Al's Blog

My chum Ellie is married to a lovely man who has a nice old house in the Scottish Borders - rather like Westerton for those of you that know...

I woke up this morning after a drunken fondue the night before with a lump on my tongue. It looked rather odd, so I went on the internet to ...

I had a brilliant weekend with Harriet in Donegal. We went up THE HIGHEST CLIFFS IN EUROPE, and couldn't see a bloody thing because of t...

I got back to London and the weather is unutterably terrible. It's August. These things should be banned. I then had some shit happen to...

Vancouver would be a much better town if it wasn't so horrendously expensive. The taxi from the airport cost me more than all the taxis ...

My father taught me that when you fly you should always dress in a suit and arrive as late as possible. This maximises your chances of an up...

Having spent a day and a half in Iquitos sweating like a pig and fighting my way through touts, all of whom are hungry for my blood, I choos...

I kept a diary in the jungle which I´ll condense and make palatable and post here once I have a little more time - probably after my arrival...

I went for a walk in the Amazon yesterday. There is a floating shanty market but this being the dry season it isn´t floating. All the trader...

All the hammering and sawing was worth it. I got to the party and they had built a bloody great big scaff bandstand with netting and dancefl...

Despite Harry Potter having come out in Peru this evening - and all the Peruvian bookstores being loaded with English copies - I am suited a...

It is pitch black and outside the window there is the sound of desperate hammering and sawing. The Peruvian workers are building a scaffold ...

Back to Cuszco, and nobody knows where we`re going next. Lawrence is sick and Charlotte is tired and the teachers are still on strike so tha...

"Where the hell is my backpack?" "It`s on one of the mules." "oh" So I packed light and got a good backpack so...

Finally the time for the trek had come. 43 people from many different nationalities, age groups, and walks of life gathered together and loa...

Back to Cuszco, and I remember that my sister in law Beatriz told us all that temperatures in the mountains where we will be trekking have b...

On the train to Macchu Picchu I met a loathsome American woman who barked at me all the way about "This Fucking country! All this fucki...

So got up in the morning and staggered back to the airport and flew to Cuszco, dosing up on altitude sickness pills so I wasn`t yakking all ...

Well I thought it would be better to just post on my blog and let people follow if they have any inclination. Also I can use this as a sort ...

Come on Al. What's the point of having a blog if you don't update it? Clearly because my life is so full and spangly that I have no ...