May 6, 2002, Llechryd, Wales– I'm in a room full of guests at Chris and Rasa Parayani's house in West Wales. People are eating prasadam and I have a few minutes to myself to write this article. Earlier today we went to a dense forest and had a kirtan by a waterfall and a river.

Tomorrow we have to go back to Bhaktivedanta Manor so I can catch my flight to New Vrindavan out of Gatwick Airport.

I lost my Palm handheld computer last night. We had gone to a nearby beach and had a kirtan and some prasadam. On the way back to the car I saw a trail along a wooded sand dune. I remember using it along that trail, but after getting back to the house we couldn't find it. This morning we went back to look to see if we could find it. We couldn't. Later we called the police in case someone turned it in. They hadn't.

It's five in the afternoon now. By this time the Palm will ask for a password. If the user doesn't enter the correct password it will not function, but rather they will be presented with my name, address, and phone number. I hope that someone finds it and then turns it in.

If not, I'm out of luck. Maybe it was time to upgrade (there is a newer model available). Everything is backed up on my computer, so no essential data has been lost. But that's a pretty major expense that I haven't budgeted for.

The weather here has been pretty good for Wales, which is notoriously rainy. While I've been here we've had only one rainy day. The rest of the days have been sunny except for today which has a high cloud cover but no rain. In fact, now the sun has come out.

We're also in the boonies. Almost all the roads are single-lane roads with large hedges and embankments on both sides, so you're kind of like driving down a winding little cavern all the time and can't see if there's another car coming. When one does show up (which isn't very often because we're in the boonies) somebody has to find a little space to pull over somehow to let the other one slip by.

We're so much in the boonies that my mobile phone doesn't have a signal most of the time.

We're so much in the boonies that there's no cable TV here (though I don't care for cable TV — just thought I should mention it).

People don't lock houses or cars here, either. There isn't much crime, and 65% of the population speaks Welsh.

Besides losing my handheld computer and doing a lot of evening and sometimes morning preaching programs on this trip to Wales, I've been keeping up with writing my novel. Lately, I brought three characters from my book to Rishikesh, India, where they are about to embark on a climbing expedition in the Himalayas searching for the Personality of Kali.

There are a lot of devotee-types here of various stages of Krishna Conscious development. I ran into Punya Sloka, who now has long hair and a beard. He used to take care of the cows at Caitanya College in Worcester, England when I was there. He gets fired up when we do kirtans out here. Gandharvika and Miniketana live near here. They are strict devotees. People have treated me very nicely out here and I felt very comfortable, happy, and secure. Most of my lectures have been posted on ChantAndBeHappy.com.

So now it's time to prepare for the next journey. Tomorrow there is a four or five hour drive from here to Bhaktivedanta Manor, then the next morning a flight to Pittsburg in the United States. From Pittsburg I will be driven to New Vrindavan, my first visit there since 1985, where I'll stay six days before flying back to England.

© CHAKRA 7 May 2002