An Englishman At Large

New Blog!

2008-06-11T14:15:00.003+01:00

Sorry for the lack of posts on this blog - suffice to say, I found a job and have since been too busy/bored to post anything!

Anyway, I've just started a new project in collaboration with Ian (of chimplythebest fame) - have a look at:

http://101videogames.wordpress.com/

Easter in Brighton

2007-04-30T20:22:00.000+01:00

Before I foolishly decided to cycle to Brighton (see below) we visited by more conventional means (i.e. the train). Here's a quick run-down of what happened...
King Ian greeted us upon arrival.

To say the beach was crowded would be a gross understatement. Then again, what do you expect on a blazingly hot bank holiday weekend?

OK, well this particular bit wasn't that crowded. Trust me though, the throngs were heaving either either side of this picture.

The whole gang were there... left to right: Holly, Pamela, Andy, Jade, Ian, Hannah and Flick.

Look at that - it's almost beautiful. Squint, and you can just about block out the tower blocks...

Flick stares moodily at the tower blocks. "Hey, I'm squinting but they're still there!"

And of course, what visit to Brighton isn't complete without a visit to the local arcade? (Girlfriends stood just out of shot, arms folded and with faces like fury. That is, until they get addicted to pumping money into those slidey machines with the 10p coins, and suddenly don't want to leave.)

London to Brighton. On a bike. Why?

2007-04-30T10:00:00.000+01:00

So by some weird trick of fate I've found myself entered into the London to Brighton bike ride. I don't know what happened - one minute I was looking at a poster for it, thinking "Hey, that might be fun, I like Brighton, wouldn't it be nice to cycle to Brighton", and the next thing I know I'm sat in my living room with an entry pack thinking "What have I done? Do you know how far away Brighton is? Jeez..."

Just to clarify, it's a 54 MILE bike ride. Yikes.

But it's all for a good cause - the ride is in aid of the British Heart Foundation, so I'd be extremely, eternally grateful if you could help them out by sponsoring me for the ride. Any amount is fine, large or small, but it all makes a difference. You can sponsor me online by going to this address: http://www.bhf.org.uk/sponsor/lewispackwood or just slip me 50p the next time you run into me, either way is fine.

The ride is on Sunday 17 June, and I'll stick some photos up on the blog once I've done it. Flick and I are entering as a team, so hey, why not sponsor both of us? Let's face it, she's probably more likely to make it there than I am - just getting out of bed tires me out.

Harris Strikes Again

2007-04-30T09:44:00.000+01:00

[Above] Richie can look forward to drinking lots of this during his foray into the Middle Kingdom.

Richie Harris is continuing his war against sanity with an ill-advised trek through China in aid of Oxfam. Everyone who knows him is patiently expecting shedloads of cheap underwear and Chairman Mao lighters as gifts upon his return. You can follow his misguided adventures at: http://www.harris78.co.uk/.

The daft fool.

Fancy Street Names

2007-04-27T17:38:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of posts - I started a new job at the beginning of April and it's been pretty non-stop since then. Anyway, more on that another time, what I really want to talk about is street names...

Now one of the things I particularly like about London is the often bizarre street names you find all over the place. "Poultry" is an ongoing favourite of mine, and "Cheapside" (right) is another particularly good one, especially since it's right in the heart of the city and is actually one of the most expensive streets in London.

So imagine my delight when I discovered the new office I'm working in is right next to "Lamb's Conduit Street". Yes, that's right, "Lamb's Conduit Street". I have absolutely no idea what it means, though presumably a lamb's conduit once stood on this very spot. The thought of it!

Another great one that Ian saw the other day was "Frying Pan Alley" - must have been a slow day in the Street Naming Ministry when they came up with that one. You can imagine them just looking around the room, trying to think of ideas...

"Desk Street! No, no ,no...erm...Packet of Crisps Road! No, that won't do...I know, Frying Pan Alley! Brilliant! Come on lads, let's knock off early and find some lamb's conduits..."

