Above is one of the high lights of my travel art life; it is of a tiny Nubian Village, right in the south of Egypt, not far from the Sudan border. With a small group we managed to reach to this very remote village; the rest of the group wandered of with our guide and had a lecture somewhere ot other: letting them wander of; I strolled to the village street, sat in the dust and started painting. Very quickly gathered round me were three men and a woman, the men squated by my side, the woman, who incidentally was carrying an earthernware water (almost straight out of the Bible) bottle stood close by. Verbal comunication was difficuly, as my Egyptian/arabic was very limited, whilst one of the guys had a little pidgin English. It was sufficient for us all to become good friends. We managed to agree thast we had all done very badly at school; as a result we laughed and laughed. A treasured meeting between cultures, I will never forget that majical hour I spent with those four.

Painting is the international launguage; the same open friendliness works when painting outside in this country. People are almost (I repeat the word "almost") never rude, it is a marvelous way of making friends. try it when on holiday this year.

Now the "almost" word, I must include a couple of exceptions to the nice and friendly side of people. I have been chased by a military type with a rifle, also threatened by a polieman with a pistol; but those are good yarns and to be honest you hav'nt lived, if you have never been a little on the scared side . I also met an Italian woman in Venice who was so fluent in foul anglo saxon swear words, that I had to laugh; she didnt think that my reaction was funny, but never mind, you win some, you loose some. But that is a part of travel and makes it more exciting and a much fuller experience.

I repeat that the unpleasant side of people is so rare, but the do make good conversation stories.