Iain Sinclair

[catalog]

She is quitting her job as a teacher and I'm quitting next year, we wanna move to Portugal. I want to do 2 days a week it support for a primary school, but it has to be 100% remote.

Had a funny chat the other night with a guy I used to know around Manchester, who has now moved to Portugal. He said he's in this village full of digital nomads and they are all really right on so it can get hectic, but they are also supporting the local economy.

 

[luka]

you can go to idle rich's short film night

 

[catalog]

That is one plus point yes. But don't think we can afford Lisbon, this guy I was talking has bought a house in a widows village in the North for a couple of grand, it used to be the smokehouse and he has to put a roof on it. He said all the old maids of the village were eyeing him suspiciously cos he's tatted up with a lot of homemades all over his hands like lameboy. But then they saw he was doing some work on the house so left him a little chorizo and bread on a wall.

 

[luka]

they probably put a pube in it or wiped it or their bumholes first

 

[luka]

tbh id strongly counsel against leaving england. you'll hate it. you'll be bored and isolated and everyone will hate you. and you'll miss the food.

 

[catalog]

I agree actually but my wife is hell bent on living by the sea in a foreign clime for at least a bit. She'll probably get bored after 6 months and we'll be back. I wanna go to the Himalayas instead, drive the van over through Iran and Afghanistan, but she's less keen on that.

 

[luka]

your idea is way better. my nan did that. well, she didn't drive it herself. but she loved it. she did it when she turned 40 i think.

 

[luka]

at least go somewhere they speak the language and you know the culture like california or new zealand

 

[luka]

what is it for dinner? oh, cod and potatoes again, great.

 

[catalog]

So your nan did the original hippie trail in the 60s?

Yeah I really wanna do it but she's scared of the muslamic bits, which I've tried to tell her is all bollocks and western propaganda but there you go.

And ive got another mate living in the himalayas who sez its cool, he sent me a flyer for an Indian jungle night there

Note sitar and Rasta hat confluence.

Maybe ill manage to persuade her but doubt it.

 

[luka]

i used to work with loads of people from nepal. all they do is play cards and drink johnny walker its brilliant. probably the laziest people in the world. theyve got a religious festival every other week where they just drink johnny walker and play cards.

 

[luka]

i think in a way you have similar survival skills to @shakahislop in that youre both wide eyed naifs with no idea about how the world works and i think your innocence will protect you wherever you go. if he managed the muslamic bits so will you.

 

[catalog]

I am basically muslamic myself, my dad was born in peshawar. I went there to see his birth house and it was a big sketchy. Lot of open gun carriage and extremely tall fair skinned people. But nowt bad happened. Rest of Pakistan was really nice and lush.

 

[catalog]

Getting back to the topic of this thread, when I was first into sinclair in my early 20s and wrote to him (he wrote back and I've still got the postcard somewhere) my plan was to walk to India and he said good luck with that.

 

[luka]

id probably find pakistan a bit stressful but im not a good traveller. id feel paranoid and out of place in manchester let alone lahore. it does look like a good laugh though.

 

[luka]

i hate being hassled. i like to be invisible. i have to go to italy for a cryptocurrency conference in july and im already stressed thiking about it. latin culture i perceive as very hassly. i can imagine pakisatan being very hassly, like india.

 

[catalog]

Actually in Pakistan they are less hassle than in India. And in both, there's only really hassle in the cities and tourist areas. As soon as you are in the countryside, everyone is sound.

Have you ever been to India?

But you would probably get a bit more initially cos you are whiteman. Although tbh everyone can tell I'm not native as well and in some ways it's better if you're white cos people will help you more.

Italy is not very hassly, its just really fucking hot, killer, especially July. Its good Italy, they get the beers in early. Very pedantic though.

 

[luka]

i went there for my mums 70th. i found it well stressful. couldn't relax and get into it. just wanted to shout FUCK OFF at everyone.

 

[luka]

probably better to go to india with just a group of lads, no girls.

 

[droid]

Pakistan seems insanely hospitable in contrast to the seemingly endless scams in India. They obviously haven't had enough exposure to Westerners and tourism to develop a healthy sense of contempt and hatred. There's tons of videos like this on YT


Italy's completely fine. The people there are mostly lovely.