After many, many months of waiting, I can finally proudly announce that my first short story published in a real, solid magazine is available! My story ‘Martin(s)’ was chosen for the Personal Space issue of a very cool American magazine called SHERBERT Magazine. James received a copy of their last issue for his birthday last year, and we were both taken by the magazine’s uniqueness and creative approach to zine-ing Read the rest of this entry »
Well. It feels like so much has happened in the last couple of months. Those on my email list will know the craziness that has happened in the last couple of weeks, so I won’t go into it here. Instead I’m going to focus on happier things. Like whether or not Nudie drinks are a rip-off of Innocent drinks, or whether it’s the other way around Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re bored on a Sunday (and you happen to live in London or Bristol), then why not spend the afternoon ‘Banksy Hunting’? Banksy is a superb graffiti artist, who stencils spray-painted images of acute political wit and vision onto public areas. He occasionally signs his work, but often doesn’t, but his style usually involves small rodents with some from of weapon, or something as simple as a humorous phrase such as ‘this is not a photo opportunity.’ James and I spent Monday afternoon walking along the Thames spotting Banksy art Read the rest of this entry »
The long weekend presented a great chance to explore areas of London we were yet to traverse. Sunday we launched ourselves on Richmond Park, a nice stroll out of Richmond town centre. Richmond would have been quite nice and easy to get to, if the trains hadn’t been done and the buses didn’t take a thousand years to get anywhere. But I did get to sit up the top of a double-decker for the first time since we got here, and we got the prime seats by the main window so it was like being on a roller-coaster at times Read the rest of this entry »
I thought I had come to terms with being colour-blind. I discovered it quite by accident a couple of years ago. Our local paper was running a series called ‘How The Body Works,’ and on this day they were running a segment on the eye. They had a couple of Ishihara tests. I stared and stared at this mass of dots, worried that the test was broken Read the rest of this entry »
Our holiday was, in many ways, a tour of different countries allegiances and reactions to the wonderful sport of football (or ‘soccer’). It has struck me as worthy of blogging about. So I did. And have.
In Australia, being a fan of football means the following:
1) TVs hidden in dark corners of pubs, with the sound low and the bar-person switching the channel at crucial moments, thinking no one is watching Read the rest of this entry »
1) Catching The Bus - Finding
Before heading from Victoria Train Station to Victoria Coach station, be sure to pack plenty of water, crackers, comfy footwear and maybe some overnight gear, in case you get too tired to carry on and are forced to fight the homeless for the warmest phone booth to spend the night. Upon arrival, do partake in the Burger King served by a heavily pregnant Nigerian, whose husband is pumping out the burgers behind her as you share a standing table with three other Burger King merry-makers. Be wary of leaving pennies on the counter; the pregnant lady will snatch it up so fast she will leave the counter burning with friction. Do not touch the counter for five seconds after this has happened Read the rest of this entry »
And here is the only European diary entry I had time to write. I found key notes at the bottom of these entry, to remind myself of what I needed to write about. If anybody finds these notes prompt questions, feel free to ask why I felt it important enough to make a note of, and I’ll see if I can elaborate. Enjoy the last of my travel entries from South-East Asia and Switzerland. Don’t worry, it’s certainly not the end of travel entries altogether, as shown by the Bath travel entry above!
Sunday, 29th January, Martahaus Guesthouse, Zurich, 6:35pm
Well we seem to have avoided severe jet lag! We realised we’d spent approximately over 24 hours in airports or on airplanes (we arrived at Singapore at about 5pm, left at 12am, flew for 13 hours, waited for 2 hours in London, then flew for 2 hours to Zurich, then spent an hour organising baggage and train tickets into town). It was really surreal being in London but not being in London. We were so focussed on Zurich, that it suddenly hit us how strange it was to be only metres away from London city as we sat in the terminal waiting for our connecting flight to Switzerland Read the rest of this entry »
I have just realised that there are a couple of journal entries I haven’t posted from our travels. This is entry one, a diatribe on the stupidity of having to rent blankets in Malaysian hostels. Enjoy.
Tuesday, 24th January, Traveller’s Lodge Guesthouse, Melaka, 11:10pm
James and I have just done a little list of how many hotels we’ve stayed at during our trip. We counted 22. We then tried to figure out how many of those hotels have really pissed us off. We counted 6. Not too bad an average really. But then we realised that every hotel in Malaysia has pissed us off somehow. Why has the poor Traveller’s Lodge entered this category? With its colourful walls, funky and friendly staff, spacious living area and self-service kitchen area, what could it possibly do wrong? Read the rest of this entry »
Rain is different here. Rain at home had a different feeling attached to it, a different excitement.
Australian rain is: the rich smell of bitumen sizzling as the drops fall; the screech of windscreen wipers; spiralling explosions on the surface of a swimming pool; my favourite crocheted blanket draped across my knees Read the rest of this entry »