Today I spent fifteen minuted berating a universal power adapter that I had only recently bought for suddenly ceasing to operate. Harris, a good friend I am staying with in Chile casually asked what position the on/off switch was in.
There are many, many days that I wonder if I don't share a little more DNA with monkeys than most...
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Santiago quake
For any of you who have been following my recent travels, I am in Chile a the moment and while I was woken and well shaken by the quake, it didn't have any negative effect - I'm safe with friends and will stay here for at least another week. The aftershocks are frequent but lessening in intensity each time.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Author page
Amazon.com has provided the opportunity for authors to have their own page - this blog will start appearing there as well now, but won't have any content that you can't find here.
To get started, here is the recent BBC interview - the African section starts at about the twenty minute mark if you aren't that keen on Turkey.
To get started, here is the recent BBC interview - the African section starts at about the twenty minute mark if you aren't that keen on Turkey.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Radio!
For those in the UK, I will be appearing on the program Excess Baggage, on BBC Radio 4 at 10am this Saturday. Pour yourself a stiff drink (it makes it all funnier) sit back and enjoy!
There are also a few South African radio spots coming up, but sadly I haven't been given a set schedule so can't tell you when they will be on. Links will be posted as they appear - in the meantime here is a lengthy interview that I did with the wonderful Richard Fidler a few months ago:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/08/03/2644426.htm?site=brisbane
There are also a few South African radio spots coming up, but sadly I haven't been given a set schedule so can't tell you when they will be on. Links will be posted as they appear - in the meantime here is a lengthy interview that I did with the wonderful Richard Fidler a few months ago:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/08/03/2644426.htm?site=brisbane
Saturday, January 30, 2010
The book that never will be...
A writing project that never got off the ground was going to be about Sumatra and would have involved my old friend Nick and I tackling the island from tip to tip. Here is a flashback scene from the last time we were there together, way back in the last few days before I turned 21:
“Oh my God!” Nick said, with enough of a quaver for me to take him seriously.
“What?!” I asked, treading water, clinging to the upturned kayak that the current was trying to tug from my grasp.
“Oh! My! God!” Nick shouted. He was facing upstream, his back blocking my view of what was causing his panic. There were tigers in this part of the world, bears too, but it was neither of these that worried me. A day earlier we’d met a researcher who had told us that just a week before he’d seen a four meter python floating down the same river that we had just capsized in. But it wasn’t pythons that bothered me. The python he’d seen was dead anyway, a bite taken out of it by the only animal I feared. There were saltwater crocodiles here, the largest of that malicious family, and one of the very few creatures on earth that viewed humans as snacks.
Nick flinched, and I saw movement in the water, coming towards us, with irrefutable purpose.
“Oh my God,” this time I said it. It was coming right for us, ready to feed. I cursed Nick, my oldest friend, my best friend, for it was he that I blamed for capsizing us and dumping us in the river, the name of which we didn’t even know.
“Oh my God!” we said in unison, and it drew closer, to my enormous chagrin skirting the endlessly lucky Nick and bee-lining towards me.
“Oh my God!” Nick said, with enough of a quaver for me to take him seriously.
“What?!” I asked, treading water, clinging to the upturned kayak that the current was trying to tug from my grasp.
“Oh! My! God!” Nick shouted. He was facing upstream, his back blocking my view of what was causing his panic. There were tigers in this part of the world, bears too, but it was neither of these that worried me. A day earlier we’d met a researcher who had told us that just a week before he’d seen a four meter python floating down the same river that we had just capsized in. But it wasn’t pythons that bothered me. The python he’d seen was dead anyway, a bite taken out of it by the only animal I feared. There were saltwater crocodiles here, the largest of that malicious family, and one of the very few creatures on earth that viewed humans as snacks.
Nick flinched, and I saw movement in the water, coming towards us, with irrefutable purpose.
“Oh my God,” this time I said it. It was coming right for us, ready to feed. I cursed Nick, my oldest friend, my best friend, for it was he that I blamed for capsizing us and dumping us in the river, the name of which we didn’t even know.
“Oh my God!” we said in unison, and it drew closer, to my enormous chagrin skirting the endlessly lucky Nick and bee-lining towards me.
Monday, January 25, 2010
London!
This evening I am making my rather circuitous way to London, where I will have various media appearances and events over the next two weeks. My immune system has decided to punish me for the abuse I put it through over the past month in Patagonia by generating a coldsore the rough shape and same size as France. That's a nice one for the cameras...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
