Snap and Scribble

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This is part two of the story of my life in Basque Country, in 1984. Part one is here…

I had a great time, living in Vitoria, during the summer of 1984. The Basques in general are among the friendliest and most interesting people i’ve come across during rather a lot of international travelling. They’re all very political – and, mostly, make British people, for example, look ultra-conservative (which i suppose they are, really, anyway). … Read more »

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Another memorable trip i did in the early 80s was to Basque Country, in the north of Spain. I had a couple of Basque friends in London and they’d gone back for a while. As i’d never been to that part of the world, i decided to go over for a visit.

It was the summer of 1984 and i’d been working as a freelance technical writer for a while. Somehow, i’d managed to save a bit of money and i knew i could stay away for a few months if i wanted to. … Read more »

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This is part two of the story of a journey i did in 1981. Part one is here…

I haven’t got a clear memory of getting back to Spain from Morocco. As far as i remember, i’d spent a night in Algeciras before catching the boat to Tangier, but i don’t think we stayed there when we got back. We probably just got on a train and went somewhere else, rather than hanging around in Algeciras. One of the problems with InterRail cards was that it was so much easier to just hop on a train and spend the night on the move than it was to find a hotel room somewhere!

… Read more »

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After writing briefly, the other day, about the time i sort of “met” Johnny Rotten, i started thinking about writing stories of some of the things i did years ago. There’s not much to blog about that’s particularly exciting in my life at the moment, and now seems as good a time as any to write down some of that stuff.

On at least a couple of occasions when i was in my early 20s, i spent a month travelling around Europe on an InterRail card. I can’t remember how much they cost, but they were reasonably cheap and with one of them you could travel by train anywhere in western Europe and Morocco for a month. They may have also been valid on trains through Yugoslavia and Greece as well, but i’m not sure about that. … Read more »

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I’ve recently finished reading “An Average War”, by Mike Peyton. It’s the story of his life in the British army during the second world war.

War stories aren’t even close to the type of genre i normally read, but Mike’s the father of a couple of very old friends of mine and he was kind enough to give me a copy of his book. And i’m glad he did, as i really enjoyed reading it. It’s well written, in a very casual sort of way, and the story of his wartime adventures is gripping. … Read more »

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