Tag: int. travel

Update

16th September 2009 admin Uncategorised Leave a comment

First of all, apologies, if you’ve been trying to call or text me. Both my phones have gone south, and I wont have received the call/text.

Until I get things sorted out, probably best to email me.

I was supposed to go out jogging this morning, but since I turned my ankle in the woods yesterday, I can hardly walk (apart from losing the use of my tongue, that’s one of the worst things that can happen !).

Ive just booked Capetown. If everything goes to plan, then I will be standing on Table mountain, and have completed the blue list, 7 weeks from now.

The last 18 months, have been pretty up and down for me, but in balance, the last 6 years, overall, have been pretty fantastic.

I can’t help thinking though, that when I embarked on the bluelist and all the adventures that came with it, that it was like constructing a “matchstick” replica of the Eiffel tower on the dining room coffee table.

Non euphemistically, I had a very happy and secure home life to start with (the coffee table if you will) , and the adventures (the matchstick “Eifel tower”) were an enhancement.

The whole point in the beginning, was to seek at adventure, while keeping the balance of a normal life. That’s the reason its called the adventures of an ordinary person.

We all know people who can sell houses, take a years sabatical etc and see the world, what I wanted to show was that it could be done, whilst buying a house, getting married, building a career etc.

Ive felt lately, as though the “Eiffel” part of my life, has received so much attention, that the coffee table underneath has been neglected to the point that its a bit wobbly.

Once Ive been to Capetown and completed the bluelist, I’m going to stop updating johnsunter.com (it will act as a timeless record of 6 years of adventure).

I’m then going to concentrate the next 6 months, sorting a few things out (im still a bit overweight, there are loads of good friends I haven’t kept in touch with, that type of thing). There are also loads of cool things in the UK that I want to do, and Ive neglected my love of hill walking.

Ill probably draw up a 2nd bluelist, who knows !.

Well, near and far, have a great time, and remember the quote by Helen Keller, ” Life is either a daring adventure or nothing !”.

John

Seeking out adventure

15th July 2009 admin Uncategorised Leave a comment

I wake up, the sun is shining, and its time to go out, in search of adventure (oh, and I’ve only got a fiver).

Whats this ?. That Laura Croft of the English upper classes, Amelia Webb, is already up and about, and touring the Grosvenor Park.

We arrange to meet by the River, at the Blue Moon cafe, to plan our adventures.

It should be mentioned at this point, that Amelia is an old friend, who has recently arrived in town. For those of you who are thinking there’s someone new on the scene, its worth mentioning, that we really are JUST friends.

Anyway, back to the adventures. Ive never been in the Blue Moon cafe. Whenever I pass it, I always think of my friend Frank, and my Brother David, who are both keen Manchester City fans.

Inside its 60’s themed and really rather quaint. No need to worry about that, I’m meeting a woman for coffee, which therefore means Ill be forced to sit outside, with none of the ambiance, the smell of diesel, and assorted malcontents walking past.

From this point on, the word adventure, should be substituted with the word misadventure, as we are hit with a number of setbacks.

We decide we will both return home, sort out some chores, do some admin and then meet up at 2pm, to do the Chester Rows tour . We arrive 3 minutes too late, and the tour has gone without us. Bugger !.

No matter, we decide to wander over and see the famous Castle.

Despite living in Chester for 8 years, Chester Castle, is something Ive never gotten around to visiting. Its a lovely day, so we walk over to see it.

But whats this, the Castle is closed due to Elf N Safety regulations. I cant help thinking, that its a good job H&S weren’t around when the Castle was in use. Otherwise, the City would have been plundered !.

With nothing much else to do, we end up visiting the Little Roodee car park cafe. Although the coffee was nice (and cheap) sitting and looking at cars and coaches, isn’t exactly marching across the Great Wall of China, if you know what I mean.

Well, there’s a nice park nearby, so we decide to head for there and explore. It starts to rain !. Is anything going to go right today ?

Finally we head for the ruin at St John’s church.

If you’ve read this website before, you know I love exploring lost cities and stuff like that. In its own way, this Church, is much the same as the City of Petra, Machu Picchu or the Angkor Watt (although its a lot smaller).

It had some gardens around it, which were fenced off separately from the nearby Park. Because of this, there was no “through” traffic, and the park was very quiet and relaxing. Sun shining, birds singing and exploring an ancient ruin. Bliss.

To summarise, what near-to-home budget adventure travel lessons can we learn.

1. If you really want to do a tour, buy the tickets in advance, and be at the tourist information 15 minutes before the tour begins.

2. Before heading of to see something, ask at or telephone the tourist information and confirm its actually open, times/days its open, and how much if anything it costs.

3. Never forget, the rule of Sunter – always wear old trainers and have waterproof/warm clothing to hand (we could have gone to the park, if we’d had these).

4. Take a flask and save a sodding fortune on coffee !. Take some sweets, for when things get dull.

5. If your taking a companion, take someone like Amelia, who doesn’t blame you and give you loads of sh*t when things don’t go to plan 🙂

Happy adventuring.

Update

14th July 2009 admin Uncategorised 1 Comment

Well, the main news at the moment, is that I’ve got a new job. Its probably the best job I have ever had, working for an international software house.

Most people I’ve spoken too agree, that the first month being unemployed, isn’t so bad. You get to tidy the loft, read all the books you promised you would and stuff like that.

After that, life gets pretty dull, and with time a bit depressing. Thats why Im so happy. Put simply by one of my friends, getting back to work means that life can return to normal.

