A Season in Saudi Arabia

While I've been to Paris a few times and France several times, my wife and son had never been to either before we boarded the Eurostar in late spring and positively flew across to France at speeds of up to 230 kph, through the Channel Tunnel and straight into Paris Gare du Nord. Once we reached the city, we checked into a slightly shabby hotel strategically located within easy walking distance of the station. It was early evening when we arrived, so we crashed pretty early, eager to make an early start the following day. The next morning, we made the most of it by rising at first light and embarking on a fairly hectic schedule that took us from the Arc de Triomphe to Place du Trocadéro for some photographs, up the Eiffel Tower for magnificent cityscape views, along the River Seine to see the newly reconstructed Notre-Dame, and through the fabulous Louvre area before finally ending the day in the Montmartre district. But this trip wasn't all about Paris. In fact, I was det...

Look it was obvious it was something. This stupid lesion had sprung up on my chest during a virus back in November 2024. My chest was full of them but only this one persisted. I had photographed it from early 2025. It caused a minor panic attack in Sarajevo when I became convinced it was something very serious and my wife Miras told me I had to forget about it while we were travelling. But I just couldn't forget about it. This was my life. The derm suggesting it was melanoma during my February skin check had pushed me over the edge. If only she had confidently diagnosed it as Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) in the first place. Now that would have saved me an awful amount of anxiety, but she didn't see it that way and even challenged the consultant, who said it needed removing but agreed with my diagnosis. You see, a BCC is a very common skin cancer and hardly ever metastasizes, so is far preferable to a primary or secondary melanoma.  About six weeks after the excision biopsy in...