“The pen is mightier than the sword” – Anon.
As a writer, blogger, author, poet whatever, we NEVER ever ever suffer “writer’s block”. No. It does not exist. There is no such thing as “writer’s block”, if you think there is then it is because you are not a writer. I have 1,000,000 ideas about what I want to write, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year and so on. I write everyday in some capacity and never have a block. I write on receipts, napkins, my phone, my laptop, paper, writing never stops. The fact is we will NEVER have time to write all that we want to. Currently I have not just 1000 blog posts unwritten but 1000 poems/lyrics I want to publish, a 147 chapter book complete but never released. One day I actually looked at my blogging notebook. What I do is I write a list of articles I want to write. I started that list in 2007. It grew and grew and grew.
As I write these articles, I stroke them off from the list, see below.
Around 2008, I realised I will NEVER be able to stroke all of them off and complete all those articles, there are too many of them, I will never have enough time. One million ideas of what to write and no time. I would need ten of me to even attempt to do it. Plus I have to live as well. I cannot be 24 hours a day behind a screen. I must sleep and eat too.
When I started doing my Regular Features Series in 2012, the whole thing snowballed out of control, under each of the following headings, I suddenly had 50 stories minimum under each heading (and counting), some of them like Thirsty Thursdays, I have hundreds of posts to last the blog another 20 years…
Monday’s Money Saving Tips
Tuesday’s Travel Essentials
Tuesday’s Travel Problems
Working Wednesdays
Thirsty Thursdays
Friday’s Featured Food
Studying Saturdays
Sunday’s Inspiration
Plus there are my other semi-regular features such as:
World Travellers
Random Rants
Backpacking Buddies
Travel Myths Busted (in fairness, that series didn’t last long but I have 100s of ideas for it)
The Day I…
Book Reviews
Travel Collectibles
World Borders
So here are just a small selection of my travel blog articles that NEVER made the cut, never made it on here and might never. If I have ten of me and infinte time, yes I can do it, but the time machine promised in Back To The Future doesn’t exist yet. Here are just some of the unwritten blog posts that might one day appear on Don’t Stop Living. In the time it has taken me to compile this blog post, I probably could have nailed 2 or 3 of these…oh well…
Monday’s Money Saving Tips (50+ unwritten posts)
-
- Fly early morning
- Hand luggage only
- Always have a job, every day
- Best budget flight options
- Free Wi-Fi
- Never buy a Television
- Always travel economy class
- Use couchsurfing
- Sleep in a tent
- Take advantage of hppy hours
- Enter competitions
- Work in pubs
- Supermarket tips
- Night markets
- Air Miles
- Work on boats
- Never buy an Apple product
- Resist the temptation
- Hitch-hiking (within reason)
- Always take food home
- Use breakfast for lunch
Tuesday’s Travel Essentials (50+ unwritten posts)
- Camera
- Spare batteries
- Credit cards
- Multiple currencies
- USB sticks
- A cap
- Gloves
- A stick/pole
- A basic phone
- Padlock and key
- Sleeping bag
- Wallet
- Watch
- Music
- Internet Access
- Backing up photos
- Swimming trunks
- Safety first
- Northern Ireland flag
- Flip flops/thongs/jandals
- Language basics
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Tea bags
- Knowing how to ride a bicycle
Tuesday’s Travel Problems (50+ unwritten posts)
Working Wednesdays (100+ unwritten posts)
- Working in Irish Pubs
- PR: Sonos
- PR: Apple
- PR: Bite Communications
- McMillen’s Bar and Restaurant
- Milking Cows in Colombia
- Condor Ferries
- Halifax
- Tesco Springhill
- Tesco Knocknagoney
- Royal Mail Postman
- Fanzine Editor: Here We Go…Again
- Football Programme Writer: Glentoran Gazette
- Abbeyview Nursing Home
- School Community Service
- Bournemouth International Centre
- Red Eventful Cuisine
- Best Break
- Grafton and AMA
- Steensons
- Managing / Chairing SOENISC (2005 – 2009)
- Flight Attendant Course (passed but never did it)
- Teaching English: St. Francis
- Teaching English: Skype