Above is the picture of the forest in Westminster park which I sometimes visit. Its been a great place for me to just wander around, when things have been difficult. I went there the day after I got the job, and I really felt like life had begun again.

In the week since, I’ve tried to do as many low budget adventures as possible, I will be posting them up soon.

A load of people have helped me out recently, when life has been difficult. I wont embarrass you by naming you here, but you know who you are, and that you have my sincere thanks.

In other “news”, my friend Dan has been on holiday for a week. He comes home tomorow, so ill find out if he had a good time.

Izabel has returned to the Frog and nightingale (she lives in Poland with her boyfriend, and they come over for a few months each year).

Also, the Chef from the Frog and Nightingale, Keith celebrated his silver wedding anniversary on Sunday. I was invited, and it was really nice (and there was loads of really good food, and it was free).

Apologies for the low quality of the photos, but I lent my camera to a friend, and still haven’t got it back. I am presently using my IPhone, but I think its just one more example of how versatile these things are.

Ive been meeting up with 2 old friends from Corning, Matt & Glen (along with my usual friends). They went on holiday with Social Circle (the Manchester based “get out and do it” outfit). Now that things have improved, Im hoping to get a bit more involved in stuff like that.

Nominated numptee’s of the month:

Gary Mckinnon

Just a few points, from someone who knows a bit about technology.

1. forget the romanticized view of hackers, they generally fall into 1 of 3 categories.

a, they work for organised crime

b, they are “white” hat which means they “ethically” cause mayhem to “help” people by exposing problems with other peoples networks

c, nerdy mischievous people who mess about with other peoples stuff for fun.

2. The very people going on about his rights and all the rest are, from my experience exactly the kind of people who go berserk when someone’s children kick a ball through their window.

For me the similarity is a good one. I don’t care if Gary Mckinnon was looking for aliens (and wasn’t as I suspect, just trying to cause mayhem to increase his own kudos within the nerd community). He caused damage to someone else’s network and there should be consequences just like if he kicked the ball.

3. I’m not even going to comment on his “addiction to hacking” nor the repeated appearance of him on TV with his mother.

4. Still not convinced ?. Think about this then. The hospital near here, has a secure firewall which cost more than £100,000. They have it because of people like Mckinnon. How many people will be denied £6000 operations because of this ?.

Hackers are a menace.

Jamie Neale

I don’t want to rain on the parade of all this self indulgent nonsense, but common sense surely has to prevail.

Ive been to the Blue Mountains. Why didn’t he take warm clothes, a survival bag, some emergency food, some sort of map etc (you know, like every 7 year old cub scout knows to do !).

People who have been following the story, have talked about survival training. I’ve done quite a lot of these courses, but in every case, the emphasis is on not putting yourself in that position in the first place through planning.

In adventure terms, aside from breaking the law or insulting someone’s culture or religion, wandering around ANYWHERE without knowing where your going is about the surest way to get into trouble I can think off.

I’ve been doing various adventure stuff around Chester, and on Saturday, I was pleased to see the army doing a recruitment event.

They even had a tank.

On the adventure front:

Id really like to get to Capetown and complete the bluelist this year.

Frank is busy organising a really cool train journey through the Jungle from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok (with loads to do in between) for next year.

India crew (who as Ive mentioned before, aren’t actually from India, that’s just where I met them) are organising a weekend in Berlin, which should be pretty smart.

Two places Id really like to see, are Lisbon and Budapest (a weekend in both places with travel included would be cheaper than a weekend in London). If your interesting in going to either of those, give me a shout.

On the subject of London, I want to go down there for a day, and just look around the museum. Im also told that there is a “beach” in Birmingham at the moment (artificially created in the middle of the town). Its open until September, if anyone Fancies an hours drive.

The begining of the end of budget airlines.

25th May 2009 admin Uncategorised Leave a comment

Ive never been a great fan of budget airlines. My main criticism, is that you should be able to reduce your costs, without lowering your standards, and I simply don’t believe that most of the budget airlines do that.

I personally experienced this on the way back from Krakow 3 years ago, and since then, have only flown “sleezyjet” and the like, when there was simply no other way, to get where I was going.

But enough about me and my opinions, what about reality. Well, you tell me ?, if you could get a “proper” flight with a major airline, and the return cost was only £20 more than the budget option, which would you pick (just to name one advantage, on a BA flight, every member of the cabin crew will have been trained to a high standard in first aid and be able to re-start your heart should it be necessary).

A friend of mine is flying to Amsterdam in a couple of weeks. KLM are actually £25 cheaper than the equivalent from Easyjet. Its the beginning of the end.

Do you agree/disagree ?. Why not post something.

Eyes of a child.

20th May 2009 admin Uncategorised Leave a comment

Many of you know, that my friend Frank lives in Thailand now, where he teaches English and Science to young Children.

The other day, they had a comprehension test, where he would speak to them in English. He described a person that he knew. Remember, that learning English for a Thai person, isn’t like someone from Manchester learning French, and the children concerned were quite young.

The person he ended up describing, was me. He emailed me some of the pictures that the children drew.

Above is a picture of me on the limestone way. I normally have my Ipod earphones in, when I’m around town, and one the hill, a carry normally carry my Indi bag (sort of over the shoulder bag of the gas mask bag type, worn by Indiana Jones.

Amazingly, one of the Thai children, listening to a description in Colloquial English, and having never met me, drew the picture bellow.

I think its a pretty good likeness and truly inspirational.