I used to occaisonally run along the grassy lane after school. I ran to create warmth against the winter sleet and rain. I ran to avoid the drudgery of walking. I was in a hurry to get home to be warm, to eat and to watch television. As soon as I learned to ride a bicycle I would always choose to ride over running....

On Friday I finished an essay for Uni. It was a routine piece of rigmarole. I submitted the file to the University system without a reread. I have no pride. My weekend was free. That was a joke. My weekend is never free. There is a cost for everything. We have a vast mongrel tree directly outside our house. It spews...

Ask me any sport related question. I could not give a toss about it. Invite me to hit, kick or throw a ball and you'll regret it. Despite my tragic failure to care about any sports I do love people who do. I discovered a Gabriel Garcia Marquez article on football in an early issue of the long defunct Idler Magazine....

Winnie, taken by my Dad Back home in suburbia, it is a Tuesday morning. Pre dawn I was awoken by three metallic taps. In conversation with Re we realise the same three taps disturb our sleep at the same hour every morning. Comforting in their regularity, like all the other sounds which accompany us out here in the...

Where in the world am I? Our flight from London has been a bit special. We flew north over Copenhagen. The sun dropped low and the clouds cleared revealing the Baltic islands rimmed in golden sunlight. On we flew over the snow covered fields of Estonia and night fell. I dozed with my forehead against the glass. I...

We have less than 20 hours left before boarding our plane back to Australia. I am full of the usual salamagundy mix of emotions. Let's not trawl through that though. The past couple of weeks have been intense. Seeing friends and family like this always ends up feeling like an exorcism of their spirits. Their spirits...

We are on the train to Newcastle. We overslept and had to run like maniacs to get here. I managed to misplace my oyster card and my subsequent tube ticket to kings cross. The ticket gate staff were probably too startled by my sweaty panicked luggage humping madness to stop me. Nonetheless we made it with minutes to...

Bombay (as the locals I have met insist on calling it) keeps reminding me of my time in Alexandria in the early 90s. I walked a lot and obsessed over the bicycle culture back then too. behind the hotels I found where they wash the sheets and towels Mumbai Housing In another life I would happily live here. The...

Our first trip to Japan. After driving up the coast and waiting at the airport, the nine hour flight was not so bad. We spent two hours figuring out and getting the trains to our airbnb. We dumped our bags after 20 odd hours travelling and found a bar which was still open. The menu items where written in japanese on...

Bruce Chatwin in India As a nineteen year old, Bruce Chatwin introduced me to the latin phrase, solvitur ambulando (The Songlines). Translated as 'it is solved by walking' I liked the phrase immediately. It has become a talisman to be kept in my thoughts. I have not only sought solutions by walking but also by...

I recently bought some TaoTronics noise cancelling headphones. I thought they'd make the long-haul flight home to the UK less painful. As an itinerant miserable bastard I have found they also work to make long-haul life less painful. Sometimes I just want to switch the world off and step out for a bit. These...

At times I have a plan. I have been known to make a five year plan and more or less stick to it. More happenstance, less plan to be honest. I had planned to quit my previous relationship and go live in the Falklands or the Australian outback. My kids would get monosyllabic postcards occaisonally with no return...