Last weekend Sally and I took Daisy to Disneyland Paris. We’d promised we’d take her after she changed schools at the beginning of the year. We couldn’t put it off any longer. It wasn’t my first brush with the Mouse’s Kingdom. Twenty years ago I nearly got thrown out of the one in California for  Read more »

My friend Marie is in Madagascar at the moment. She’s is the middle of a big around-the-world adventure. Along the way she likes to be set souvenir quests. So I dug out a pick I took when I visited Madagascar back in 2000 of two women selling Lemur lamps and asked her to buy me  Read more »

Commuting isn’t something I’ve had a lot of experience with over the past decade or so. There may have been the odd crowded bus or train in some foreign country every now and then, but mostly my ‘daily’ commute consisted of going from one room to another. Most recently, up to a cubby hole of  Read more »

I went to a Ukrainian Christmas Party on the weekend. It was thrown by my neighbours. They’re not Ukrainian themselves but it seemed as good a reason as any to have a party. Supplies came from Tescos at Weybridge. There’s a large Polish community in Weybridge, apparently, so the shelves there are stocked with all  Read more »

The quest to have e-versions of my books available by Christmas is gathering pace. And now I need your help. The guy designing the cover for No Shitting in the Toilet has sent me some mock-ups and I want you to tell me which one you like best. Check out the designs and vote below.  Read more »

We were having a bit of a clear out in my house the other day and I noticed my wife had earmarked my George W Bush Presidential Spoon for a trip to the charity shop. I intervened, of course, and now the spoon is back where it rightfully belongs – at the back of the  Read more »

No Shitting in the Toilet first saw light of day as a web site back in 1995. It was first published as a book in 1997. An updated edition with three new chapters hit the book stores in 2001. A lot has happened in the world of travel since then. And there aspects of the  Read more »

Good news for every Hungarian mother struggling to find the perfect gift for their son or daughter this Christmas. No Shitting in the Toilet is getting released in Hungarian! In case you’re wondering, that’s the cover to your right. It was just sent to me by Atilla Strausz, my publisher in Hungary. He helpfully pointed  Read more »

Just got this emailed to me. It’s the cover for the Estonian edition of No Shitting in the Toilet. Not sure what any of it means, but I can tell you one thing. That handle is much too fancy for the sort of toilets I usually see on my travels.

Hot on the heels of an Estonian edition, my first book, No Shitting in the Toilet, is being translated into Hungarian. After the fall of communism it seems independent travel has become quite big in the former Eastern Bloc. As part of the process my Hungarian translator, Bibiana Balanyi, occasionally emails me about stuff she  Read more »