“Don’t sip it, gulp it!” Brendan ordered. This isn’t an extract from a blue movie, but a lesson in drinking Guinness, delivered by a bona fide Irishman. Our flight home from Dublin had been cancelled due to bad weather and as a result we sat in our hotel bar sipping pints of the red nectar … Continue reading How To Drink Guinness Correctly
“Will you sit down please and wait your turn.” The reprimand was tired and stern in equal measure. It lacked all of the usual sickly sweet enthusiasm of the air hostess. Cast your eyes around the cabin of any aeroplane as soon as you hear the bump of tyre on tarmac and you will see … Continue reading Flying During Covid
Dense fog hung in the air, carrying a strong scent of ammonia on its waves as I stepped over the threshold. The room was busy, an isosceles triangle with its greatest length little more than three metres. I padded along the floor trying to find an opening, seizing the opportunity when one arose. Squeezed in … Continue reading Football
Two men sat down to eat simultaneously despite a seven hour time difference separating them. Anticipation was high in both locations. For one it was a break from the working day to refuel, for the other a chance to indulge. The first man held his phone in one hand while looking at Greyhound bus connections, … Continue reading How To Make Up For Lost Time?
There is something about the sound of a hand tapping on glass that makes us need to look. Probably it is the brain connecting the sound to that of someone knocking on our window or door. That subconscious link is made in the fraction of a second, before we know it we are investigating. Human … Continue reading Amsterdam
After a morning of walking around it felt nice to stop for a second and let the human traffic orbit me as I took in my surroundings. As always my meandering had a vague end goal which I had finally met. The sun was shining down on me with no threat of rain for what … Continue reading Berlin
We’ve all seen mirages on film. A lonely, dehydrated soul lost in the desert sees an image of salvation or beauty, usually in the shape of an expanse of water. A little research tells me that mirages are an optical phenomenon as opposed to the onsetting hysteria caused by heat and dehydration that I previously … Continue reading Warsaw
It is an unusual sensation when the prey spots the predator first yet still knows that there can be no escape. The senses heighten, the heart beats in time with the falling rain drops only momentarily before racing off to its own thumping rhythm. Those vibrations are carried over the thick air along with silent … Continue reading Prague
I looked down at the red patch on my jeans. It was sticky and had a surprisingly sweet smell. I knew I was in trouble but I was unaware just how dire the situation was to become. It couldn’t be surely? I dipped my finger into the viscous fluid and brought it to my nose … Continue reading Vienna
The scene was set before me, bodies flying left and right as I marched on without a second glance to see where they had landed. It was the 2019 Royal Rumble and I was on my way to Wrestlemania. Only it wasn’t the 2019 Royal Rumble, I was treading the boards at Plitvice National Park … Continue reading Plitvice