- Teaching English: St. Timothy
- Teaching English: St. Patrick
- Teaching English: Warszawa
- Teaching English: Tsuen Wan OLK
- Teaching English: Annunciation Catholic Kindergarten
- Teaching English: St. Andrews Primary School
- Teaching English: Kindergartens
- Teaching English: Primary Schools
- Teaching English: Adults
- Teaching English: Summer Schools
- Dole Money
- Travel Blog Advertising
- Cauliflower Harvest: Forth / Kindrid
- Cauliflower Harvest: Squeaking Point
- Cauliflower Harvest: Port Sorrell
- Broccoli Harvest: Wesley Vale
- Broccoli Harvest: Moriarty
- Broccoli Harvest: East Sassafras
- Broccoli Harvest: East Devonport
- Broccoli Harvest: Wallabadah
- Broccoli Harvest: Woodside Farm
- Broccoli Harvest: Lakehouse
- Broccoli Harvest: Formosa
- Nerve Radio DJ
- How To Set Up A Travel Blog
- Difficulties Keeping Up a Travel Blog
- Guest Posting
- Writing A Chapter For Somebday Else’s Book
- PR: Guinness
- How to Promote a Travel Blog
- Selling Bootleg Tapes (1997 – 1999)
- How to Get a Bar Job in Australia
- How to Get a Farm Job in Tasmania
- Teaching English: Sports Day
- Bournemouth Arcade
- Google AdSense
- Serving Champagne at Graduations
- How to Keep Your Travel Blog Updated When Your Laptop Is Broken
- Compiling Itineraries for Vadovia
- Doing Media Tours
- Selling Photos to Cathay Pacific
- Delaney’s Irish Pub Hong Kong Part 3 (Parts 1 and 2 done)
- Copywriter at Copypress
- Travel Writer for Culture Trip
- Business English Teacher for Target
- Volunteer English Teacher for Angloville
- Creative Language Academy
Thirsty Thursdays
“Spend your nightlife table hopping” – Noel Gallagher.
To be honest, this feature is NEVER ever ending. Every day I might even add a new on to it, but here are just a few of the Thirsty Thursdays undone so far…
- Bushmills Distillery, NORTHERN IRELAND
- Grace Neill’s, NORTHERN IRELAND
- Best Bars in Belfast
- Best Bars in Bangor
- Best Bars in Londonderry
- Circle Line Pub Crawl, London
- Monopoly Pub Crawl, London
- Singapore Sling, SINGAPORE
- New Year’s Eve in Sydney, AUSTRALIA
- Party Peking, CHINA
- Blandford Forum’s 24 Hour Bar, ENGLAND
- A night in the huge Stadium Nightclub, Jakarta, INDONESIA
- Vientiane Pub Crawl, LAOS
- Ice Bar, London, ENGLAND
- Hong Kong Wine and Dine Fest
- Irish Bar MACAU
- Night out in Vang Vieng, LAOS
- Nights out in Recife, BRAZIL
- Exploring the Cool Bar Booths of Zhu Hai, CHINA
- Pub Crawl in Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
- Ayran Yoghurt Drink, AZERBAIJAN
- Kefir my Saviour, POLAND
- Coffee in Harar, ETHIOPIA
- Drinking Bushmills in Pyongyang, NORTH KOREA
- Karaoke Night in Pyongyang, NORTH KOREA
- Israeli Wedding in Afula, ISRAEL
- Night out in Haifa – Jack And The Beans, ISRAEL
- An irish Pub in Petra! JORDAN
- Northern Ireland Night Out in Baku, AZERBAIJAN
- Best Bars in Tbilisi, GEORGIA
- Tea in Opera Square, Yerevan, ARMENIA
- Brandy Night in Stepanakert, NAGORNO KARABAKH
- Turkish Coffee in Hamam, Trabzon, TURKEY
- Turkish Coffee Leaf Reading in Ankara, TURKEY
- Fake Beer in IRAN
- Tea House in Kerman, IRAN
- Best Bars in Dubai, UAE
- German Hofbrau in Erbil, IRAQI KURDISTAN
- Watching Barcelona v Elche in KURDISTAN
- Snobs, Birmingham, ENGLAND
- Best Bars in Liverpool, ENGLAND
- Passport Pub Crawl in Bournemouth, ENGLAND
- Partying in Changsha, CHINA
- Surinamese Cocktails, SURINAME
- Beer with Dad in Rio DJ on Sam’s Day, BRAZIL
- Mexican Cerveza, Mexico City, MEXICO
- Mexican Tequila, Mexico City, MEXICO
- Tequila Tasting in Teotihuacan, MEXICO
- Mojito Coffee, San Cristobal, MEXICO
- Best Bars in Guatemala City, GUATEMALA
- Horchata, EL SALVADOR
- Best Bars in San Salvador, EL SALVADOR
- Best Bars in Granada, NICARAGUA
- Meeting Wandering Earl in ROMANIA
- Best Bars in Sofia, BULGARIA
- Best Bars in Bucharest, ROMANIA
- Best Bars in Vilnius, LITHUANIA
- Best Bars in Veliko Tarnovo, BULGARIA
- Best Bars in Edinburgh, SCOTLAND
- Best Bars in Sopot, POLAND
- Best Bars in Warszawa Pawilony, POLAND
- Best Bars in Praga, Warszawa, POLAND
- Best Bars in Poznan, POLAND
- Best Kazimierz Bars in Krakow, POLAND
- Best Bars in Copenhagen, DENMARK
- Best Bars in Malmo, DENMARK
- Pub Crawl in Kotor, MONTENEGRO
- Bottom Five Bars in Riga, LATVIA
