Category Archives: Travel

It’s actually July. WHY JULY TO ME?!

Posted on by
Reply

I was in my blog settings looking something up when I discovered my previous un-published post a couple of days ago. Whoops! I’m not quite sure why I didn’t publish it at the time; obviously it’s unfinished but I don’t know why.

Either way, there you go. Not that anybody’s reading these anymore since Facebook disabled the ability to automatically share these things, thus making it entirely useless to me and bringing about my deleting of the account for good. The fact it’s become a data gathering machine for nefarious purposes and an echo chamber for old racist white people might also have had something to do with it.

Anyway, onwards and sideways! That’s right, I’m moving in a diagonal. Not sure what that means, right now it’s a stream of consciousness. You’re welcome.

PS: This is long. Get yourself a strong drink or tranquilizer.

Continue reading →

Hey it’s February

Posted on by
Reply

Sooo … yeah, obviously it’s not February, it’s almost the end of July. Looks like I wrote this and then bailed on it, but figured I’d post this anyway and then follow it up.

How did that happen?!

My last post was exactly three months ago. I was about to start a new job, and my mind was full of ideas and theories and stratagems about what might need to be done, how I might achieve it, and how I would justify my ideas.
The 2FA/MFA post came out of that and, I’ll admit, it ran on a little longer than I intended. C’est la vie as the French say.

“So what’s been going on in the last three months?!” asked literally nobody.
Well dear phantom reader, I shall tell you, while I sip PG Tips from my mug and persist in trying to shake the odd longing that I’ve had for the past few days to be back in England during Spring.

Continue reading →

Nine Months

Posted on by
Reply

If, instead of moving to America, I had gotten pregnant instead, I would be having a baby about now.

That’s a patently ridiculous statement – after all I don’t want kids – but it’s interesting to me as a measure of time. My last post on this subject was at the end of December, and it was very much a commentary on the sadness and loneliness that can take hold when relocating from a country that you’ve spent your whole life in.

Thankfully, the nine-month report is a much happier, healthier, and altogether bouncier child (sorry).

Continue reading →

Cruise Pictures

Posted on by
Reply

I was going to write some stuff about the Cruise, but after going back and looking at my previous two posts it appears that I covered most of it. When I posted my second entry, we were looking forward to a food tour in Punta Cana, on the Dominican Republic. That turned out to be a huge disappointment as it was cancelled the night before (I’m guessing due to lack of participation), and as we had a lie-in and only got to shore mid-morning, we were further disappointed to discover that there’s pretty much nothing to do, unless you get to shore first thing and go on a multi-hour excursion.

The only thing I have to say is that it was very hot.

The Bahamas though, that was awesome. We took a trip out to a Coral Reef (the cheaper trip on the jankier boat, but I think we ended up in the same spot as the others either way) and went snorkeling. I’m not a fan of the sea (it terrifies me) and I’m a crap swimmer, but even so this was something magical. I encourage anybody with the opportunity to do it to seize it with both hands and if, like me, you are a terrible swimmer, just remember that nobody will judge you for using the offered buoyancy aids!

Anywho, without further ado here’s the link to my favourite pictures. I’ve included a few below the line.

Continue reading →

Homesickness

Posted on by
Reply

It’s that time. Time to talk about the Big H. No, not Harvey Weinstein, the other thing. Homesickness.

A few months ago I dumped a bunch of potential titles for posts into my Drafts folder to remind me what I had ideas about. One title was simply Homesickness, and AJ said “Well, you can’t write about that yet, because you haven’t gotten over it.”

I think I’ve been truly homesick just once before, back in September 2003 (or was it October?) when my family drove me the three hours from Wales to Manchester, and dumped me there. I remember feeling a profound sense of loss that day when they drove away, leaving me living on my own for the first time ever. This experience has been wholly different, for obvious reasons.

Continue reading →

Negative Nancy

Posted on by
Reply

I recently mused that if I carried on complaining about things in New York / America I’d earn myself a Grumpy Old Man badge, and then had a friend tell me that I sound frustrated or angry all the time.

Whilst it’s fair to say that a healthy percentage of my content has been more critical in tone, I feel it would be remiss of me to not point out the following (some would say obvious) fact: moving countries is hard work.

This blog was always intended to cover the trials and tribulations involved in uprooting ones entire life and moving it three and a half thousand miles across the ocean and, guess what, there are many vexatious things about a country in which you haven’t spent your entire life!

Continue reading →

Timehop: Paris

Posted on by
1

I reinstalled Timehop just over a year ago; the infamous app that lets you relive past triumphs, miseries, and WTFs all in one handy place on your phone.

It recently reminded me that it had been two years since we opened our office in Paris – it’s gone now, replaced by the acquisition – and I felt like doing some rambling reminiscing on the matter.

IMG_2883-EFFECTS.jpg

Continue reading →

You say tomato …

Posted on by
1

You say ‘toe-may-toe’, and I say ‘toe-mah-toe’. You say ‘Poe-tay-toe’, and I say ‘poe-tah-to’.

‘Trousers’ are ‘Pants’. Holidays are ‘Vacations’. Pavements are ‘Sidewalks’. Flats are ‘Apartments’. ‘Fucking awful drivers’ are ‘Drivers’.

And, apparently, ‘On Time’ is ‘Five minutes late’.

Continue reading →