Timmy Blog or rather TIM MY BLOG is a new platform for my writing, which started when I first travelled to NEPAL and SE Asia in 2008. After many years of continuous work in the UK, and after my marriage ended in divorce in 2007, I found myself with the opportunity to travel as a volunteer, with no set time limits. I planned a journey which would take me to Nepal, then on to Malaysia and INDONESIA, ending up in AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND. These were literally life-changing experiences, and I found writing about them to be cathartic and therapeutic. My writing is in the form of poems, philosophical musings, short stories, critiques and essays, and they span my experiences both in the UK and various other countries but mainly my OBSERVATIONS OF NEPAL.

I hope my readers will find the various topics amusing, entertaining or interesting, if not informative. I wanted to share my experiences that life could offer SECOND CHANCES, that the WHEEL OF FORTUNE could swing up as well as down, and if any reader can benefit from reading my observations that would be a huge bonus.

I am entirely responsible for the views and thoughts expressed in this Blog – however I WELCOME COMMENTS AND CRITICISM because one learns to be a better writer from this.

In 2008, I travelled to Nepal, where after a few days’ acclimatisation in Kathmandu I went to the south of the country to the CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK, as a teacher and volunteer, based at HOTEL PARKSIDE in Sauraha, doing a survey on WASTE DISPOSAL AND RECYCLING for the local Hotel and Tourism industry. I was captivated by the beauty of Nepal and the kindness and hospitality of its people. The country made an everlasting impression on me.

After short holidays in India and Malaysia, I went on to the island of SULAWESI in INDONESIA for 6 months. I lived with a charismatic university professor, DR BAHARUDDIN ABIDIN, and his family in the city of Makassar. I was a volunteer with Pak Baha’s work of GROWING NATIVE ‘BITTI’ TREES FROM SEED and planting the young saplings out into an arid deserted village area of southern Sulawesi. This planting program had many benefits, including providing work to the locals in planting, watering and managing the groves, providing shade for cattle, retaining water in the ground, regenerating a previously very dry area, and harvesting the fast-growing timber for local construction works as well as building the traditional wooden Phinisi sailing boats, an ancient tradition in south Sulawesi.

In March 2009 I travelled on to AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND as a Conservation Volunteer, spending six weeks in each country. This again was a wonderful experience with a very varied program of conservation projects. After this I returned to the UK and settled down with some temporary work, but I always knew I wanted to return to Nepal, it was my destiny – it was just a question of timing and the right opportunity.

That came in 2013 when I had finished all my temporary work in the UK (including working for 6 months at the London 2012 Olympic Games as a Fleet Despatcher at the ExCel Centre in East London). I was able to return to Nepal, and to the same town (Sauraha) and same hotel (Parkside) that I had stayed in in 2008. It was there I met my lovely new wife KALI CHAUDHARY.

Kali and I married in February 2014. Our little daughter ANGELINA (a true Angel) was born in 2016. Despite a busy family life, I have tried to keep working on a voluntary basis, providing help and advice to various Nepali friends who wished to pursue their own particular project or business idea. It is my final goal to emulate my friend Pak Baha’s work by building a seed nursery and growing trees and plants in order to plant out in the environment to replace those cut down by development. This goal should be reached in the next year.