And so it goes on. Anyone else spotted some bizarre street names? There's a few good ones on this website.

Return of The Candy Man

2007-03-29T13:40:00.000+01:00

I made an appeal a short while ago for suggestions for albums I could listen to whilst at work - the reason being that I've been working in an audio management office which is stuffed to the gills with every CD imaginable.

Well, the response was quite phenomenal. I was showered, nay, bombarded, with just one suggestion for an album (The Figurines - which, of course, was possibly the only album NOT in the CD library). You lazy lot.

Still, it's all of no consequence now, since I have been rediscovering the delights of radio - yes, irony of ironies, in the midst of the Babel of audio albums I've been listening to BBC London on my mobile phone. Why BBC London you ask? Simple: it's the only station I can pick up in the nest of electronic interference that is the audio department of Inflight Productions - which surely says something for the Samson-like strength of the BBC London radio signal, which I believe is actually hurled by the mighty arm of Zeus himself from BBC headquarters.

Anyway, because of all this I've been delighted to discover the joys of Danny Baker's afternoon radio show, which is a true revelation - definitely the best radio show I've heard since the heady days of Ricky Gervais on Xfm, or even the halcyon nights of Mark and Lard's evening show on Radio 1. The best thing about it is that it's available on demand, so if you can't listen to the radio between 3 and 5pm, you can go here to catch up with the last week's shows.

Even better, Danny's just starting doing something he calls the All Day Breakfast Show - an internet-only podcast which is a sort of spin-off from the afternoon show. I was listening to it on the tube this morning, and it's priceless - particularly the story about the gay hamster. I urge you to download it with all speed - it's available on iTunes and Wippit. And best of all, it's free!

2000AD anyone?

2007-03-29T12:33:00.000+01:00

I've just heard the British government have created a new "Ministry of Justice".

Next week: Lord Falconer is granted permission to dispatch "instant justice" on the streets, whilst Parliament calls for Britain to be formally renamed "Brit-Cit".

Hey, it could happen.

Judge Reid, Yesterday

The Toilets of Champions

2007-03-20T13:41:00.000Z

Nothing spoils my evening more than inadequate toilet facilities. Imagine the scene: you're having a pleasant time, drinking and chatting in a newly discovered hostelry somewhere in Soho, when, inevitably, nature calls you away to water the porcelain. The only trouble is, the painfully hip and funky decor covering the rest of the bar hasn't been carried through to the WC, which looks as though it was abandoned sometime in the Victorian era, and doubtless hasn't seen a loo brush since. After completing your business you return to your table a little shellshocked, worried that by simply entering the lavatory you have probably contracted something terribly nasty, which right now you may be unintentionally spreading to your friends. The evening is ruined.

Thank heavens then for the pub I visited last night - The Angelic - an establishment which could rightfully lay claim to having some of the best toilet facilities in all of London. "Palatial" is probably the best word to describe them - descending via the floodlit spiral staircase you first pass a fountain, followed by a sizable Greek statue, before being sucked into a world of velveteen red walls and sumptious lighting. To top it all off, podcasts of the Xfm Ricky Gervais show were being pumped through speakers above the urinals, so you could catch up on the latest Monkey News whilst relieving yourself. The toilets were so good I actually felt like staying in them and just listening to Ricky Gervais all evening, but people tend to get the wrong idea when you start loitering around in public lavatories.

Check out The Angelic at 57 Liverpool Road, London, N1 0RJ. Huzzah for classy loos!

The Job of Champions

2007-03-20T09:57:00.000Z

So I suppose I'd better give you a quick update on what's been going on these past few weeks. As you probably don't know, I've moved to Tufnell Park in North London, which is two stops from Camden and therefore the kind of place I've wanted to live since I was about 15 (when I first discovered the joys of travelling into London to watch unwashed indie bands perform in grotty basements under dingy pubs). Furthermore, there's a very good Sainsbury's in Camden (you can tell I've aged can't you?).

