Hello! This episode is a little unusual. See, it's occurred to me that in the spring of 2014, I did a backpacking trip around the western edges of what when I was growing up was the Soviet Union. And it seemed like an apt time to talk about it, given not only events in that region at the time of recording, but also considering the background to the current situation in the region pretty much effectively started only a month or two before my trip. My visit took me from Romania, which doesn't coun...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 5Ep. 56
Hello! This is not, strictly speaking, a Podcast episode, although it'll be the first of a regular series. As you may know, a couple of months ago, an old friend from Primary School days approached me with a thought. She's now a schoolteacher herself and her class was looking at travel writing, so she asked if I'd be willing to answer a few questions that her class would put to me, to help them in their lesson. I of course agreed, so they all went away and researched me, and she came back to me ...
Mar 10, 2022•52 min•Season 5Ep. 55
Hello! This podcast episode has a rather overly grand title, but it's really a continuation of Episode 48 , about environmentalism. I look at topics like agricultural practices, diet, the concept of slow travel, accommodation, driving, office work, and fashion. All enveloped in a nice packet of privilege identification. Be thankful I didn't go into things like sustainability and greenwashing. Maybe that's something for another pod. Can we save the world? I guess that's up to us. Topics discussed...
Mar 03, 2022•49 min•Season 5Ep. 54
Hello! This podcast episode talk about my recent week-long backpacking trip to Northern Ireland. However, it's less about Northern Ireland specifically, and more about the practical side of backpacking for a week in off-season while there are still Covid pandemic restrictions and admin to contend with. Though I do talk a little about some of the places and museums I visited. That said, the 'T word' probably deserves its own podcast at some point so I only talk about that in passing; indeed I thi...
Feb 19, 2022•31 min•Season 5Ep. 53
Hello! This podcast episode follows on from Pods 15 & 16, from almost exactly two years ago, which were about luggage and packing. This time round, however, I'm talking about 'mistakes' you've made while packing. Things like whether you'd packed things you realised were pointless, or not packed things you realised were vital, and had to scramble about trying to find them. Maybe you'd accidentally packed something that became serendipitously useful. Or the opposite; you'd forgotten you'd pack...
Feb 03, 2022•39 min•Season 5Ep. 52
Hello! This is Part Three of my podcast episode on London. This concludes my journey around London, and in this episode I look at those boroughs northeast of the river. It appears that again, few of these boroughs are that well known, even by me. Topics discussed include: * A holiday period of beer and underwhelming activities * Dungarees and running. Not at the same time * Islington - Monopoly and Transport * Hackney - Old churches and even older theatres. And football * Waltham Forest - Where ...
Jan 17, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 51
Hello! This is Part Two of my podcast episode on London. It was originally going to be the second half but I realised London was bigger than I expected (!), so there's going to be an episode three. In this episode I look at those boroughs northwest of the river, many of which, it turns out, are not well known even amongst my Travel Twitter friends. Topics discussed include: * Merry Christmas * A welcome back to Laura * The problems of obtaining a covid booster vaccine * Hounslow - Country Houses...
Dec 26, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 5Ep. 50
And finally, my podcast about London that I've been promising for ... quite some time. London of course is one of the world's biggest and most visited cities, so why am I talking about it? Well, here I'm going Beyond The Monopoly Board to bring you thoughts and information from places you might not have heard of, with help from some of the people who live there. This is as much a learning curve for you listening as it has been for me making – there's quite a few of these boroughs I've not been t...
Dec 09, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 5Ep. 49
Hello! On this episode I talk a little about aspects of environmentalism, including direct action, clean water, plastic bottles, cliff erosion, and the UK rail network. While writing the script I realised there were a whole myriad of related subjects like palm oil, deforestation, agriculture, motoring, sustainable travel, and lifestyle changes that would better be served being in their own podcast. Think of this pod therefore as being 'Part One' - Part Two will be episode 51, in three episodes t...
Nov 25, 2021•46 min•Season 5Ep. 48
Hello! This month has included Pronoun Day, Coming Out Day, and Asexual Awareness Week, amongst other things. It's been a big month for self-awareness. Following on from my previous episode on 'Coming Out' to yourself with neurodiversity, this episode is on 'Coming Out' to yourself with a non-standard sexual or gender identity. I also go into some of the mental health concerns, and talk about how very often coming out to yourself makes you realise the clues had been there for years, it was just ...
