A couple of years ago, I enjoyed a 'trip of a lifetime' by visiting South America. When I got home, I put together a journal and, recently, someone suggested it wouldn't be out of place here. However, since I couldn't work out how to insert it as a file, I've spent the past day cutting and pasting from the original and, at the same time, adding links when appropriate. I have to say it was a most pleasant experience for me because many memories came flooding back. Please feel free to take a minute or two to browse through it. It's called South America .

Many years ago, whilst experimenting with my first computer, I produced several copies of a certificate which I used to give to - or, sometimes throw at - motorists who had demonstrated an element of stupidity which was sufficient to make them 'stand out from the crowd'.

The wording on the certificate recounted a legend about General Gordon of Khartoun, who, in an attempt to quell the disturbances in the Sudan during the late nineteenth century, tried to persuade Queen Victoria to create a new order which could be bestowed on some of Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi's followers - most of whom were the illegitimate sons of pox-ridden harlots and camel drivers and, in reality, somewhat beneath the contempt of a fine upstanding commander of The British Army.

I'm toying with the idea of re-introducing the order and, through this blog and, when appropriate, singling out individual drivers or groups of drivers whom I consider to be worthy of the title - which, by the way, is Companion of the Upper Nile Territory.