Guns and Frocks

I never really planned this holiday. Calvin booked the plane tickets and the hotel accommodation at the start and the end of the trip, and helped me to buy my Eurail pass. But I always intended to just make things up as I went along. But I did have one thing I really wanted to […]

Sirmio, jewel of islands, jewel of peninsulas,jewel of whatever is set in the bright watersor the great sea, or either ocean,with what joy, what pleasure I gaze at you,scarcely believing myself free of Thyniaand the Bithynian fields, seeing you in safety. Catullus 31, translated by A. S. Kline Sirmione is a peninsula — nearly an island — that juts out […]

Tonight I’m staying on the Côte d’Azur, extremely annoyed at the quality of the wifi access. This is the end of my first full day in Antibes. I’ve never been here before: coming here was entirely Angela’s idea. I’m not sure I had even heard of it. I had always assumed that I would need […]

11.30 PM I bounce my arse over to the next stool at the bar, next to the American boy with the goatee. His name is Aaron. I haven’t spoken to him yet. It’s noisy here, and so I have to shout to be heard by the pretty South American barman. His name is Hector. “Hey. […]

Nothing much to report from Amsterdam, really. I’ve been sleeping in and wandering the streets since I got here, really. Which is more or less what I was hoping to do. Reading, listening to podcasts, trying to avoid the local food. That sort of thing. The highlight of my stay so far was the Rijksmuseum. […]

  I’m in Amsterdam now, in a darkened pub, drinking Amstel and typing this post on my phone with a Microsoft foldable keyboard. I’ll upload it when I get back to my hotel. It’s my fourth time here: apart from Tokyo, this is the foreign city that I’ve spent the most time in. It’s still […]

Sleep, mostly I’m in a pub just outside Euston Station, waiting for a train to Manchester. I’ve got a bit over an hour to wait; I think I overestimated how long it would take me to get here. The pub doesn’t have wifi — I’ll have to upload this post when I get on the […]

Welcome to Guns and Frocks. I’m writing this post in the First Class Lounge at Sydney International Airport, just before catching a flight to London. The last time I was here was in 2008, the last time I took long service leave, and I was about to start a month-long trip travelling around Europe by […]