tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51582282011-04-21T18:40:35.992-07:00These Things Define The DayHi, I'm your host - Bob and this weblog is going to be about travel.
Mostly about travel.
Probably.
In all liklihood some other stuff that has nothing to do with travel.
Language and Literature maybe.
Mostly travel though.
Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comBlogger131100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-1114339380189079762005-04-24T03:31:00.000-07:002005-04-24T03:43:00.193-07:00I really ought to make more effort to keep this updated. Annual entries aren’t really good enough now are they? It’s been brought back to my attention by a friend and former colleague who stumbled across it and decided to e-mail me. What to write though, ah that’s the question, isn’t it? My life has taken a turn for the mundane and I haven’t had as much as a day trip to Calais for longer than I Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-1071609644913959392003-12-16T13:20:00.000-08:002003-12-16T13:37:18.890-08:00A curious sense of time not passing
I went to a party on Saturday night. It was the annual Mensa Christmas party in Birmingham and a friend who is a member had invited me along. (I'm probably eligible to join but like Groucho Marx I have a thing about not wanting to be in any club that would have someone like me as a member.) I say she had invited me but she had in fact invited a couple of us - Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-1061550772762868302003-08-22T04:12:00.000-07:002003-08-22T04:20:13.073-07:00Atypical Optimism
I love teaching.
Specifically I love teaching EFL and ESOL. Now you might think that there's nothing so very remarkable about that. Lots of people love their jobs. You'd be right. What is remarkable though is that it took me so long to find out. I only moved into teaching just over a year ago when I returned from one of my long trips and realised that I just couldn't face the Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-1057675175610366092003-07-08T07:39:00.000-07:002003-07-08T07:39:35.513-07:00Time is the enemy
A thousand words ? Once a week ? About travel ?
Piece of cake. After all I've done it before - I used to write a newspaper column with exactly that brief. It isn't proving as easy as I thought it would to get down to it though. Time is the problem. There's always something else that has to be done, something with a more urgent command of my time. There's work. I started a new Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-952958302003-06-04T12:03:00.000-07:002003-06-04T12:03:07.480-07:00More songs about mushrooms and food
I've just got back from a week in Catalunya.
It was a pretty good week as package tours go. I visited the Picasso Museum which by sheer good luck had, in addition to its regular collection, a splendid exhibition of Picasso caricatures. I pottered around Barcelona looking at the weird and wonderful architecture of Anton Gaudi. I went to Salvador Dali's house Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-943866632003-05-15T05:59:00.000-07:002003-05-15T05:59:17.926-07:00Some of My Best Friends Are...
Before I begin I want to make one thing absolutely clear - some of my best friends are vegetarians ! I have absolutely nothing against them. I respect their beliefs and their lifestyle choices. I have eaten dinner at their houses and found it to be delicious. I do not in any way condone my fellow carnivores who bleat on about "rabbit food" and "nut cutlets" (the Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-932916802003-04-26T04:49:00.000-07:002003-04-26T06:41:54.000-07:00Splatters and Dead Things
Admirers of Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin stop reading now !
It isn't that you aren't welcome but there is likely to be little said here that is complimentary about either "artist" and I don't care for the thought of irate fans shouting "Philistine" at the screen.
As you might have guessed I visited the new Saatchi Gallery in London yesterday. It's an interesting place Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-931094292003-04-23T06:08:00.000-07:002003-04-23T06:11:48.000-07:00Fluffy Towels
For most people a good holiday is one where the hotel room is clean and comfortable the beds are large and soft, there is a fully stocked mini bar in the corner and fluffy towels on the heated rail in the bathroom. There's nothing wrong with that, but I prefer my travel a bit rougher around the edges. It gives you a sense of adventure and it frees you up to visit places that you Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-919352152003-04-03T12:41:00.000-08:002003-04-10T11:22:33.000-07:00Jackson, Wyoming
I once spent a day wandering around the town of Jackson, Wyoming which - for anyone who hasn't been there - is one of those towns whose sole raison d'etre appears to be tourism. Actually this may always have been its métier as - according to the Online Highways web site - archaeologists believe people have been visiting the area for 12,000 years. It's primarily a Winter resortRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-913744822003-03-25T15:15:00.000-08:002003-03-25T15:18:16.000-08:00"Please Respect The Crocodiles"
I'm endlessly fascinated by words. I love cryptic crossword puzzles, I read grammar text books for fun, the only computer games I play are word games like TextTwist or Whatword. I even teach English to refugees and asylum seekers.
When I was very young, before I'd started school, my Mother taught me to read using a comic called the Treasure, which printed versionsRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-910785642003-03-20T12:29:00.000-08:002003-03-22T06:48:50.000-08:00Desert Critters
I've occasionally spent the night sleeping on my brother's sofa. This might sound commonplace enough, after all who has a brother and hasn't sometimes slept on his sofa?
At my brother's though you don't exactly get the room to yourself. There are the vivaria full spiders and lizards lining every wall - , tarantulas the size of my hand, colourful alien eyed lizards, the Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-907036882003-03-14T03:37:00.000-08:002003-03-14T13:50:45.000-08:00Anyone can do it !
I've had moments of despair when travelling.
Trying to pitch a tent in a howling gale in Colca Canyon on ground so hard that the Incredible Hulk would have had trouble driving in the spikes, springs to mind.
Waking up the morning after we drove the truck off the side of a (fortunately rather low) bridge and realising that in the aftermath I had got drunk enough to insult just Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158228.post-906194932003-03-12T16:56:00.000-08:002003-03-21T01:40:35.000-08:00There's nothing much to see here at the moment. I only created this weblog about ten minutes ago and haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet. Soon there should be something worth reading here so check back in a few days. For the moment I'll just post this link to my other site where a whole lot more can be found about my travels including lots of pictures, descriptions and some digital Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11314642834437567537noreply@blogger.com