I've also managed to get myself a job at a company called Inflight Productions, a company which, unsurprisingly, specialises in in-flight entertainment. They do movies and radio and all sorts, but I'm working on uploading CDs for the classical section, which is about as boring as it sounds. Not that I've got anything against classical music (in fact I particularly like listening to it on planes) it's just that entering the track names can be somewhat repetitive...

"Prelude & Fugue No. 1 in A minor, Op. 51...Prelude & Fugue No. 2 in B major, Op. 52...Prelude & Fugue No. 3 in F major, Op. 53...Prelude & Fugue No. 4 in C minor, Op. 54...I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) in F major, Op. 55..." etc. etc.

However, the big draw about the job is this: every single wall is covered in double-row shelving stacked with thousands upon thousands of CDs from every conceivable genre, and I can listen to any of them while I work. How cool is that? Last week I got through most of Bowie's early work, the new We Are Scientists album, a smattering of Super Furry Animals, some late era Beatles and many, many others... It's been awesome.

The only trouble is, I'm running out of ideas.

I'm only here for another couple of weeks, and this is such a golden opportunity to expand my listening that I don't want to pass it up, yet I can't think of ant more albums I want to listen to... If you've got any suggestions for great albums that are likely to have passed me by, please let me know!

Internet Dives

2007-03-06T14:28:00.000Z

easyInternetcafe: Rubbish

I’ve had a bit of trouble with the internet recently, hence the lack of posts for the past couple of weeks. Our contract with AOL has expired, and we’ve been phoning around trying to get a better deal with other companies, but all of them reckon it’ll take at least 10 days to get connected again, and in the meantime I’m stuck with internet cafes to get connected. Which is where the problem lies…

I had no idea internet cafes in London were so bad. Admittedly I was spoilt with some truly luxurious internet places in Japan (places where you could order free ice cream whilst getting a back massage – see my Japan blog), but getting connected in London is a truly abysmal experience. Even the internet cafes in Bolivia were better – they were cheaper for one thing, and the PCs were a much higher spec, despite the slow download speeds.

My first port of call was the easyInternetcafé on Oxford Street (the obvious place to go really, you can’t miss the garish orange signs and flocks of young foreigners hanging around outside) but of course their connection happened to be down that day. I then spent the best part of an hour traipsing round Soho looking for another café, only to end up in a run-down little place with the slowest, most dilapidated PCs I’ve ever seen. I spent a fruitless 20 minutes trying to connect to Gmail, and still got charged a quid even though I never actually got to check my emails. Is this really the best London has to offer?

Over the past week I’ve ventured out to a few more cafes around London, but it’s pretty much the same story wherever you go: most "cafes" are just a few old PCs tucked into the back of a newsagents, and offer little more than (very) basic web surfing. A lot of places didn’t even have computers with CD drives, and most PCs were only running Windows 98, which meant I couldn’t even access some websites. The easyInternetcafé by Trafalgar Square was probably the biggest disappointment, especially since it charges 2 pounds an hour, compared with 1 pound an hour pretty much everywhere else. I was expecting something a little better for my money, but it was actually a bit more basic than most newsagent "cafes".

Even getting onto a computer at easyInternet presented a challenge. I didn’t have 2 pounds in change for the credit machine, and of course it didn’t accept notes, so I asked the assistant for help.

"We don’t have any change," he said, "You’ll have to buy something from Subway."

"But I don’t want to buy anything from Subway," I replied, having recently eaten breakfast.

"Well it’s the only way to get change," he shrugged (a trifle louchely I thought).

"I see. Thanks a lot for your help", I said. He wavered for a second, wondering whether my thanks was genuine, or whether it was barely-disguised sarcasm pulled taut over a cauldron of rage. He seemed to think it was the former. It wasn’t.

So please, if you know of any decent internet cafes in London, preferably ones that don’t force you to buy fast food to get online, then let me know.

