A few years back I lent some money to a friend who happened to be going through a rough patch in life. I had some spare cash and I saw this as a simple case of them needing it more than I did. I was happy to lend a helping hand to someone who had […]

If it was adventure we were after, then X-Pyr 2014 certainly delivered. Add to that a generous dollop of adrenaline, exhaustion and spectacular scenery and you have yourself an event that kept everyone on the edge of their seats day after day in anticipation of the next waypoint. This post is my annotated debrief of […]

I’m a great supporter of the Schengen Agreement, but what I witnessed this week upon my return to Malta from France would send convulsive chills down the back of any EU immigration officer. Yes, Malta Airport gave a real proper bitch slap to all Schengen countries — I really wish there was a nicer way […]

It’s official, my brother and I have been selected for the X-Pyr 2014 paragliding competition. The X-Pyr is an extreme event which aims to have its competitors cross the Pyrenees, from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean, using nothing more than a paraglider and/or walking (running for the diehards is also an option) in the […]

It’s been about a decade since I last strapped tanks of air onto my back, and probably twice that long since my first ever dive in Australia during the early ’90s. I wanted to get some air into my lungs, shake off the malaise brought on by my recent brush with malaria, explore the sea […]

Forty (40) eh. I must admit, if someone told me what I would get up to or the places I’d visit during my short life, I’d have said: no way Jose. The last forty years have been a journey that’s seen me walking with a big smile on my face, not all the time, but […]

Every three years, along with hundreds of thousands of other expats, I must renew my UAE residency visa — a process that’s as convoluted as it is archaic. Despite the fact that most of the bureaucratic grunt-work is done by somebody else, my family and I are still required to subject ourselves to blood tests […]

A few years back while working in Ghana, I came across a number of people who were spending their gap year volunteering in Africa. I remember being quite impressed by the fact that these young high school graduates had put their academic lives on hold in favour of altruistic pursuits. I was curious and wanted […]

After almost two decades in and around regions endemic with the parasitic disease, I finally contracted malaria. Had it only been malaria it probably wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but tests revealed that I was carrying two additional parasites: Schistosomiasis and Giardia lamblia. All three combined, had systematically compromised my immune system and […]

As a side benefit of being laid up in bed for the last few days, I’ve managed to catch up on the arguments being put forward to the U.S. Congress regarding military intervention in Syria. There were a number of well-polished speeches, feisty comments and even attacks on Obama. Nevertheless, I felt that that the […]