- Top 5 Bars in Oslo, NORWAY
- My 35th Birthday World Cup Bar in Sousse, TUNISIA
- Best Bars in the FAROE ISLANDS
- Best Bars in Dushanbe, TAJIKISTAN
- Best Bars in Lviv, UKRAINE
- Best Bars in Gdynia, POLAND
- Best Bars in Lan Kwai Fong, HONG KONG
- Best Bars in Kwun Tong, HONG KONG
- Best Bars in Mong Kok, HONG KONG
- Best Bars in Tsim Sha Tsui, HONG KONG
- Best Bars in Tarawa, KIRIBATI
- Nights out in TURKMENISTAN
- Best Bars in Tashkent, UZBEKISTAN
- A Night Out in Nukus, KARAKALPAKSTAN
- The Night We Bate the Ukraine 2-0
- Best Bars in Ghent, BELGIUM
- Best Bars in Sarajevo, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
Friday’s Featured Food
Likewise, this feature is NEVER ever ending. Every day I might even add a new meal/food on to the list of unwritten, but here are just a few of the Friday’s Featured Food undone so far…I literally have 400 of these…
- Ulster Fry, NORTHERN IRELAND
- Peking Duck in Beijing, CHINA
- Caramel Dessert, MACAO
- Dim Sum Experience, HONG KONG
- Pierogi Ruskie, POLAND
- The Kiwi Burger, NEW ZEALAND
- Paprika Chicken in Debrecen, HUNGARY
- Milanesa, URUGUAY
- Goulash, HUNGARY
- My Botswana Barbecue, BOTSWANA
- The Johannesburger, SOUTH AFRICA
- Sweet Crepes in St. Malo, FRANCE
- Soda Bread, NORTHERN IRELAND
- Porridge Pudding in MACAU
- Fish Balls, HONG KONG
- Hangi, NEW ZEALAND
- Tibetan Yak, CHINA
- Doubles, Port of Spain, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
- Palacsintos, Budapest, HUNGARY
- Turo Rudi, HUNGARY
- Feel Myanmar Banguet in Yangon
- Buffet at Yanggakdo Hotel, NORTH KOREA
- BBQ Duck in Pyongyang, NORTH KOREA
- Lunch in Hebron, PALESTINE….
(the list is never ending, each one I have photos and details of, all written in my notebooks or Lonely Planet books)
Studying Saturdays (20+ unwritten)
Sunday’s Inspiration (100+ unwritten)
(Two other ongoing series which between them could amass a further 100 posts)
“A constellation once seen over Royal David’s City” – Ash.
World Borders (200+ unwritten)
I have crossed a ridiculous amount of borders by bus, train, sea, land, jeep, car, taxi, aeroplane – you name it. I wanted to write about them all as a separate post, but it’s impossible. I will never find the time for it. Just a few of those hundreds of unwritten borders I crossed:
Honduras to Guatemala (El Florida)
Guatemala to Belize
Northern Ireland to Scotland (Larne – Cairnryan)
Northern Ireland to Scotland (Larne – Stranrar)
Colombia to Venezeula (San Antonio Del Tachira)
Hong Kong to China (Lo Wu)
England to Wales (Severn)
Malaysia to Singapore (train)
DMA: South Korea to North Korea (both sides)
Swaziland to South Africa
Zimbabwe to Botswana
Botswana to Zambia
Lesotho to South Africa
Togo to Benin
Benin to Togo
Germany to Poland
Poland to Ukraine
Ukraine to Poland
Belarus to Poland
Poland to Belarus
Poland to Czechia
Poland to Hungary
Italy to Slovenia (bus)
Cambodia to Thailand (bus)
Singapore to Malaysia (night train)
England to France (ferry)
France to England (ferry)
Argentina to Brazil (Iguazu)
Republic of Ireland to Wales (ferry)
England to NI (Fleetwood to Larne)
Bolivia to Chile (Hito Cajun)
Czechia to Germany
The Gambia to Senegal
Uganda to Rwanda
DR Congo to Rwanda
Kenya to Uganda
Brunei to Malaysia (ferry)
China to Hong Kong (Prince Edward – Kaiping)
China to Hong Kong (Futian Lok Ma Chau)
Czechia to Germany (train)
Hungary to Serbia (special offer night train)
Kaliningrad to Poland
New Zealand internal – SI to NI
Georgia to Azerbaijan (night train)
Palestine to Israel
Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia
Armenia to Georgia
China to Hong Kong at Huang Gang
Spirit of Tasmania – Australia Mainland to Tasmania (both ways)
El Salvador to Guatemala
Nicarague to Costa Rica
Andorra to Catalonia
Moldova to Romania
Kosovo to Montenegro
Scotland to England (Edinburgh to Alnmouth)
ROI to Northern Ireland (Aircoach)
Denmark to Sweden (Copenhagen to Malmo)
Sweden to Denmark (Helsingborg to Helsingor)
Jersey to Poole, England
And finally there are my ordinary, every day backpacking travel stories, these themselves have 1000+ unwritten, here are just a few I didn’t have time to write about (yet)…I could add a few more in for every country/territory.