Dentyl Mental

2007-02-20T19:22:00.000Z

I've recently become a big fan of Dentyl mouthwash. Its first big tick is that it comes as this weird dual layer liquid, reminiscent of something you'd find in a child's chemistry set; something probably marked "Corrosive, Do Not Swallow Under Any Circumstances Whatsoever". Wantonly swilling it round your mouth smacks of a sort of a devil-may-care attitude, a manly bravado that says: "You think I won't drink it? Just watch me, you squares!" ("Egad! I do believe he's actually drinking it Cuthbert!").

Of course, it's once you've spat it down the sink that the real fun begins. Dentyl's main innovation is that it claims to "reveal the causes of bad breath", right there, in the sink, as little globules of pink stuff. Yes, that's right, you can actually see your own diseased flob. This is obviously very satisfying, as you can imagine. It's very much akin to looking down to see you've made a really massive, perfectly shaped poo (actually, I've got into the habit of "looking down" far too much recently - curse you Gillian McKeith, you fake doctory poo-fiend).

I particularly like the TV advert for Dentyl - a couple are standing by the sink in their bathroom, and the woman - who's been using Dentyl - covers her male companion's eyes to stop him seeing her diseased flob. Of course, the idea of seeing diseased flob, especially his own, very much appeals to the man, and the advert ends with him excitedly picking up the bottle, before presumably using it and spending a good five minutes proudly analysing the muck he's produced in the sink.

That's the trouble with blokes - we're far too proud of the disgusting things we produce out of our bodies. I'm actually disappointed now when my daily Dentyl swill doesn't produce the usual amount of globby pink stuff. Really I should be pleased that my mouth isn't quite as rotten as the day before, but somehow I feel like I've failed in my duty as a man.

Who'd have thought mouthwash could be so fascinating?

Bristol Shenanigans

2007-02-09T11:54:00.000Z

Adele, Tom and Flick by the river in Bath, where we took a day trip whilst visiting Bristol.

Hello again. Apologies yet once more for the yawning gulf between posts - I'm still trying to find work, and every second I spend not trawling through job sites and ringing up employers feels like time wasted. My hands are trembling with guilt even as I type this; just think of all the job opportunities I might be missing! The horror!

Despite the ongoing unemployment crisis, I managed to find the time last weekend to head off to Bristol with Flick to visit our old Japan friends Adele and Tom. We last saw them just before they left Fukui in 2005, so it was great to finally meet up with them again. It was pretty cheap to get there too - we took the Megabus, which was only 15 quid for a return, although there did seem to be something of a lucky dip when it came to bus quality. On the way there we were in a draughty, knackered old double decker, but on the way back we had a rather plush, modern coach - does this mean that Bristolians demand a higher level of comfort when they leave town? Who knows.

The university building was almost black with soot last time I saw it - nice to see it's had a bit of a clean.

Anyway, we had a cracking 2 days - a mixture of late night drinking and edifying walks through the country; the perfect weekend really. Bristol was surprisingly nice - on my last visit there about five years ago I remember it having some brilliantly quirky shopping and bars near the university, but a rather drab, concrete shopping centre in the middle. The shopping centre is (thankfully) gone now, and it seems the town planners have gone on something of a redevelopment frenzy, creating new squares, buildings and recreation areas left, right and centre, which are, on the whole, pretty successful.

The highlight was definitely one of the old attractions though - the Clifton Suspension Bridge. I've seen it in pictures many times before, most memorably when the protest group "Fathers 4 Justice" scaled it in the guise of "Superhero's Fighting For Their Childrens Rights" (I think their children could teach them a thing or two about using an apostrophe).

It really is a mightily impressive bridge, spanning a surprisingly deep gorge, and I'd highly recommend a visit to anyone who's passing Bristol. At sunset it looked just superb.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge, specially for all you bridge fans.

