Cham's VirtualTourist Home Page

A Forgotten People

A cathartic release
Of life and death
But I shed no tears
for those who've bled
Their bloody hands
Stain the walls
Of heaven and earth
And hell at dawn

©Gareth Dix 2006

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Without a voice

I see you
I can’t hear what you’re saying
Fireworks light up the sky
With blue and yellow but mostly red

People are celebrating
I hear their sound
It’s deafening

At least I saw you
But now like the others
I can’t see you anymore
I still can’t hear you
I’m not allowed to

©2006 Gareth Dix

Rest in Peace El Jagal... after just under a year I had to ditch the BMW... sitting for two hours in traffic in a car that cost over $100 to fill up with petrol was just hurting my bank account too much, and leaving me with nothing to travel or buy photography equipment with! Then came the announcement of an increase in congestion charge and road tax... couple this with a car that wasn't being used to its full potential....

I found El Jagal a new home with a good family and a day later i bought "Le petit Jagal" There are so few of these cars on the road people still ask me what it is... and with almost 60mpg and $30 to fill it up... and a turbocharged convertible it's a godsend...

so Viva Le Petit Jagal!!

Ok firstly the name Cham is pronounced Cam as in camera, or cameron etc... that's not my real name though it just kinda stuck as a nickname throughout the years.

Last year I realised the value of having a British passport (and by that i don't mean that i have people wanting to marry me for it... i'm sure it has nothing to do with the passport lol). I saw how other people cannot travel to certain other countries just because of the passport and that made me realise i was not going to waste this opportunity that i have.

So i travel lots, many people where i'm from don't like to travel far or just go to places to be with other english people... to me, the less chance i have of meeting people who live anywhere near me the better. I don't understand why some people want to spend all that money to go to a place to live exactly the same life but with sunshine... no sir not me... when i'm travelling i normally plonk myself straight in the middle of all the locals where people find it hard to talk English, scary for some but for me I'm interested in other languages.

I have been Photographing everything I could since the age of 12 when I inherited my father's 1967 Pentax MX and I still use that camera. I have had many point and shoot digitals to do proof shots before i shot to film on the Pentax but only in the last few months have i moved over to a Canon system and have been shooting with a digital SLR.

I started off as a multimedia graphic designer and all the skills i learned during that time have just added to my digital photography. For me photoshop is a tool and yes it can save many photographs but because I was taught with a traditional camera I prefer to take my time and shoot the shot as I want it, rather than have to crop and adjust everything afterwards. Besides it saves on post-processing time which means less work in the end and a cost saving for the client.

I believe that to be a good photographer, one has to see beauty in everything. If you can't look at a tree and see something about it then you're not ready.

Please note that some of the pictures on my pages are only snapshots especially for VT, but you'll see some of my work here from time to time.

I used to really hate having to learn other languages... like most English, i didn't see the point. But I learned that learning a little language goes a long way. Things that you say in other languages just can't be said in english and knowing another language makes it easier to meet other people.

At present I'm learning Arabic, i have a private tutor for it and i've been learning since last January. However i've just started to learn levant arabic and my tutor is already impressed with what i know, thanks to all my friends in lebanon.

I also can speak some French and Spanish, although I've hardly ever used them so i can't remember a lot of it.

Then there are a few languages that i can say a few things in but not much: Polish, Cantonese, Italian, aramaic (ethiopian), and a stupidly small amount in swahili.

Now ok most of the latter languages i've just been taught cursing by friends etc, but that's still more than most people can talk :)

I'm a person that loves Music. At the old age of 18 i started playing guitar and moved onto bass shortly after that, I play in a rock band but my music taste is far more vast than that.

I love most forms of music from latin Jazz to nu-jazz, Lounge to arabic, Death Metal to ethnic, funk to swing, classical to hip hop, you name it i have it on my ipod.

My CD collection is roughly about 850-900 CD's this doesn't include demo CD's that I have made or friends bands have made.

Apart from bass I'm learning to play the Berimbau, which is a brasilian instrument that looks like a bow and is used to control the speed of the game in capoeira, it's one of the most difficult instruments i've had to learn and just holding at first is a trial as it's balanced on your little finger. I am also learning to play the Darbeke/ Tabel/ Darbouka. I have just bought a new one in lebanon which sounds and looks great (see picture) I'm not very good yet but it won't be too long.

Other instruments i play (although no very well) the Digereedo, the nose flute, the harmonica, the piano, and the congas.

After many months of being stuck under a desk in New York's Guantanamo Bay at a temperature of 6degrees, with only torture to relieve his boredom, bread and water to help him sustain life, the little Kiwi arrived in london, and as a special treat JulesH brought him out to sample some of the delights of London... yes the Pint.

Myself and FlyingKiwi (the tall one) made sure we got him as drunk as possible, and luckily for us after that JulesH had to look after him and is probably nursing his hangover as I write this

To complete my artistic ventures I've been taking lessons in various martial arts. I started Karate (ishinryu and shotokan) When I was very young.

However since January 2006 I have been learning a traditional style of T'ai Chi Chuan (Yang family, Yes that's the Long Form). The difference between chinese and japanese forms especially karate and t'ai chi is enormous. Karate concentrates on various attacks and defenses, Tai chi is more about using your Chi (internal energy) and learning about the mechanics of the body. The traditional style that I am learning shows you how to use these mechanisms to make the body do things without you having to put any effort in. Tai chi is one of the most effective forms of martial arts because although not completely passive it uses the speed and force of an attacker against them. The harder they try to hit you, the harder they will fall.

Capoeira - A brasilian Martial art formed by slaves in the 1500's I won't say too much about the history here, but I've just started to learn this for is acrobatic movements and artistic value.

I realised the Art in these fighting techniques not too long ago... even coming from a background of doing various arts, the moment of "enlightenment" when you start to understand exactly what it is you're doing (I believe one cannot fully understand) is a sense of great achievement.