The legalise cannabis lobby should be reeling from recent reports that show the negative impact of cannabis: a group of New Zealanders were studied over 40 years and the results show that the IQ levels of teenagers can be permanently reduced by the drug; and a report from California describes the failed promise of “Medical Marijuana”. (more…)
Why Not Give Up Alcohol For The New Year?
Why not give up alcohol for the new year? It makes you fat, smells bad to non drinkers (such as children) and ends up costing a fortune. But could survive socially without beer, wine or something stronger? Does it give you confidence? Can a modern adult have fun without booze? (more…)
The Books I’m Travelling With
Whenever I go abroad I am cursed by too much luggage. Why can’t I just make do with a small bag? What’s wrong with me? Why do I have so many books? (more…)
How to Write an Article
My friend George is taking a month off to travel to Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia. He recently set up a company in Bucharest making (and selling) the most perfect eclairs. But building up a new company is hard work, George is a perfectionist and he’s exhausted. George said he would like to write articles and I said I’d like to publish them. I also said I would write an article about how to write an article — and here it is. (more…)
What’s the Best Travel Book?
My criteria for “Best Travel Book” has nothing to do with travel writing, a genre that is overpopulated with intellectuals showing off about their adventures. (more…)
Travelling in My Own Country
Travelling is about getting far away from home, spending a long time in an exotic location, living on a budget, avoiding tourists, getting to know different people and having “an experience.” Or is it?
How Much Luggage Should I Take?
If you’re wondering how much luggage to take on your journey you’re asking the wrong question. The fact is you will fill up whatever bag you use for the journey, so the correct question is “What bag should I use?” (more…)
10 Reasons Why Hitchhiking is Great
Hitching is apparently out of date, out of style and dangerous. I used to hitchhike a lot and recently I have been doing it again, and it’s liberating. Here are 10 reasons why I recommend it: (more…)
Child Witches in Congo
I groaned when Mike Ormsby sent me a copy of his first novel — Child Witch Kinshasa — as I felt obliged to read it and do a review. What a chore. I’m not a reviewer, I know nothing about Congo and I’ve got piles of other books to read.
I opened Mike’s book with the intention of reading a few pages, getting bored, and then giving it up with a clean conscience. Problem was I couldn’t put the damn thing down and, with a growing sense of wonder, I realised I had stumbled across a gem. (more…)
My Pulitzer Prize
I published an article on Huffington Post on January 1st 2014 called Thank You Romania and it went viral. Over 11,000 people liked it on Facebook and everyone I met in Romania seemed to have seen it. Apparently it was just what was needed in Romania – a positive article to balance all the scaremongering by the British tabloids about the „Romanian immigrant invasion’. By now, almost two months later, everyone knows that story is a joke but for Romanians a bitter taste remains; it’s hard for them to accept that they’re disliked – even hated – in the UK.
When Formula AS, a leading Romanian weekly newspaper, asked me to do an interview based on my brief analysis of the British tabloids in my Thank You Romania, I jumped at the chance. (more…)