You don’t appreciate what an ancient country England is until you head to the countryside, where you can stop measuring time in terms of centuries and start counting the millennia. Lenny leads us on a tour of sites that pre-date the Romans - massive burial mounds, cryptic stone circles, memorials to men who never even made it into the history books. In Avebury we visit a stone circle that - as locals take pains to note - was already gathering dust by the time some Neolithic stoner dreamed up Stonehenge. There are sheep nuzzling the rocks and little kids running rampant [View Full Entry]

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There’s some confusion at the campsite over just who to pay for the night. Apart from a few lazy sheep and an inquisitive horse that’s sniffing a young colt’s behind, there’s not a soul in sight. We decide to pack our tents, along with our good intentions, and make tracks to Glastonbury. Nearby we stop to make breakfast in a small clearing, and we’ve just polished off the last of the bangers when a car stops at the side of the road. From the wary look in the driver’s eye, we suspect she wants to make sure we’re not about to [View Full Entry]

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In a spasm of giddiness and last-minute planning, we’ve decided to leave London for a long weekend, cruising around the south in Greg’s new camper van. The morning is decidedly off to a keystone start, with ample head-slapping and running in circles. We’ve planned to set off by 10am at the latest , but it’s half-past twelve when I see Lenny trudging out into the Lidl parking lot with two fat bags of groceries. We stop at Greg’s place for more supplies. His mother - a flushed, mirthful woman - greets us with a newborn tucked beneath her arm. We’re steered [View Full Entry]

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About a month before my flight, a major terrorist ring is broken up in England. They’d been planning to blow up as many as a dozen trans-Atlantic flights, using high-tech liquid explosives that could be mixed and detonated aboard the plane. New rules are put in place; liquids and gels are banned from carry-on bags. For a few frenzied weeks, water bottles and toothpaste tubes and little cans of spray-on deodorant are piling up in all the airports, as confused travelers adjust to security procedures being implemented on the fly. Apart from some chapped lips, everyone’s taking the new [View Full Entry]

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I’m a bit distressed to find, during my first few days in England, that Princess Di and Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell are still prominent fixtures in the tabloids. While the 9th anniversary of Diana’s passing might excuse the front-page tributes, I’m afraid I can’t be so forgiving of the lifeline extended to Ginger’s career - though it’s certainly a blessing that most of her partners have mercifully faded from the limelight. Still, the celebrity bloodthirst of your average Brit puts our own gossip columns to shame. And the countless two-page spre [View Full Entry]

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On the line for my flight’s check-in, I strike up a conversation with an 8-year-old from London. I start with a few tentative comments about football - “You mean soccer?” he asks, puzzled - and soon the kid is off and running on complex attack schemes and off-side traps. He’s not so sure England would’ve faired much better in the World Cup with Jermain Defoe. He thinks Chelsea will repeat with ease. “They start you guys young, don’t they?” I say. He grins bashfully beneath his Yankees cap. He says he doesn’t like baseball, but he likes New [View Full Entry]

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It’s been raining all week: London weather. Dreams of spending my last few days on Brighton Beach, eating briny fish and drinking Baltika beer, have been washed away with the dead leaves. I’ve hardly slept since the weekend. Tonight I’m on a one-way flight to Heathrow - the start of what promises to be an adventurous year abroad. My company’s decided to ship me overseas - partly, I suspect, to get me out of their hair. In the footsteps of Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, and National Lampoon’s European Vacation, I’ll be chronicling my mad-cap exploits [View Full Entry]

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