After sitting on 99 countries for what seems an eternity I finally clicked over to my 100th country visited. (Not that I’m counting or anything.) I had been hoping to knock it off with Kurdish Iraq last April but a certain Icelandic volcano put paid to that. And I was supposed to be going to  Read more »

I had a 23-hour stopover in Bangkok on the way back to the UK. The flight from Oz didn’t quite connect with the flight to London so the airline put me up in a hotel in Sukhumvit, right next to the Nana Skytrain station. It was kind of bittersweet being in Bangkok. The first time  Read more »

There were two ways today could have gone. We could have stayed in our cosy front room reading books, occasionally looking up to watch the clouds scoot across the mountains and dump their rain on the gingerbread houses of Bryggen. Or we could rug up, put our waterproof coats on and head off into the  Read more »

As I write this, Pet Shop Boys, actually is playing on the cassette player. I found it hidden at the back of the cabinet, with another Alan Parsons Project cassette (I, Robot). It’s like the owner of the house was ashamed of it. Me, I’d be sticking the Michael Bolton there. In other news, the  Read more »

Well, Anders and Veni were right. It’s raining in Bergen. Only a light drizzle most of the time. But quite heavily sometimes. But it’s such a pretty place it kind of adds to the charm. Anders reckons Bergen gets 22 days of rain in December and only 5 hours of sun. He should give Norwegian  Read more »

When I moved to the northern hemisphere nearly three years ago I decided to start a new yuletide tradition. Instead of a kilo of prawns and Christmas on the beach I decided to embrace the inclement weather of my new home and spend time in December in places that fit my clichéd idea of a  Read more »