This morning I managed to scramble out a swift 1450 words to add to the Memoirs piece I had started on Turkmenistan. So 1450 words is good right after a week with barely a jot in the Bullet Journal (yes that is still going)? To be fair it's now a 2300 piece and I'm not at all sure it will hold up that well as it's been written in two ad hoc moments from various smashed jar fragments.

I've printed it off now and will give it a proper read and see about editing it - so don't be surprised if you see another blog saying Turkmenistan memoir finished. It'll be deja vu all over again. Maybe get it down to 2000, then again if it deserves more then really it is more about structure and telling a story. Last week I finished reading a book about writing fast. The key take-home from that was planning the pieces you write. Er the exact opposite of what I've done with this one. Ho hum. You live, you learn, you forget (or ignore).

For the next bit of writing (fiction) I have started planning. We'll see how that goes shortly.

Have to decide too - once I'm happy with the Turkmen story - what Memoir piece to write next. I'm thinking maybe a Russian one given the World Cup coming up there next week.

Expect colourful (okay maybe black and white) views of Moscow, Perm, Vogograd and er... Yefremov.

Can't believe it is three weeks since I held an online Twitter vote on what Memoirs piece to write next; which is another way of saying er I haven't done it yet. Let's just say one thing and another has got in its way (and I also may have forgotten about it). Anyway the winner was 'Turkmenistan' and I have now started it. Hope to get it finished and up today. In the meantime here are a few shots I took in the country.




A Government building and the Russian Market in Ashgabat and a bread seller near Guardak, north east Turkmenistan.


A seed seller and me playing Russian billiards.

One of the remains at Merv (Mary) on the Silk Road and me near the Afghan border.

Salt at the Gulf of Karabogaz and a ubiquitous statue of 'Turkmenbashy'.

An evening of vodka, beer and bbq in Krasnovodsk (Turkmenbashi) by the Caspian and a massive though apparently 'cursed' mosque in Ashgabat.


Camels running near Merv and motorbikes with modified side-cars.

The pontoon bridge over the Amu Darya (aka the Oxus), near Turkmenabat in north east Turkmenistan and a Government building in Ashgabat.


The 'Arch of Neutrality' or Tower of Power in Ashgabat (complete with rotating gold statue of the first hero of the Turkmen state).