Oct 21, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 47
Hello! To acknowledge both ADHD Awareness Month and Dyspraxia Awareness Week, this episode of my podcast talks about my experiences of being considered neurodiverse and the issues having neurodiversities causes me, not necessarily while travelling but more in my everyday life. I also talk about how it feels to 'come out' to myself, to accept them as part of who I am. This episode is a companion piece to my following episode, all about 'coming out' in the more traditional gender/sexual orientatio...
Oct 11, 2021•51 min•Season 5Ep. 46
Hello! This podcast episode is all about 'Get Outside Day', created by the Ordnance Survey to encourage and help people to, well, 'get outside' more often. The principle behind it is that they believe getting outside more helps you live longer, stay feeling younger, and allow you to enjoy life more often. Topics discussed include: * Settling into Glasgow * How I resembled an upturned turtle * What 'Get Outdoors Day' is * How getting outside helps my mental health * "Forest Bathing" and how woodl...
Sep 25, 2021•39 min•Season 5Ep. 45
Hello! This podcast is an overview of my experiences in the Orkney Islands, when I visited back at the end of May. They're not a group of islands that are that well-known in the UK, as they feel kind of just 'a little too far' from most people, who'll tend to visit more accessible places like Skye and Mull. Much of the pod is also putting my experiences into context; for instance the islands have a very long history of human habitation and some of the sites I visited are very special. Topics dis...
Sep 09, 2021•45 min•Season 5Ep. 44
Hello again :) It's been a while since my last podcast episode, and here I explain why - it's largely because I've spent the last two months looking for flats to rent in Glasgow. The hassle this has caused, and the observations and things I've learned from having done this, inspired this episode. It's a relatively short episode this time, with no contributors, well, except a small sample from another podcast that I felt was appropriate ... A transcript is available here ....
Aug 26, 2021•27 min•Season 5Ep. 43
Hello! I wasn't sure what to call this episode. It covers influencer ethics, but in a largely political sense rather than ethical travel itself. In essence, I'm looking at whether travel bloggers and influencers have a responsibility to their audience to be mindful of political and ethical concerns of the destinations they/we visit, and whether we should consider avoiding destinations if their government or culture is at odds with our own brand ethics and image. As well as personal housekeeping ...
Jun 03, 2021•44 min•Season 3Ep. 42
Hello! Influencer Integrity. It's a topic often discussed online, but what does it mean? Does it matter if travel bloggers spend most of their time being paid to promote products, if they're open about it? Would you trust a travel blogger to sell you a destination? And do you have to be paid to be an influencer anyway? All these questions, and more, may not be answered. I also look at whether influencers are allowed to be critical of a destination, or even if they're obliged to be honest to the ...
May 27, 2021•35 min•Season 3Ep. 41
Do You Remember The First Time? No, I'm not talking about sex, though for some people it's something that happens at a similar time. Possibly at the same time, though I'm also not talking about holiday romances. That might be a future pod, but it's a subject I know nothing at all about, so probably not. Rather, in this episode I talk about first travel experiences, and where the 'travel bug' comes from, because it must all come from somewhere, right? As well as personal housekeeping (covid jabs,...
Apr 29, 2021•43 min•Season 3Ep. 40
Hello! In this episode I talk about the region of the UK I currently live in - South Yorkshire. I've looked before at Hometown Travel, but of course my hometown has moved since then. One of the things I always like to do is learn as much about where I'm living as possible, because everywhere is interesting, yes, but also I think it's only kind of ... respectful? Like, if you're going to be spending a large amount of your daily life in a place, it's nice to to what's around, rather than just spen...
Apr 08, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 39
Hello! In this episode I talk about the concept of the bucket list. Yes I know that's a topic I've already covered way back in Episode Three , but back then I looked more at the concept of the anti-bucket list. With lockdown and global pandemic making people think more about what they value and really want to do once they can, I thought it was a good time to revisit and improve. As an aside, this month my podcast hit a total of 10,000 downloads. Thank you to everyone who's been listening, it mea...
Mar 25, 2021•41 min•Season 3Ep. 38
Hello! In this episode I talk about that most seasonal of subjects: snow. [It's so terribly British to talk about the weather, isn't it?]. We discuss a little about how the UK fails to handle snow properly, some of the joys of travelling in it, the comparison between holidaying in snow and living in a snowy climate, and why the UK isn't very good at the Winter Olympics. Topics discussed include: * Experiences of snow in England's West Midlands region * Winter sports * Walking and running barefoo...
