News from Jupiter
A Trio of 89th Birthday Parties
May 3, 2020
My grateful thanks to all those of you who took the time to wish me a happy birthday on Facebook and Twitter. Since coming to France I have had three wonderful birthday parties. We filled a neighbour’s garden with people and the delicious aroma of chicken and sausage barbecued by yours truly, Here’s one of them: Here’s another: This year there were four of us […]
Recording An Interrupted Life
March 27, 2020
For some time now I’ve been working on an autobiography. I’m doing it mainly for the sake of my descendants who, like most young people, don’t think of asking questions until it’s too late, partly because they’re too busy, partly for fear of being bored, but also I think for fear of finding it rather embarrassing. However, being a writer by profession, I can’t do […]
Après Overland Expo East
October 20, 2019
What I like most about the Overland Expo meetings is hanging out with the crew, and here I’ve managed to take a really bad pic of three of my friends. That’s Alison Delapp at the back, spitting out an olive stone, and Duncan the Scot who runs the incredible LandRover training course, giving me the thumbs up, and Graham in front who manages just […]
The Joint Is Jumping
October 1, 2019
It’s almost four years since I conceived this Aspiran project, and at last it seems to be taking off. For those who still don’t know I’ll explain. At the same time as I wanted to move back to France from California, I thought the best use I could make of my remaining years on this earth would be to help other travellers who […]
Hotting Up In Aspiran
September 21, 2019
Things are hotting up in Aspiran just as the weather is cooling down. All of a sudden, it seems, people are finding me. On Thursday I was waiting for Christopher Lee to arrive and work on a book. Then that same day, out of nowhere, came two Aussies on a BMW 800 just to say hello. Hein and Corene Schwartz were on their […]
Here’s a new twist?
September 18, 2019
Just keeping up to date on the various ways in which the French Bureaucracy challenges our ingenuity. I have received a registered letter from Nantes. The government office at Nantes is well known to everyone, including the police, as a black hole. It is where you send applications for a change of driving license. The letter, paraphrased, says, “Sir, on the 9th of July, 2018, […]
Behaving Strangely
September 2, 2019
I’m off to Ukraine for a flying visit at the end of September to celebrate the tenth anniversary of my worst motorcycle accident. I’m celebrating the fact that it had no visible lasting consequences. In 2009 I was riding my 650 BMW to the Polish border, at a steady pace on a good road in fine weather. As always I was riding close to […]
It’s happening
August 12, 2019
It’s not like me to have nothing to say. I sit here at my computer and all sorts of disconnected ideas are flitting around like fish beneath the surface but they can’t break through, as though they were trapped under a sheet of ice. Nothing seems worth saying when the two countries I am connected with by language and history are both now governed by […]
Who’s afraid of the big bad bike?
April 23, 2019
For ten years now I’ve been going to Arizona in May to face sand-storms, mud, wind, rain, snow and even occasional good weather (I’m kidding: there was lots of good weather, but it’s the other stuff you remember). And the reason for taking such risks with my health and good humour is to be among several thousand other fools like me worshiping at the feet […]
Ted’s assassination – and his joyful resurrection.
February 24, 2019
Nathan Millward, who is unquestionably one of my favourite characters, has been doing a gig at the motorcycle show in London for a number of years. It consists of putting people on a small stage at one end of this vast arena to tell stories about their travels. He’s run through most of the top attractions in the motorcycle world and this year was […]