Ending a great holiday can be hard. After an adventure, reality sucks. In the past reality has been living in s***ty places like Catterick, a dodgy Northern German garrison town or worst of all that armpit of the universe, Northern Ireland (this may offend some; it has good Guinness, is green and has some nice mountains and cold but picturesque beaches. All true, but as a man wearing the uniform of the British Army and hanging around the Ardoyne, the Bogside an...

Fate now sees me sitting in a 4x4 in a Australian Army training village outside Townsville, listening to the sound of a platoon attack, watching it progress on the bit of situational awareness equipment I am supporting……….on a Saturday morning. It could be worse - it is the only weekend I have worked in years, I can spend an hour or so on the beach each day and go for a run/swim, and each night I sleep in a nice hotel, with views out to sea and over to Ma...

It has now been about a month for me and longer for Jodie since we renounced our
 'persons of leisure' status. It has been a remarkably easy transition, but I do hope that we do not have to wait too long before we go on another adventure. In some ways my move into my new job has been too easy; much of the language used, equipment discussed and the problems to be tackled are very very similar to that of the MOD. This should be a good thing……….However…...

The holiday blog is dead! Long live the blog! After a fantastic 6 months on the road, Jodie and I have gone firm for the moment in sunny Sydney. We have both accepted project managers positions in the centre of Sydney; Jodie will be working for a bank, and I will be working for a large defence company. We have had an amazing time since leaving UK, have seen some incredible things, visited diverse and fascinating countries, but best of all, have met some lov...

You know that it has been a good 'Bucks Night' when at 5am, you and the other three survivors of an epic that started at 1pm can be found dancing to ABBA in a bar on Oxford street that was unused to unkempt heterosexuals forming part of their rather flamboyant cliental. I don't know if we were relieved that we were not chatted up or our egos were damaged, but by 5.30 we had decided to call it a night and return to our unimpressed other halves! It was a good...