Mar 11, 2021•44 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Hello! We're back to talking about aspects of travel in this episode. Following on from Episode 31 about beer, broadcast last year, I was going to do the follow-up episode on 'alcohol that wasn't beer', to include wines, spirits, and all manner of fun things. Partly this was because I'd had a couple of contributions that included spirits. But then I had some, uhm, technical difficulties here and when I was able to get back to doing podcasts again, other things took my attention. But, four episod...
Feb 25, 2021•45 min•Season 3Ep. 36
This episode is not about travel; it's in the same vein as my recent episode (Ep 32) on Asexuality Awareness, in that it talks about personal identity, but this one is more focused on gender rather than sexual orientation. Part of the first half is a re-reading of my post about toxic masculinity; I realised I'd never podded it before on here and this seemed like a very apt time to talk about it, given how I then go on to how it affects the way I see myself and my own gender. As someone who'd be ...
Feb 12, 2021•38 min•Season 3Ep. 35
Hello :) This episode is all about British Seaside Resorts - the many villages and towns that line the coast of the United Kingdom, and which have traditionally served as holiday destinations for a large section of the British people. The inspiration for this pod was my taking a trip to Skegness in October, just before I started my new job. Two nights in a tourist hotspot, out-of-season. Joy. But since I also grew up near a seaside resort, Southport (in the North), and I'd been on holiday many t...
Dec 10, 2020•53 min•Season 3Ep. 34
Hello :) This episode is all about Kinder Scout, an open plateau in the centre of the Peak District in England. I start by talking a bit about its location and its history, concentrating on the Mass Trespass back in 1932 that may have launched the 'right to roam' movement in the UK. The rest of the pod mentions the things you can see and visit on it, like the Kinder Downfall waterfall, the rock formations, the rock scrambles you can clamber up, and the mysterious 'Kinder Triangle'. I end by talk...
Nov 19, 2020•37 min•Season 3Ep. 33
Whoop, a new podcast episode. I have my laptop back, so technology-wise I've returned to the 2020s. This episode isn't about travel; rather it follows on in a way from my earlier pod on Sexuality while travelling, and looks into more detail about own sexuality. Ace Week - Asexual Awareness Week - was at the end of October, and yes I'm therefore a bit late with this, but this episode is all about asexuality, including how I found out about it, my experience of it, how it feels to be an older asex...
Nov 09, 2020•39 min•Season 3Ep. 32
I'm back, after my laptop failed! This episode is about my experiences of beer around the world, about what sort of beer I like. I talk a bit in detail about the history of USA beer, but lots of other countries and styles are mentioned. It's the first of a two-parter on alcohol; my next episode will be on 'things that are not beer'. But I imagine there'll be some mention of beer even so; it's hard for me to avoid it really. A reminder I have a Facebook Group for people to chat about my episodes,...
Sep 17, 2020•36 min•Season 3Ep. 31
Sep 05, 2020•4 min
It's not been a while since my last pod ... This is another pod partly about the history of Yorkshire. I give a very quick overview on The Wars Of The Roses, the civil war that took place in England in the mid-late 15th Century between the royal houses of Lancaster and York. Before I get onto that, however, I talk about numbers stations and give quite a bit of information about how to encode messages via radio broadcasts. The only connection between the two is simply that's where my mind's been ...
Aug 27, 2020•35 min•Season 2Ep. 30
It's been a while since my last pod - thank you for bearing with me. I talk a little about why at the start of the episode, as well as the usual 'this is what I've been up to' overview and update. I've decided to do another geographic/history episode this time, I talk a bit about the county of Yorkshire, in northern England - specifically I go into detail about the city of Ripon, the town of Haworth, and a little tale about the Cragg Vale Coiners - a bunch of coin forgers in the 1760s. Don't for...
Aug 23, 2020•35 min•Season 2Ep. 29
So, in a follow-up to last week's "Beginner's Guide to Protesting", this week I'm bringing you an episode of three examples where the act of protest has helped to change the world. Or at least, change aspects of the British political system - just to show it can happen here just as much as it happens everywhere else. I give an overview of three events - the 1832 Reform Act, the Battle Of Cable Street in 1936, and the Poll Tax Riots of 1990. Three different eras, but each definitely interesting i...
Jun 19, 2020•39 min•Season 2Ep. 28
