I'm actually not in Tours at the moment, but in a small town called Vierzon. Alex took me to her parents' house in the countryside where I am being pampered, wined and dined with stinky cheese, foie gras and many-a-stick of crusty bread. The trip out of Paris proved to be another interesting escapade. At the last minute, on a suggestion given to me be my CouchSurfing host, I decided to try and hitchhike! Again! After what happened last time!! ...hmm... He told me it shouldn't be a problem, and that it was fairly easy to get out of Paris from [View Full Entry]

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OK, here's another one to send your hair grey. (Man I'm going to regret being so honest with everybody one day! :P) It's 1:50am and I've just arrived at my Couch-Surfing destination for the next few days courtesy of a guy named Stephane. It's a great old shop that's been converted into a flat and it's completely decked out exclusively for couch-surfers! Including this computer and a FREE international phone!!??!?) Getting here, however proved to be more difficult than expected. After jumping a bus from the airport, which turned out to be a good 100k's away from Paris, I managed to [View Full Entry]

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Back in Fort William now after hitchhiking the measly 40 miles from Oban. It's the tail-end of my first 'highland experience', but that didn't mean there wasn't room for one more day of action-packed adventure! Even though there are extreme blizzard warnings, heavy snowfall and ice plaguing nearly all of Scotland and most of Great Britain at the moment, the only place the weather seemed to have forgotten today was Fort Willy! Even cars driving into town this morning (from probably not that far away) were carting about a foot of snow on their roofs, but here the sun was shining [View Full Entry]

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I've just finished a ten day stint on small, relatively featureless island somewhere off the west-coast of Scotland... and it was luverly! I finally managed to get off my arse a bit and do some work. Not that much, but just enough to appreciate the spare-time and solitude in between and get some inspiration for many a song on Lila. I stayed in a converted barn next to an old millhouse with a stream and a waterwheel. My only companion was a slightly oafish German who was doing the same thing as myself, and who took great satisfaction in referring to [View Full Entry]

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...life goes ON! HAAAAA! Or, more accurately, life GOES- once again! I'm finally off my arse and 'OOT' of the Edinburger for a while! The last five days have been spent charging around the Highlands taking in all of the marvellous beauty it has to offer. Pegs, Angus and I set off on Sunday to the Isle of Skye, on the way to which we were entertained by our animated bus driver 'Party Marty' while he filled us in on Scotland's rich history by telling us detailed stories of 'who bled all over which battlefield' and 'who's head was thrown into [View Full Entry]

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Well, I think the title sums up the last month and a but quite well. There has been much twiddling of thumbs (and knitting needles- I am making a Dr Who scarf), much procrastination over what kind of nothing I should really get up and do, and much dreaming of sun, sea and music. All is shaping up well for the next month though, as Angus, Pegs and I are planning a trip to the highlands for a week shortly and soon after that I head to France for 10 days... not a lot of time, but then I don't have [View Full Entry]

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It was like having christmas with the army... or an orphanage... or a mental institution! At ten O'clock in the morning - as ungodly an hour as there ever was - the fire alarm went off so that everyone would wake up and congregate in the main lounge. Everyone had begun to wonder why no mail had been coming in for the past couple of weeks, but as we arranged our many selves around the tree, it became quite clear with all of the battered-looking, air-mailed packages piled up around it that it'd been held hostage. Even the usually-surly night porter [View Full Entry]

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Well, if for some reason I wasn't coming across as random enough for you up until now, then get a load of this! Some American girls I met at the hostel, in passing comment mentioned that they'd met a 'friendly hippie' at the markets who invited them to come and stay at a commune up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. They didn't really know much else about it apart from the mud map this guy had drawn them, and they didn't really seem too serious about the idea. However, as if by some cosmic destiny, I had, at that [View Full Entry]

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After about a week in spain, it's almost inevitable that you will develop semi-reverse sleeping patterns. If you sleep in a bit too long, you will finally venture outside at maybe 1:30 or 2pm to find that everything is closed! On discovering that nothing reopens until 5pm, you decide to may as well go and recline on the terrace with a beer until it does. And that's the point of no return. For the rest of the evening you are in a cheerful 'up for anything' mood and as soon as someone suggests going to see some Flamenco or popping out [View Full Entry]

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When I come back to Granada I know where I'm going to live. Today I went for a walk up the hill to the "Cuevas de Sacromonte". If there is anything in this world that comes close to a real-life Lord-of-the-Rings style Hobbit Village, this is it! It is incredible! Centuries ago, people actually just dug caves into the side of the hill and setup their lives in them! Some families are still there- with incredibly fancy and extended caves- but a whole load have just been abandoned or are being used by gypsies and... that's right, Travellers! On my walk, [View Full Entry]

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