I did this back in May and this is the winter version: what I do between work finishing at 5pm and starting again the next morning at 9am. The summer version had a festival and kayaking and camping and archery and a trip to London. No watersports or festivals in January, alas. A proper 5-9 … More How I use my 5-9: January 2026 edition
This is a really old adventure that’s had two or three posts over the years but deserves a new write-up and a new place at the very front of this blog rather than being buried in its bowels: the day I swam in an active volcano, got stranded for hours in a lava field and … More One really simply does not walk into Mordor: swimming in a volcano & getting stranded in a lava field
When I went to Switzerland the other day, it was at least a month between booking flights to Geneva and making any decisions whatsoever about where I was going and what I was doing when I landed. I’d lived in Switzerland so I’d covered a lot of the country, albeit in brief day trips. My … More Stay at the Swiss Chocolate Hotel Lausanne with me
Ever since about mid-2019, I’ve had a series on this blog called Before It Burns Down, dedicated to cathedrals, and especially the massive, magnificent, medieval Gothic and Norman varieties, because it turns out that just because they’re looking towards their thousandth birthdays doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll still be there waiting for me to get round … More Before It Burns Down: Lausanne Cathedral
Since it’s a trend in 2026, I’m going along with this whole “analogue” thing but it’s just film photos under a new name, and if you haven’t been around here before, I have an entire tag for the photos I’ve been taking on 35mm film over the last nearly seven years, so this isn’t new. … More Switzerland in analogue
There, start with the spoiler! As a language student living in Switzerland twenty years ago, I made a flying visit to Chateau de Chillon, where I visited the Gothic dungeons underneath the castle and saw where the original tortured poet, Lord Byron, was imprisoned, chained to a pillar and left to rot (if you read … More Lord Byron was never a prisoner at Chateau de Chillon
When you think of Switzerland, you think of chocolate and cheese and skiing. Well, I don’t ski and I covered the cheese in the post-snowshoeing fondue I had in the last post which means it must be time for the chocolate! And it is! Long story short, I took the train out to Switzerland’s oldest … More I did a chocolate workshop at a Swiss chocolate factory
As I flew over to Switzerland on Friday, it felt like I was the only person not wearing my skiing outfit and carrying a helmet. I don’t ski. I snowboard a little – badly and nervously and rarely, if ever, getting off my heel edge (and not for nearly thirteen years, so putting it in … More Snowshoeing in the dark above Lake Geneva
I know I’m probably the last person to have discovered this but you can go up the chimney at Battersea Power Station and pop out the top for amazing views over London. When Battersea Power Station finally reopened in October 2022 in its renovated guest as a shopping and leisure centre, it saw a lot … More Up the chimney at Battersea Power Station
And after the usual end of year/beginning of year blogs, I’m back on the last trip of last year, my weekend at Parc Asterix. If I didn’t mention it in my post about their Gallic Christmas event, part – most – of the reason I went was that I saw one too many people on … More Why doesn’t anyone go to Parc Asterix?
I Am A Polar Bear 