Of course, there was a downside to Bristol, which mostly came in the form of young ladies and gentlemen chugging bottles of neon blue "WKD", whilst simultaneously being sick all over their shoes. Yes, that's right, it's just like Watford, but much, much bigger. There came a point on Saturday evening, at aroundabout midnight, when the delightful cocktail bar we'd ensconsed ourselves in was due to close. We reluctantly finished our caipirinhas and headed out to find an establishment where we could order one or two more drinks before heading home for bed, but we quickly realised our only options were a drum 'n bass club, or Lloyds Bar. We chose Lloyds Bar.

I can only describe the experience as being somewhat akin to attending a cockfight in Victorian London. After spending five minutes trying to find a table which wasn't awash with alcopops and spent cigarettes we sat down, only to be treated to some sort of ritualistic mating display/wrestling match, involving an inebriated man and a young woman in an alarmingly short mini-skirt. As they rolled around on the beer-soaked carpet, presumably in some sort of drunken courstship display, I dearly wished that there was some sort of late-night drinking establishment where one didn't have to watch teenagers rutting whilst listening to "Build Me Up Buttercup" played at 120 decibels.

Oh yes, and we saw a women on her hen night urinate on a busy intersection in the middle of the city centre. My monocle almost popped out with astonishment.

Bristol: Amazing bridges, venerable university, eclectic shopping, urinating women. It really has it all.

We spotted a Hello Kitty guitar in a music shop in Bath - is there no product the shadow of Kitty-chan has yet to fall on?

Yoshi's Story

2007-02-09T11:42:00.000Z

This was an interesting turn up for the books. It turns out that a guy called Nick who works as a sports writer for The Independent used to be the editor of JETfuel about ten years ago. He was writing an article on the popularity of the Premiership around the world, so got in touch with Colin, the Fukui JET President, who put him in touch with legendary clothing tycoon and raconteur Yoshi, resulting in the above snippet from last week's paper. I particularly like Yoshi's system of choosing a football team to support based on accent - by this reasoning, and by looking at football fan club sizes, we come to the surprising conclusion that Mancunians have one of the best accents in the world.

It's encouraging to see that an ex-JETfuel editor has ended up with such a desirable post on a quality broadsheet - kind of bodes well for my journalistic aspirations, don't you think? I wonder what happened to all the other JETfuel editors over the years... If anyone knows what they're doing now, please leave a comment below. Maybe we could have a JETfuel reunion or something. With balloons. And cake. Mmmmm, cake.

Skating on Thin Ice

2007-01-18T15:51:00.000Z

First up, apologies for the dearth of posts in recent weeks - I've become so sick of staring at a computer screen, endlessly searching for jobs, that I've been reluctant to prolong my agony by blogging on top of it all. I tell you, there's been some dark days in 2007 so far... My "job search" began with a something along the lines of a prolonged "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"; a sort of primal scream which persisted through the first three of four days of staring at the monitor, wondering where on earth I was going to find work. Things gradually got better though: I eventually perfected my CV after hours of mindless font-twiddling, and I even managed to send off a couple of applications and sign up for a recruitment agency. Of course, the recruitment agency didn't have any work till February, but hey, one step at a time.

I had my first "interview" yesterday, which was something of a baptism of fire. As it turned out they'd just prepared a series of tests for me to do, ending with the announcement that someone would call me back on Friday for a real interview if they were impressed with the results. It was a bit disappointing - tests are such a faceless way to choose a new recruit, and I was kind of hoping to make an impression on a real person, not just a computer. Still, it's a first step, and even if they don't call me back at least it's given me a bit of a boost just to get to that stage.

Things are looking up on the house-finding stakes as well - my old school friend Anjalie has a spare room going in her house in Tufnell Park from March, which would be perfect as long as the landlord agrees to let me and Flick share a room. We'll find out for sure on Friday. If it all falls through though we'll probably look for a house in the same area anyway, since we were pretty impressed with it when we went there - two stops from Camden, 15 minutes walk from Hampstead Heath, loads of bars and shops nearby... welcome to Zone 2 living I say!

