Category Archives: Europe

Wine, London and fireworks.

Posted on January 1, 2017 by

A few years ago I tried, together with some friends, to head downtown to see the fireworks. In a word, it was awful. Pissing with rain, the centre was a mess of angry people, mounted police who’d clearly lost their … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Licensed to Ill: driving your teenage roads, twelve years on.

Posted on November 27, 2016 by

Unlike many of my peers, I wasn’t given a car as a birthday present when I turned 18. Publicly I was saying I didn’t want it but I knew it was a case of fox and grapes with a numberplate, … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Slow dawn

Posted on October 1, 2016 by

I’m normally up at 5.30, 6.30 on weekends. Yes, that’s sad. A few months ago I could get up, dressed, fed and caffeinated in the dazzling light of the sun, already high over the city. Then July gave way to … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, UK, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

The view from my window.

Posted on August 20, 2016 by

I’m not one for bragging, but after years living in a basement, or a ground floor flat, it’s nice to be afforded some views, especially when it’s Friday evening, work is 48 hours away, you have a personal treasure of … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, London, UK | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Modern art

Posted on July 14, 2016 by

I don’t often go to modern art fairs, mainly because I don’t get it at all, and I have a tendency to express scorn and not-so-educated scathing comments  out loud when everyone else is silent (it’s a family gift, Dad … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Five years after.

Posted on June 25, 2016 by

Training for a trekking in the Tian Shan doesn’t come easily in London. It’s flat and almost wholly urban, something, I am told, that is at odd with walking for days through woods, moraines, rock fields and the occasional glacier. … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, London, UK | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

An amalgamation of pleasant experiences.

Posted on June 19, 2016 by

The Caucasus is one of the handsomest places I’ve been to. Everything coagulated in an extremely pleasant amalgamation in mind, something I’m eager to share. There isn’t the tiniest bit of logic in this collage of photos; call, if you may, … Continue reading →

Posted in Armenia, Caucasus, Europe, Georgia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?

Posted on June 16, 2016 by

The service on the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was appalling. Having been treated to an atrocious pre-flight video, an attendant who clearly desired to be everywhere but there started thrashing around cups of weak coffee and tried, indolently, to sell stale … Continue reading →

Posted in Armenia, Caucasus, Europe | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Where the woods are returning.

Posted on May 16, 2016 by

On paper, it was an easy ride. About 9 klicks, roughly 600 meters in elevation, and a smooth return to the waiting car, through the woods, up the ridge and then back again into the woods. The signs at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Notes from the fringes of the Empire: Yerevan.

Posted on May 11, 2016 by

Yerevan lies in a bowl shaped like the tongue of a cat, delimited on one side by the Hrazdan gorge, and on the others by steep hills, on which stand strange perches and other abstruse relics of the Soviet past. … Continue reading →

Posted in Armenia, Caucasus, Europe | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments