In my lowest and saddest moments she said ' leave it to me'. 

She made me stand in her wild and beautiful garden raise my arms high and  imagine drawing energy of the trees through my finger tips and flood myself with the energy of the universe.  

When I visit her, full of complains , full of care, She says,  sit, close your eyes chant the word ''arahan'  let the vibration of the chants calm me. She would cook her favorite garlic rice which I believed to be power food and after lunch I would sleep. Just sleep my cares away.wake up refreshed and drive back home. 

When I visited her after a lapse of many years my dear Aunty Rose had grown old. She clings to my arm and says seeing me has added ten years to her life. 

Dear Auty Rose, thank you. Thank you for being my friend, guru, confidante when I needed it most. Life has changed for both of us. I can no longer visit you freely and sleep the entire visit and rush back home. Gone are the days of our chanting, the magic and the deep conversations on wonder of the universe. 

But you were there for me when I needed you most. Thank you thank you thank you.

 So I spent this month travelling through Ethiopia with Thahir Shah and his mangy crew in search of King Solomon's gold. It was a truly horrendous journey through dirt, squalor endless pot holes, insects, scorching dessert and mosquito ridden forests . I braved tribes with a penchant for killing visitors and hanging their testicles round the neck as trophies, thankful that I was at least spared that one particular test... only to arrive at the final chapter where he does not find the mines. Shar actually comes back a second time and re traces the whole journey and fails again to find the mines. Mercifully he describes the second journey in one single paragraph.  So here I am holding the book wondering what on earth made him write a book where he failed not once but twice in his quest...but then again on hindsight I am struck with the thought that my  month through the book was actually much easier than the one I actually lived through in real time... so bravo Thahir and Yesss!!!! bravo dear old me... we both are true winners....