After Venice I went to Lisbon - the first time I'd visited Portugal. It was a special treat staying right next door to Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, the home of Portugese historical art.

I wrote a post about the old Kiwi bacon building in Colombo Street back in February 2012.

When I was younger, my father had always told me about this one pyramid in Egypt. It had held a beautiful vase which cost millions of dollars. And the person who had it would be famous.....

That deep colour of green, splayed out over the land as far as the eye can see, is dancing in the wind against a backdrop of blue and white. That beauty is mesmerizing, until you notice the ugly grey mass in the distance, its long cooling towers spewing out cloud-clad creations. It may not look all that bad to a passer-by or someone with no sense of nature's purity, but I know exactly how disgusting that sight is.

I had arrived at the train station roughly an hour and a half early. It was a frosty morning and my hands felt like ice blocks. I had that nervous gut feeling again. I peered at my army uniform and pressed down the creases, war was certainly not wanted on my agenda today.