What happens when we get an invoice for the damage we do to ourselves? — Aged five I had my first real encounter with the much-praised health system in Cuba. My parents rushed me to A&E one night after I complained of having a sharp pain in my stomach. I was discharged the same night. The physician who saw me said I had “nothing more…

Practical, no-nonsense, and achievable tips — Inspiration for a writer is key to developing new ideas. Also key is keeping our perspiration to a minimum. Joking aside, when I write I seek spiritual and mental stimulation from a variety of sources such as: fiction and nonfiction, the natural world, and interactions with other people. One of…

What might feel like a disaster at first ends up making us feel human again — Five days. Not that I was bothered to count them. But when it came to do the maths, I realised I’d been offline for five days. True, that was not the plan. I’d spoken to my mobile network and told them that I was travelling to Cuba. They sent me…

On radios, buses, and football shirts — My erstwhile noisy building is eerily quiet. Even on weekends. Over are the days of different radio stations (mainly Radio Progreso or Radio Rebelde) blasting music out of Soviet-made eight-band Selenas. The only sound I hear nowadays is a mobile phone-produced screech which very often belongs to a popular reguetón…

Testing my stamina on a mid-morning walk in Havana — “You should have been here in July and August. You just couldn’t walk anywhere. You took two steps and you got soaked straight away.” I kept hearing the same comments. The summer heatwave had been devastating in the Cuban capital. September showed no signs of a change in temperatures. …

Havana dishes out feasts worthy of monarchs — In the spring of 2019 a certain member of the British royal family visited Cuba with his partner. Here’s a big clue as to who this person was: he now sits on the throne and his paramour is called Queen Consort. Yup, you guessed it. Apparently good ol’ Charlie was…

Playing with light and shadow at Havana University — Music, condoms, and booze. You could be forgiven for thinking this is the opening sentence or chapter of a priapic, septuagenarian rock god’s memoir (perhaps not the condoms. As we all know they weren’t keen on “skins” back then). But it isn’t. The three words are related to what used…

The Cuban capital is a hotbed of urban creativity — I know that the Street Art Challenge has come and gone. But, I’ve just returned from Havana and could not pass up the opportunity to share some of the excellent artwork I saw on the streets of my hometown with my fellow ‘trotters. Most of the photos below were taken…

A trip back home unearths long-dormant nostalgia-tinted memories — A light-gold sky announced itself as we rubbed our eyes. We were jet-lagged, but happy. We had arrived in Havana the night before, after a twelve- or thirteen-hour trip via Paris. This was our first morning in the Cuban capital and shortly after six in the morning we decided walk…