Of course, we were hoping to de-camp to Brighton, but our plans went awry when we discovered that there are absolutely NO JOBS WHATSOEVER going down by the coast. I suppose we could both become waiters in a macrobiotic vegetarian cafe or something, but when it comes to media jobs there's zilch. Still, I'm sure we'll get to live down there someday... [faraway look filters into eyes] .......... someday...........

Stevens glides past effortlessly. Hold on, is she giving me the finger?

Oh, and somewhere in between all the general unemployment Flick and I managed to squeeze in the time to go ice skating at Somerset House - something I can tell you I wasn't particularly looking forward to, since my ice skating skills are somewhere on the level of Mr. Bean's. As a teenager I used to dread being invited to ice skating rinks, since invariably I would spend the next 2 hours clawing my way round the edge of the rink, occasionally falling on my arse in a spectacular fashion and watching all my superior-skilled friends get off with all the good-looking girls.

Of course, Flick was looking forward to seeing me crash spectacularly and generally make a fool of myself, but, miracle of miracles, somehow I managed to stay on my feet for the entire hour! More than that, after a little initial awkwardness I actually managed to get round without touching the sides. Unbelievably, by the time we were called off the ice I was becoming... dare I say it... quite good. Less talented skaters were looking at me with admiring looks as I glided past with my gorgeous lady, wishing that one day they too would be able to pull good-looking girls through sharply-honed ice skating skills. Admittedly, my skating pose was slightly, shall we say, rigid, but it was certainly an improvement on my Mr. Bean pirouettes of yesteryear.

But most importantly, Flick didn't get the chance to laugh at me making a fool of myself. IN YOUR FACE, STEVENS!

(After the disappointment of my quite good turnout a skating, she's now declared it her mission to find something I'm not very good at, then laugh at me doing it badly. I'd suggest she needn't look further than my so far woeful efforts at finding a job - bearing in mind that I've been home for exactly a month now. Ho hum...)

Oh, and did I mention that my sister graduated from King's College London with an MSc in Clinical Immunology? Well, she did, and here she is doing a Batman impression to prove it.

Bloggers in Arms

2007-01-18T15:05:00.000Z

I was delighted to discover that my friend Josie has just started a new blog - It's Like That. Frustratingly, it's quite a lot better than mine, not to mention excellently written and wretchedly funny. Damn you, Josie.

I recommend you surf there with all possible speed, you crazy information superhighway cowboys.

http://itslikethat.wordpress.com/

Readjusting in the Mother Land

2007-01-02T17:40:00.000Z

I'm back!

We arrived back at Heathrow in the early hours of Sunday 17th December, and ever since it's been a constant whirlwind of present buying, family engagements, drunken "catching up" in pubs and gluttonous over-eating, but finally I've found a bit of time to update my blog. The travel photos are almost fully updated too. It's funny; even though I've barely been back two weeks the trip already seems years ago... and my life in Japan has already become just a dim and distant memory - I have to look at photos to remind myself I was even there at all...

Still, that's to be expected really: life's all about change and this is just the beginning of the next big stage: FINDING A PROPER JOB.

(Shoulders sag, eyes glaze over, soul shudders)

Actually, it's not as bad as it sounds: I'm quite looking forward to getting back on the career ladder, climbing the ziggurat of professional journalism to become a media star... although on the other hand I just know that most of that will involve making tea for the sub-editors of local papers, whilst pretending to be interested in local residents' protests against the closing of the local butchers. I remember when I did work experience for the Watford Observer: The most exciting thing that happened in the entire week was a report of a fire in a block of flats near the town centre. I shadowed a reporter as he raced down to the scene, only for us to discover it was actually someone having a barbecue in their rooftop garden.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the World of Local Journalism.

Anyway, here's a quick photo summary of what I've been up to since I got back:

This year saw a bumper haul of presents under the Packwood family Christmas tree...

Well, fireplace.

