News from the frontline of my worldwide mullet mission
Thanks to visits from couchsurfers in the past week or so, I’ve had a chance to practice my rubbish French, my legendarily awful German, and my handful of words of Dutch. I’ve been really enjoying my couchsurfing experience. Having someone to stay from a different culture is an amazing way to find out more about…
Bit of an interesting story to tell you. The other day, I discovered an article about the mullet mission on the website of Shekulli, an Albanian newspaper. And I must confess I found it when egostistically googling my name. Come on admit it, we all do it. Googling ourselves, I mean, not finding ourselves in…
It’s a good job I have been saving hard these past few months, because I’ve just spent a scary amount of money on flights to New Zealand for the next leg of my mullet-hunting adventure. The tickets cost something in the vague region of a month’s salary for me, and I am quite sure that…
I learned this evening about this exciting adventure being undertaken by friends of friends. Cape Wrath to Cape Hope, overland. Wow. Sounds like an amazing trip, and part of me wishes I was doing something like that. But part of me is also rather glad it’s them doing it and not me. That’s probably because…
I’m having a well-earned afternoon off after a heavy week of ridiculously early mornings and a whistle-stop work tour around the east coast. I’ve been in… Dundee – the jury’s still out, but it’s maybe not as awful as I used to think it was. Arbroath – not been for many years. Something of the…
I got yesterday morning from the second largest landmass, the first nation of hockey and the best part of North America. After bagging Mullet Creek, Mississauga, I went to Montreal to visit the suburb of Longueuil, from where the Quebecois name for a mullet, un coupe Longueuil, comes. I was well impressed with Montreal –…
I’ve been here just over twenty-four hours, and have already been up the CN Tower, seen the delights of Mississauga, and of course been to Mullet Creek. Canada’s quite nice. But this corner of Ontario is very flat, with vast swathes of identikit countryside and farmland, and urban areas that have samey architecture and faceless,…
Right, I’m off oot and aboot aroond Canada for a week. I might be able to blog as I go, but if not, then take care of yourselves. And each other.
Did you read the Mississauga News today? No? Ah well, ask your local newsagent. My thanks to John for an excellent article, and here’s to a doubtless fascinating meeting with Councillor Carlson. Six days to go…
For the entire weekend, I am jobless. Friday was my last day here, and Monday is my first day here. So it’s very much a time of transition. In fact, it’s a whole month of transition because it won’t be until the start of September that I’ll be back in Inverness with my trip to…
I booked flights to Canada today. With the world tour postponed by a year, I was still keen to do some sort of mullet tour this year, to keep my hand in and my enthusiasm up. And so Canada it is. The two Canadian mullets, one near Toronto and the other near Montreal, are not…
As you’ll maybe have read, I’ve been working towards heading off mullet-hunting in September and have been trying to make plans. I’ve also, however, been struggling to convince myself that this autumn is the right time to go. While my heart says “go” and my head says “hmm, not sure”, my wallet has been having…
Recently I’ve been thinking seriously about the future of the mullet project, and it’s been an unsettling time for two reasons. Firstly, as I’ve mentioned before, I have been attempting to plug the idea to literary agents. That exercise has been frustrating, as responses have either been non-existent or simply standard rejections. It’s made me…
Things are hotting up on the mullet front. I phoned a travel agent the other day to make enquiries about a round the world ticket, but realised on talking to the very helpful adviser that I really need to be an awful lot more specific about my routes and times. This is annoying in one…
Over the past while, I’ve been feeling a bit nervous and apprehensive about chucking it all in and going travelling – is the mission really worth it? But then just yesterday I was idly browsing through Flickr. The online photo community, where I store my photos, is an amazing site with so much to explore…
Niall emailed me to say that following his recent trip to Ireland for tax reasons, he’s now on 31 countries visited. I’m on 30, and while our competition has generally been close, I think it’s the first time he’s nosed in front. So naturally I am upset. I do have the Faroes in June and…
I’ve been quiet about the mullet project lately, so feel it’s time for an update. Over the past couple of years enough people (not to mention newspaper articles and radio interviews both here and in Australia) have persuaded me that the mission would make a good book. So some time ago I decided to write…
Just a few minutes ago, the Anita Annand show on Radio Five Live mentioned that the Falkland Islands are seeking a General Manager for its Tourist Board. So the show (of which I’m a big fan) is asking for suggestions this evening for how the Falklands could be better marketed for tourism. The suggestions are…
Apologies that the blog has been quiet on the mullet-hunting front lately – things are at something of a hiatus while I attempt to work out how to get to the Americas and Albania to finish off the mission once and for all. And more on those developments in due course. But just as there…
Just a quick plug for Daniel Kalder, whose excellent book Lost Cosmonaut I blogged about a while back. He’s the guest blogger this week on the website of American publisher Powell’s. His posts have been great this week, and include a wonderful exploration of boredom. Interesting reading for me, my life having been dominated of…