No apologies becalm. I'm very glad you didn't delete your post. It's given me food for thought - not SO much about my inner state as about the coded messages I do put in the reports - and what I leave OUT. I confess I'd not much given thought to that.

I'm just writing it - but, of course, I'm not a blank slate - so something of my inner life goes out there on show. My previous life was all about that - so I'm used to people coming to conclusions.

With this writing I'm learning to leave out anything that I think is self-serving, anything to do with my errr.. personal activities on the road and details of just quite how much I knock myself around. And, after my previous life, I'm enjoying the anonymity. I like Dogster.

You're right about the key. Maybe I'm turning it right now. Maybe this travel and the adventures are the key. Maybe these reports are the key. To quote some more lines from that same song...

’cause I’m already gone
And I’m feelin’ strong
I will sing this vict’ry song, woo, hoo,hoo,woo,hoo,hoo

I loved your post - and, yep, we'll leave it at dog food - at least in here anyway - but not in my heart.

My friend, I'm grateful for the time you've spent reading and thinking. I can feel you.

Dogster
This is the first chance i have had to read your report since your first post (how dare work get in the way of your posts!!!)
As you know i am a big fan of your work and the magical way you tell a story, really does put ones mind in that far away place.
We implore you to book a trip soon, that way we can have more delicious reading to look forward to.
Smeagol

Thanks again Smeagol - you were first in here with your kind words.

I'm just finishing off a post on Maheshwar. Where? Exactly. Somewhere in India. That'll do. Perhaps it's best you don't know where it is - I have found THE PLACE.

But I think the board has had quite enough Dogster for now.

No, we have not had enough Dogster yet. Don't scare us like that, you'll be giving US dogmares - lol. :)

Dog
Perhaps you haven't realised that your posts are like the Stephen king novel Christine taken on a life of their own... you have no say over the matter any more ..... we have NOT had enough of the dog......

I finaly read something of the famous dogster! Thanks Bob, and Andy

And welcome chigale to Dog World.
Oh, and Happy Birthday!

Dog has ceased birthday celebrations in his life now. As you know, he can only count up to 50. After that he gets confused.

I've been confused for nine years now. Gawd, the next one is s-s-s-ix-t-t-

No, I can't even say it. Horror piles upon horror.

Try counting in hexadecimal - you'll only be 3C next year.....

For the rest of us who don't have the faintest idea what thursday is on about:

'Hexadecimal' describes a base-16 number system. That is, it describes a numbering system containing 16 sequential numbers as base units (including 0) before adding a new position for the next number. (Note that we're using "16" here as a decimal number to explain a number that would be "10" in hexadecimal.) The hexadecimal numbers are 0-9 and then use the letters A-F. Hexadecimal is a convenient way to express binary numbers in modern computers in which a byte is almost always defined as containing eight binary digits. When showing the contents of computer storage one hexadecimal digit can represent the arrangement of four binary digits. Two hexadecimal digits can represent eight binary digits, or a byte.

Clear now?

Mmmm - I think I'll have to stick with the old system, thursday....

Impressive, dog, except I think I understood it better before I read that definition! Of course, it looks nicer for ages if the result doesn't need to use A-F.

Being a couple of years ahead of you, I can say that I don't feel any different (or older) after staggering reluctantly across that threshold. The good news is that now I quite often get senior discounts. The bad news: I often get them without being asked for ID - bad for the ego.

How much is sixty in Dog years?

We missed you at the GTG. Even got some Europe converts to the Dogster chronicles.

Four hundred and twenty, Gpanda. sigh.

thursday: Google is a wonderful thing. Don't think for a moment I understood any of it.

I've been traveling for the last few years in countries with a low mortality rate - that,coupled with the fact that tourist services [guides, hotel staff, drivers etc. etc.] are all run by young people, means that Dogster is always looked on as staggeringly old.

'How old are you?' they ask repeatedly.

'I am 150 years old,'I answer very seriously:

'Ahhh,' they nod.

They seem happy with that.

"I'm 150 years old" - LOL

After all your spa treatments in Siem Reap, you must look smokin'!

dogster it is Cigale, you made me spanish :)
in French a cigale is a cicada, so my name, the cigale sings.
Happy unbirthday to you, youngster!

Forgive me Mme Cigale - I love the cicada singing.

We have no culture here. In Australia the name 'Dogster' means... err.. Dogster.

Not quite as good, really.

dog---which criminal are you descended from?? it must be a very literate one or are you self-taught?

Well rhk - that's a big question and, after nearly four years of research, I can provide you with an answer. Unfortunately it runs to about 200,000 words.

Which is about 199,980 more than anybody wants to read. I'll try and condense, just a tad.

Part of the Second Fleet in 1789 was a boat filled with women called 'The Lady Juliana' - known colloquially as 'The Floating Brothel'.

Great-great-great etc. grandmother Dog, then known as Mary Higgins, was one of the very naughty ladies on that vessel. She was arrested, seven months pregnant for 'feloniously stealing 37 years of blue lutestring' and bunged in Newgate.

Oh, by the way, she was a whore as well. She'd had a quite a lot to do with the Old Bailey in her time...

You can look her up - here:

www.oldbaileyonline.org

You might find a few of your relatives rhk... it's the MOST interesting site.

'The Lady Juliana' took over twelve months to reach Australia. Her child, Ann, was born in Newgate and died a couple of months after arriving in New South Wales.

She was sent to Norfolk Island penal colony and there met Mr. Great great etc Grandfather Dog. Together they remained on that island for 17 years and had two unruly sons - then were sent to New Norfolk, outside Hobart, Tasmania, in 1804.

Tick, tick, tick - it's 1949.

Doglet appears.

Accidentally he found himself without a Mummy and Daddy and so was bunged in a home with other similarly lost boys.

So Mr. and Mrs. Dog #5 appeared and took him home. He was six months old. Bless them. Wasn't that kind?

It would have been even kinder had they TOLD him he was adopted - but, it was the Fifties. Such things were full of shame. Dogster had the interesting experience of finding all this out when he was 32.

There was a little bit of a rough patch there for a decade or so.

But now he's 59. He's got over it.

He's self-taught.

As it turned out, Mr. and Mrs. Dog picked a smart one.

i knew it had to be someone in the books one way or the other....

my folks came from suffolk in 1634 and are still inside the jail here in massachusetts.....occasionally we are let out of one institution to go to another, such as this past weekend when we went to that institution known around the world as cambridge....the authorities are still trying to figure out the nature of the city institution: is it penal, mental or just plain pink...

we are now waiting for the full family history of dog and company, warts and all...

I am prepared to reveal that I was conceived in the back seat of a car opposite what is now a supermarket in Launceston, Tasmania.

Strangely, I don't remember the car all that well.. but, given some of Dog's youthful [mis]adventures, I can't really point the finger of scorn at that location.

From that moment, until now, is a blank. Then I woke up in India.

What a generous reply to rhk's question! I want to say more, but can't get the words right so I'll stop here. But thank you for telling a little about yourself.