shows an armoured police car of the sort that was used during the “Troubles”, now on open-air display at the former Crumlin Road Gaol. Quite similar police cars can still be seen on the streets in Northern Ireland today though; now in regular police colours, but still a rather menacing sight to behold.

The topic of the “Troubles” has this week been brought back to me with unexpected intensity through a three-parter BBC series about that conflict called “Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland”. It’s excellent, yet an emotional roller-coaster ride – nothing for weak nerves. You can watch a trailer on YouTube (here) and the whole thing is available on the BBC’s iPlayer (if you’re in the UK or have access from outside by means of a VPN). Highly recommended.
  

On a more personal note, this is the time of year for looking back on what’s happened over the past 12 months. And for me that included what was the most difficult phase of my life health-wise. It was actually at its worst when I came back from Northern Ireland in April and I even ended up in hospital (as some subscribers may remember from this interim Newsletter and the one after that). I’m much better now, even though it’s not over and never will be (as it’s an autoimmune condition that is incurable, only manageable), and I do hope I can keep it under control now. I certainly don’t want a return to what it was like when it was so bad that I was on the brink of getting suicidal. Fingers crossed that is over for good now.

Despite that serious impairment I managed to go on a few comparatively short trips and also managed to keep this Newsletter and the Blog going, though I can see from my statistics that the numbers of both Blog posts and Newsletters were far lower than in previous years … and I’m not surprised. I’m more surprised that it’s still been 19 posts (whereas 2022 saw 33) and 21 Newsletters (as opposed to 32 in 2022). Let’s see how it will pan out next year.

So for looking ahead, first of all: I’ll set off on my trip to faraway Taiwan tomorrow morning. It’s all pretty well planned through, though I still feel mentally underprepared. But it will come, I’m sure, as soon as I’m actually on the ground there. First I will have to battle jet lag, though, which at such a distance and going east is always a struggle for the first couple of days. Hence I didn’t pack the itinerary for those first two days too full, but after that it’ll be a pretty densely dark-tourism-packed trip. And that should give me plenty of material afterwards for new Blog posts as well as new and expanded chapters for my main website.

Beyond that I haven’t yet made any specific travel plans for 2024, though there are a few vague ideas floating around, too vague at this stage to be made public.
  

I probably won’t be able to send another Newsletter out while I’m away, which means that this is the final one for 2023.

So let me take this opportunity to wish you all a good festive season and a Happy New Year!

(For me neither Xmas nor New Year’s Eve will really happen in Taiwan, as it’s a very different culture with different festive dates, though I expect some East-Asia-typical Xmas kitsch on garish display at least in the big cities ...)

Best wishes,

Peter