I’ve had an occasion to mention him several times in my blogs. After all, he was one of the people who gave me – however unwittingly – the biggest push to try and go to live in Scotland. Later I stopped following his blog; the car and aeroplane circumnavigation attemps looked more like a desire […]
(Thèid mi am feabhas. Bha an video Black Angel fichead mionaid a thìde; tha còrr is leth-cheud aig an fhear seo.) Chan eil mi cinnteach dè cho math a bhiodh am prògram dha cuideigin nach biodh eòlach air an sgeulachd ro làimh; chòrd e riumsa gu math. Mì-choltach ris an leabhar, chithear Mike cuideachd aig […]
Reading it the first time I was mostly interested in the story (all those happenings I had missed when following, sometimes not too carefully, his blog while he was still sailing), pleasantly surprised by the fact we in fact did have one thing in common (the “no immense problem but always some new minor bother” […]
I’ve already mentioned here my interest in this circumnavigation story more than once. The book about it surprised me more than once as well. First, by having been apparently written by Mike himself – I had expected a ghost writer. (If there was one, they did an amazing job.) Second, by being really good. Sure, […]
Mike Perham’s advertised announcement about his next adventure says (in the form of a press release by somebody else on his blog) it will be an attempt at a solo round-the-world flight, making him the first person ever to both sail and fly solo around the world. Mike Perham’s blog: Mike Perham announces plans to […]
On 28 March, Mike Perham announced on his website that because of medical problems following recent appendix removal operation he wouldn’t be fit enough to participate in the Talisker Bounty Boat expedition. Perham: End of Talisker Bounty Boat dream Disappointing no doubt, but what with all the complications overcome during his round-the-world voyage I’m certain […]
Well, he’s done it. Not that I doubted it in the end. But more than once during the circumnavigation it looked like he might be forced to give up. I first noticed him, by pure incident, on this page. Later on there was this, and from there I got to the site dedicated to the […]
It wasn’t as hard as I had feared it would. The accommodation is bad enough, but temporarily sufferable; I landed a steady job rather soon; hearing the unpleasant Slavic language everywhere is irksome yet not unbearable; I’m in a sense penniless but with ways of material survival; there are occasional chats with Rob and emails […]
It was a somewhat strange year. A Knoxplexian one, which to me strongly resembled Perham’s circumnavigation. Nothing untypical about that, to be sure. And yet it was a rather untypical one. For it had a climax that overhadowed all the rest, and because there was a significant shift in my perspective. These things have happened […]
Preface: 1970s – 2010 I have noticed for the first time there was a Scotland sometime in my primary school days, hearing Loch Lomond sung in Czech (with lyrics resembling more My Heart’s in the Highlands). Gradually, I was learning more about it, and growing a long-distance soft spot for it. But until the ’89 […]
Looking backwards, it’s 696 years today since the victory at Bannockburn. Rather than Midsummer’s, I use my own term, Bannie Day. Looking forwards, it’s seven weeks until the day my long-delayed trip to Scotland should begin. This calls for a temporary change in priorities. My language studies and dealing with the Backlog list, usually at […]
I have seven favourite books. Six of these were written in English. Five of these I read first in a translation. Four of these I didn’t have in the original and three of these I hadn’t read in the original before getting online two years ago. Thus, once on the Net, I rebought the favourite […]
Some days, I can hardly think of anything to write in my diary before going to sleep except for eg “ordinary workday”. At best perhaps expanding a bit on what that currently means. On other days, there are so many things worth blogging about that all I have time to do is briefly enumerating them. […]
(It’s hard to keep track of all what’s hapening. Yesterday: Widsith‘s, my favourite blogger’s, 32nd birthday; Mike Perham‘s 18th birthday; today: Jockie’s 40th birthday, St Patrick’s Day, 10th anniversary of my 1st shift in any printing house, I met Pinkie who’s still living in this city, my therapist emailed she was beginnig to worry why […]
Gu nàdarrach, this is not a description of 2009 as it was. This is a description of 2009 how I saw it – or rather, how I perceive it now, looking backwards. The two things I care most about in my life are my closest friends and Scotland. These days, those of my best friends […]
Going to the end of the line 