24th June 2014 Ottawa, Canada
When I arrived in Canada nearly 3 years ago, one of the best pieces of advice I had was to get out of Ottawa to experience the diversity of culture, politics and geography of this incredible country. This was great advice, and I’ve tried to follow it, travelling as much as my budget (and family commitments!) allow…
19th March 2014 Vancouver, Canada
A few weeks ago I found myself in a bar in Houston, Texas. Old Colt 45 pistols for door handles, animal skulls for wall hangings, a single guitarist playing a mournful country song – I’d walked into a cliché movie set (awesome)…
19th December 2013 Vancouver, Canada
There are few events as exciting as the countdown to a rocket launch; and few contexts in which the words, “all systems normal” are as welcome…
28th August 2013 Vancouver, Canada
Never write about Shakespeare. It’s like inviting friends to watch you skate when the Sedins are on the ice. In fact, given the very existence of Hamlet and King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night – to write or not to write, at all, about anything, should be the question. . .
30th May 2013 Vancouver, Canada
Over the past few weeks I have been telling a lot of people that Minister Alistair Burt, from the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, is visiting Vancouver. He’s responsible for the UK’s relationship with Canada and much besides. This was big news for me, but it seemed to elicit one of three responses…
3rd May 2013 Vancouver, Canada
“Why am I doing this?” I ask. There’s no-one listening of course – it’s a private conversation with myself, the sort that people running on their own often have I suppose. My legs have turned to warm lumps of tissue paper, my lungs heave and burn like bellows cast into a fire, and I’m sure […]
27th March 2013 Seattle, USA
When I was growing up in Canterbury, Kent, a house in our street had the name plate “Dunroamin” hung up on the outside wall. I was only about 8 years old, and hadn’t come across the term before. I thought it was a place in Ireland. But of course it means a state of mind […]
8th March 2013 Vancouver, Canada
Her name was Bimla… I think. It has been 26 years since I saw her so my memory may have distorted the truth. What I am certain of is her image – high cheek bones, deep hazel eyes, pure skin, long dark hair. She wore a green sari with gold trim and worn sandals. She […]
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1st February 2013 Vancouver, Canada
As January ends, it is already too late for discussion of new year’s resolutions. For many of us, the quickly laid plans for health and financial prudence have already slipped away. But a recent collection of disparate events, which reminded me how fortunate I am to be doing this job, also left me with a […]
18th December 2012 Vancouver, Canada
There’s a Chinese proverb that says: “When the wind of change blows, some build walls while others build windmills.” It reminds me of Darwin’s theory which states that it is the best adapted of the species that survives. Every change to the context of our existence provides an opportunity to flourish or the potential to […]