“Don’t tell me it’s not worth fighting for” – Bryan Adams. Tears drained naturally from my eyes when I heard this Bryan Adams song being sung in a bar I once worked in – 21 years later, in a hotel I once stayed in – 31 years earlier. The Heathlands Hotel in East Cliff, Bournemouth,…
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“By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling” – Pete Saint John. On a summer night as August 2025 came to a close, I embarked on yet another wild bar experience! It sio happened on the exact 18 year anniversary of this very travel blog, Don’t Stop Living. You know the drill,…
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“He was turned to steel in the great magnetic field. When he travelled time for the future of mankind” – Black Sabbath. I started to write this post 2 years ago when I was back backpacking in Birmingham. It’s a city I have visited over 10 times but rarely written about, except maybe a review…
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“Everyone’s changing; I stay the same” – The Corrs (2004). Sentimental journeys are no stranger to my wandering heart or backpack. Neil Finn said it long before I rode my weary soul onto the streets of Bournemouth Town in 1994…my first trip to the iconic seaside town…10 years later I’d be working in a bar…
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“I’m loving angels instead” – Robbie Williams. The Angel of the North is an iconic large-scale sculpture located in Gateshead, near Newcastle upon Tyne, in Northern England. It is one of the most famous pieces of public art in the UK and a well-recognized symbol of the North East of England. Despite having been to…
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“After all, you’re my Wonderwall” – Noel Gallagher. In 2022, I finally stopped and visited Hadrian’s Wall (Haidy’s W). I had of course passed it manys a time but this was my first time to stop, walk it, stand on it, understand it and backpack it! This is NOT the border between England and Scotland…
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“Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” – Iron Maiden. I wrote about some musical backpacking sights of London before. On that trip I backpacked Pulp, Oasis, The Clash, The Beatles and Iron Maiden. Sadly the day I visited Iron Maiden, the pub of their birthplace, was shut for renovation. I was there on 1st January…
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“It’s coming home. It’s coming. Football’s coming home” – The Lightning Seeds. Sheffield FC are widely regarded as the oldest club in world football that have been continuously playing. They were formed in 1857 and as much as I hate FIFA, they are the governing body of world football and they recognise Sheffield FC as the world’s…
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“You come in on your own and you leave on your own” – Richard Ashcroft. My latest trip back to England threw up undoubtedly more surprises than my backpacking glory days in that country. I spent a few days back in Birmingham. It’s a city I’ve been to many times of course, mostly to visit…
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“The air coming up to the boil; rubbing up against walls and lamp-posts trying to get rid of it. Old women clack their tongues in the shade of crumbling concrete bus shelters” – Jarvis Cocker (Pulp – Sheffield: Sex City). Sheffield FC are widely regarded as the oldest club in world football that have been…
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