The last time I flew into an Arabic airport it was in the back of a heavily laden Chinook helicopter whilst the cargo bay crammed with soldiers was periodically illuminated by the lightning storm we were flying tactically through from our desert location of Muffrash to Basrah International Airport in March 2003. The last time I was in Morrocco I was leading a adventure training expedition consisting of me and about 10 soldiers from the Gibraltar Regiment with th...

Somebody has stolen Paris! A place like Paris still exists with its beautiful buildings, stylish shops, glamorous ladies, great restaurants but the telltale Paris characteristics have gone: the dog poo, the angry drivers and Parisians making life as tough as possible for anyone not fluent in their language. We like the new Paris. Everywhere we went people were friendly and helpful and we were able to look up at the buildings and not down at the canine faeces a...

Liverpool and Ludlow If you want a contrast between the affluent south and the rather less affluent north, get a train from Oxford to Liverpool, then take a cab to pick up a hire car in Knotty Ash. The upside is that you can get a pint of larger for £1.20 and a meal for £2.99 in Knotty Ash, less than half the price of Oxford. The downside is that it is the kind of place you can get a pint of larger for £1.20 and a meal for £2.99.......... We drove past Li...

London and a bit of Oxford. I am currently sitting on a train looking out at amazingly lush English countryside with overcast weather but no rain. I know that this is Englnad at it's best but it is a most beautiful country. Rolling hills golden cornfields, medieval houses, yellow rape, pretty colourful gardens, weeping willows over quiet streams......all gorgeous. OK, so at times I have to look beyond the cramped and badly kept estates, the graffiti, the per...

The Arctic Adventure It's been a while since I have been in responsible for people and even after 5 months running the business Thales has been foolish enough to put me in charge of, I felt more an a small pang of guilt turning my back on them for 5 whole weeks. Luckily after a few glasses of bubbles in the Singapore Airways lounge I got over it. After my third film, supping more champagne on the flight, a situation only spoilt slightly be the flatulence of th...