7th August 2017
Normally, we go back to the UK for a few weeks during the summer, to catch up with family and friends. But this will be our last full summer in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as I’m due to leave in August next year. So this year, we decided to spend some time discovering some new parts […]
14th October 2014 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Last Friday was World Mental Health Day. The World Health Organisation estimates that 450 million people worldwide have a mental health problem. In the UK, 90% of prisoners have some kind of mental health issue, as do 10% of children. Sri Lanka has the fourth highest per capita suicide rate in the world. Globally, one […]
2nd May 2014 Athens, Greece
One of the parts of my job that I most love is the work we do to support British business here in Greece. Because of the deep and long recession, the market here is tough and British imports have fallen hugely. Last year, however, they rose again – by 8%: the first time in many […]
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23rd January 2014
I spent last weekend in the Bale Mountains National Park, in a top quality lodge newly opened by a British entrepreneur (one of two such lodges in the country). The Park itself is stunningly beautiful and full of rare and endemic species of flora and fauna, including the endangered Ethiopian Wolf (of which we saw […]
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14th December 2013 Havana, Cuba
The Sauto Theatre in Matanzas is apparently one of only three theatres in the world which can be transformed into a dancehall with the turn of a crank. Normally the audience sits below the stage but when the chairs are removed and the floor is raised, the stage and auditorium become one large space for dancing salsa or the danzón. Unfortunately not many visitors can see […]
21st June 2013 Havana, Cuba
I didn’t see any tulips in Santa Clara but this week the town had a very Dutch flavour. Most of the people I met there on Monday were wearing orange, a colour which the local baseball team, Villa Clara, shares with the Dutch national football team. This week Villa Clara finally won the Cuban baseball […]
21st February 2013 Washington DC, USA
It’s late afternoon and I am standing next to a Congressman on a warm, blustery day, surrounded by thousands of eyes looking inquisitively upon us. Despite our best intentions to understand them, their voices only get louder, squawking with unrestrained excitement. In late January, thousands of gentoo penguins are being introduced to a special visitor […]
31st January 2013
A tear-drop forest of twisted rock-forms rears up, stretching into the distance. Each fantastic shape has been hollowed out over the millennia by unknown hands to form dwellings, monasteries or, between the 4th and 11th century, painted churches. Welcome to Cappadocia. We all know that Turkey teems with outstanding historic and tourist sites. Yet Cappadocia, […]
15th August 2012 Washington DC, USA
You know you’re British when the first conversation starts, and continues, with the weather. I descended upon the Falkland Islands in the early afternoon to glorious sunshine and a cool breeze – exactly what I needed after a long flight full of recycled air. As soon as my ride picked me up from Mount Pleasant […]
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6th October 2011
The following is a guest blog from Mary and Detlef Golletz, friends of mine who visited in the summer. “Kyiv?” friends asked quizzically as we discussed plans for a short break. A reasonable question, given that it proved impossible to buy local currency in the UK and our 2008 Lonely Planet Guide said that the […]