The Deal or No Deal board game was an unexpected hit wit the family. Everyone agreed it was a million times better than watching the deathly dull TV show, partly because Noel Edmonds wasn't on hand to offer mock sympathy and cajoling quips.

After Christmas I headed down to Seaford (near Brighton) for my old housemate Simon's wedding reception. It was a bit of a reunion for the Lytton Road Boys - is the first time we've all been in the same room since I left our shared house in Leytonstone to move to Japan over 2 and a half years ago. Ah, it's good to be back...

From left to right: Simon, Ian, Me and Jason

The lovely couple, Simon and Jane. I particularly liked the matching green tie/dress combo, very snazzy.

The day after the reception we went for a very wet and windy walk along Brighton seafront. Despite the unclement weather, Flick and I fell in love with the place all over again, and we're already making plans to move there in the near future...

L to r: Flick, Ian, Jason, Jade and Steph E

Tea guzzlers: What better way to end a sodden walk along Brighton sea front than with several dozen cups of tea in a local pub?

New Year Shenanigans: We spent New Year at a house party in Greenwich. Here we are "warming-up" at a pub before the main event, as a bottle of smuggled-in mystery dark alcohol is passed around. L to r: Chris, Steph, Flick

Happy New Year!!!!!!!

Here's to a prosperous, job-filled, 2007...

Nearly Home...

2006-12-12T08:54:00.000Z

So it's nearly Christmas (hurrah!!!) and I'm nearly done with my travels (boo!!!). I'm really looking forward to seeing my friends and family again, but there's also that little voice at the back of my head that's yelling: "Ha! Now you'll have to get a proper job and scrape by from one month to the next on some appallingly low wage instead of swanning off round the world like you've been doing for the past two years and somehow getting away with it."

But hey, it's Christmas! Yay!

I've been diligently trying to post as many of my travel photos as I can onto my flickr site, but I'm currently in a ramshackle internet cafe in Bali which has a bandwidth of miniscule proportions - I doubt you could even get a drumstick through this width, let alone a whole band - so I'll put the final batch up when I'm back in Blighty.

I've stuck up a couple of new links, notably Iceman, where my South African mate Andy C is showing off his artwork (he's just got his dream job colouring comics for a living at Beat Comics Studio), and 8 Months in Aid of Oxfam, where kung fu master Richie Harris details the bizarre challenges he's undertaking for charity. If you've ever wanted to see photos of a grown man in a gorilla suit cycling in a duathlon, then this is the site for you. Good luck Rich.

That's all for now, I'll be back in the UK in less than a week - can't believe how time flies...

Crisis in Packwood

2006-11-16T04:04:00.000Z

If any of you have been reading An Englishman in Nyu-Gun you'll be familiar with my obsession with my namesake town Packwood, Lewis County, WA. It's my stated mission to visit said town and proclaim myself as its rightful king.

Well, it seems that I may already be too late - there's a very real danger that Packwood may not be there by the time I get round to visiting, sorry, conquering: catastrophic floods have caused the town to be evacuated, with at least one house having been washed away. You can read the news report here.

Is this the end for Packwood?

PS. I'm in Wellington, New Zealand at the moment - can't believe it's exactly a month till I'll be back in the UK...

Ah, so that's what you've been up to...

2006-10-17T21:27:00.000+01:00

I'm 2 months into my travels (I'm currently holed up in Cusco, Peru) and I've finally got round to posting some of my photos online using my brand, spanking new flickr account. If you want to see what I've been up to for the past few months, then check out this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72045391@N00/

Looks like I'll be back sometime in mid-December now, hasta luego amigos.

I'M BACK!!!

2006-08-04T18:14:00.000+01:00

So, at long last, I'm back in the UK... The Japan adventure is finally over. I won't be here for long though - very soon I'll be packing up again and heading off round the world for a bit of a holiday before the inevitable return to real life, and the dreaded search for a job...

Check back here in late November for the beginning of... An Englishman At Large.