Fiji
Kurdistan
Marshall Islands
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Podjistan
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Republic of Ireland
Romania
Romkerhall
Russia
Rwanda
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom – 300+ unwritten
Uruguay – Top sights in Montevideo
Vatican City State
Venezuela
Vietnam – Top Sights in Hanoi, Laocai
Wales – Top Sights in Cardiff, Swansea, Abergavenny
Wallachia – Top Sights in Valaske Mezirici
Western Sahara
Zambia – Livingstone Museum, Top Sights in Livingstone, Rhino Park, Sunset on the Zambezi
Zimbabwe – Victoria Falls
- How to get a North Korea visa
- How to get a Mongolia visa in Warszawa
- How to get an Ivory Coast visa
- How to get a Bahrain visa at Muharraq Island
- How to get a Suriname visa in Venezuela
- How to get a Suriname visa in French Guyana
- How to get an Ethiopia visa at Addis Ababa Airport
- How to get an Iraq visa at Erbil Airport
- How to get an East Timor visa at Dili Airport
- How to get a Jordan visa at Amman International Airport
- How to get a Kuwait visa at Kuwait International Airport
- How to get an Iran visa in Trabzon, Turkey
- How to get a Kaliningrad Visa While Based in Gdansk, Poland
- How to get an authorisation code for an Iran visa
- How to get a China visa in Hong Kong
- How to get a China visa at Beijing Airport
- How to get a Myanmar visa in Hong Kong
- How to get a Vietnam visa in Hong Kong
- How to get a Bangladesh visa in Hong Kong
- How to get an Azerbaijan visa in Georgia
- How to get a visa for Nagorno Karabakh
- How to get a Qatar visa at Doha Airport
- How to get an Indonesia visa at Denpasar Airport
- How to get an Indonesia visa at Jakarta Airport
- How to get a Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa
- How to get a Hong Kong Working Visa
- How to Get an Australian Working Holiday Visa
- How to Get a Second Australian Working Holiday Visa
- How to get a Visa for Gorno Badakhshan in Bishkek
- How to get a Visa for Tajikistan in Bishkek
- How to get a Tanzania visa on arrival in Kilimanjaro
- How to get a Sri Lanka visa online
- How to get a Letter of Invitation for Uzbekistan
- How to get an Uzbekistan Visa in Bishkek
- How to get a Mongolia Visa in Warsaw
- How to Get a Kaliningrad Visa in Gdansk
- (Old post – not necessarily true any more – How to get a Turkish visa on arrival at Istanbul airport)
- How to get an Antarctica visa (tongue firmly in cheek)
But I still haven’t even covered:
- Belarus Visa in London
- Chinese Visa in London
- New Zealand Working Holiday Visa
- Hong Kong Working Visa
- Getting Australian Super Back
- Getting Australian Tax Back
- How to get a Chinese Multiple Entry Visa
- Turkey Visa
- Angola Visa
- Turkmenistan Visa
- Benin Visa
- Hong Kong ID Card
- Burundi Visa
- Rwanda Visa
- Uganda Visa
- Kenya Visa
- Egypt E-Visa
- Oman E-Visa
- Saudi Arabia Working Visa
- Nauru Visa
- Papua New Guinea Visa
I think I will quit there. Maybe I will write some of these this week? Coronavirus is spreading and I have more time in my flat next to my laptop. Perhaps it is time to:
- Complete my book once and for all
- Tidy up this website
- Complete a lot of those articles I started (in draft form) and never finished
Stay safe, stay at home!
1 thought on “Top 1000 Unwritten Blog Posts: I’ll Never Get These All Written And There Is NO Such Thing As Writer’s Block”