What a rush to finally do it on my own! Paragliding might look graceful, adventurous and exciting, but before you get anywhere near to using those fascinating words, there are a lot of boring ones you need to internalise first. Words like: fatigue, frustration, control, emotion, theory and patience pretty much sum up the first […]

When one works with (or within) large organizations, the process and logistics associated with claiming expenses incurred during normal work-related activities can be quite tedious. Logistics aside though, most of the problems are related to internal Accounts Payable (AP) audits which take far too long to resolve. True, I travel more than the average person […]

No matter where you live in Dubai, there are certain things that you can’t get away from — some more annoying than others — irrespective of how hard you try. For instance, there’s the low hum of nearby freeway traffic, which, to the untrained ear, could be confused with waves crashing on the adjacent beaches. […]

I shouldn’t have been shocked, I’ve seen it all before. But for reasons unknown that day, I stood still and watched a boy cleaning my hotel-room window. Perched right there in front of me, with a dirty rag in one hand and a spray-bottle in the other, in true-to-life high definition, a boy of no […]

Who could have thought there was so much to know about blueberries. This was my first introduction to the North American blueberry — very different to the ones I was used to in continental Europe. I was invited to help pick blueberries at a nearby organic farm in Canada, a short drive from Waterloo. What […]

No matter how ridiculous the airport security checkpoints may appear, the rest of the world has nothing on the experience one gets in the US. I completely support bag x-ray machines, metal detectors, the explosive residue and contraband swab, the customs sniffer dogs and even annoying questioning, but I draw the line when common sense […]

A few days ago I lost my smartphone on a flight from Nairobi to Accra, not something I do very often. Actually it was the first time I’ve lost a phone, usually any loss is due to me dropping them or worse still, drowning them in salt water. To cut a long story short, I […]

Caffeine is something I’m well accustomed to consuming in very large quantities, but until recently I’d never witnessed the birthplace of the fragrant coffee bean. On a heavily precipitous day in late June the tracks leading up Mt. Kilimanjaro are awash with cars navigating the precariously muddy surface. It’s not uncommon to see them sliding, […]

Some family, friends and colleagues can be incredibly demanding and in this case completely clueless of where it is I work or the conditions I work under on a daily basis. The only thing I can say is “Guy’s I’m in Africa” — that should in one way or another form an educated guess on […]

Electricity is somewhat of a scarcity in parts of Africa, and as road-warriors — irrespective of how large the batteries are — we’re on a constant quest to find that next charging station to power our phones, laptops and other sanity-aiding devices. On this particular day the power had been out since 10:30am and it […]