Of course travel leads you to random job opportunities all the time, some voluntary, some well paid, some just for the hell of it and others because of a pure passion for something (such as my travel writing and organising football events). For today’s Working Wednesdays we head back to a cheeseburger counter in Bournemouth,…
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Travellers need music. Sometimes it’s the only thing that keeps me sane on my days of endless bus, train and plane journeys. I have owned an iPod (the same one) for 6 years now, since I was working for Apple and though I have thousands of songs on it, to get me psyched up on…
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I’m surprised its taken me this long to actually do a full post on the Manic Street Preachers, probably my second favourite band of all time (behind Oasis). I’ve been lucky enough to see them 5 times (in 4 different countries) and own all their albums and most of their singles. Unlike Oasis, they take…
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Manic Street Preachers first came into my ears about 20 years ago, in 1992 when on a chance radio listen, I was enthused by their hit single “Suicide Is Painless” (Theme From M.A.S.H.). At the time I didn’t realise it was a cover version, nor knew anything about this band. As the 90s progressed I…
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It really doesn’t matter…but it once did and in some parts of the world it still does and always will. BUT IT SHOULDN’T, OK. I’m hardly justified by posting this, but having now returned to what is considered a more “white culture” in terms of lighter skinned people, rather than darker skinned people. This “black”…
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“It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine” – Michael Stipe. It was all so surreal like a childhood dream or a Norman Whiteside World Cup goal. Back in 1986 I got the Norman Whiteside World Cup goal. A free kick in an impressive 1-1 draw with Algeria (which…
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Not quite, and “hardly end of the rainbow stuff” (as Del Boy once said to Rodney in ‘Only Fools And Horses’) but I have a flight booked out of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport this very Friday morning. Not since I was aged 8 have I spent so long in the same country. I will have…
Read MoreAs if they were ever away…last year’s highly acclaimed album, “Journal For Plague Lovers” ranks amongst the best I’ve ever bought. A band with meaningful lyrics. A band drenched deep in history, culture, travel and world politics. I’m even more excited now, at the prospect of a new album…and an Australian tour! Yes that’s right…
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My second time in Hobart was three months after my first time. And I’ll be back again next week to watch the World Cup with a Northern Irish mate. It’s a city that has grown on me, or what I mean is I didn’t like it much at the start and now I do. I…
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“Here’s a truck stop instead of St. Peter’s Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah”, I have to admit that I don’t have a clue what that means. I am often confused by lyrics, and especially some of those REM lyrics from the early 90s. This particular lyric could easily have applied to my overnight stay at St.…
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