sojourner2settler

“Guidance issued by Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, advises that men and women should not drink more than 14 units of alcohol per week, which amounts to six 175ml glasses of wine.” As seen in the online Guardian, 10.09.18 Forgive me because I don’t understand this. Once upon a time I could drink any amount of alcohol, then I was informed I should only drink 21 units a week. Being a geezer I thought I could save all my units for the weekend. Apparently not, t

We live in Aarhus, Denmark, a small country of a thousand islands, and a bit of land attached to Germany. We have a Peugeot 208, a roof box and we have never been to Portugal. so we said … “let’s go on a road trip”. Other people said, “with a six month old baby, are you mental?” Let me introduce “we”. This is me, the author, a ruggedly handsome chap with a slight follicle imbalance but nevertheless a happy, intelligent, and a cracking sense of humour. This is my wife, Dea an

“Oh good grief, not again”. Four days, four bloody days and I was still suffering. This was my twelfth day on the GR7 in Andalusia and it wasn’t going so well. My guidebook was useful only as toilet paper and the trail markings were, how to put it politely, shite, that’s what they were, total shite. To make my experience of getting lost twice a day so much better I got food poisoning. Monday morning, I was up and ready to roll at 06.30, still dark but the stars meant a cle

On my journey, I can look back at seven mistakes. 1. I made the mistake of planning for the future based on the present reality It was early April and I had packed for cold, wet and windy. What I got was scorching sunshine. Sunburn and dehydration were my biggest concerns, them and a seriously overweight backpack. Somewhere in a little French town, I dumped about 6 kilos of excess gear. Goodbye, thermals, hat, gloves, emergency fleece sleeping bag and shelter plus two d

In my previous blog, I walked alone, I mentioned a social research project. Only three of the sixty-eight participants made it through the eight hours of being disconnected, or to reverse it, 65 gave up. I was a youth worker for nearly 20 years and the capacity of young people to “give up” as soon as any discomfort is encountered no longer surprised me. Young people simply do not learn the discipline of sustained voluntary effort and have not had the chance to develop the n

I have lived in Denmark for six months and I love it, let’s get that straight out there because I am biased. So I am looking for good things to tell you about the happiest country in the world http://www.visitdenmark.co.uk/en-gb/denmark/art/happiest-people-world. Here are my 10 reasons why I think Denmark is a great place to visit and an excellent place to live, in no particular order. 1. Traditions If you see something odd happening and you ask “why are you doing that?” Ine

The word ‘tough’ is a relative term, it has to measured against something else. I had a tough day at work or I just completed a tough crossword or ate a tough steak. We are comparing the present event with some past event. The GR20 (GR is the French designation for their long distance footpaths "Grande Randonnée" the number 20 is just the one in Corsica, there are others all over France) is a tough hike, no it really is tough. I have not walked all the hiking trails in Europe