Hello! This is my first post on my new blog. I don’t really know how to write blogs, so really this is just going to be a splurge of my inner dialogue.
So yeah, who am I? I am Al. Born in the UK and lived most of my life in Edinburgh. I am enthusiastic, positive, and I believe an easy-going guy who wants to write a blog to keep my friends and my family informed on my adventures.
So what are my interests? I have a lot!
- I enjoy films and movies. Honestly, I love them. If you ask me about a film, chances are I have seen it. My particular favourite genres are anything Wes Anderson, anything Studio Ghibili, and then anything romantic, dramatic, clever or psychological at all… Basically anything that isn’t horror – that is the one thing I refuse to watch! A particular favourite of mine is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
- Books have always been a love of mine. I mean, they have always been a core make up of me I feel. Reading was one of my first interests in life I feel, and it has carried through to this day still. I love space operas, fantasy, sci-fi and then also the true classics and any travel fiction/non-fiction. So I have just finished Great Expectations, Love in the Time of Cholera and I am currently reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, Grace of Kings (the worst written book I have ever read, I really don’t know how I will finish it!) and Around the World in 80 Trains.
- Music is a passion of mine. I play piano, horn and then dabble in the organ and choirs. As a result I listen to a lot of classical music, particularly Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff. However, I also listen to a lot of other music. My Spotify Unwrapped last year was a proud 96,000 minutes, primarily of film music, indie music (especially my favourite band The Cat Empire) and classic rock. But primarily indie music. And Cat Empire. They’re just so happy and positive and fiesta-worthy!
- I follow a lot of sport. These include:
- Rugby (Auckland Blues, Bath, Montpellier are my teams I support)
- Squash (Nouran Gohar and Paul Coll are my favourites in the female and male sides respectively)
- Chess (big big Carlos Magnussen fan. Although I will be supporting Richard Rapport in this year’s upcoming Candidates tournament. )
- F1 (I support Perez and Carlos but certainly not Verstappen. I am ambivalent of Hamilton, neither love nor hate him – he has just won a lot!)
- Snooker (Ronnie O’Sullivan is the GOAT. But also I have a soft spot in my heart for Judd Trump)
- And then I have a passing interest in tennis (Murray, Federer, Raducanu) and running, both ultra-running (Courtney Dauwalter is a beast) and track (Jacob Ingebritsen is amazing). I also like climbing (Janja Garnbret and Adam Ondra. Also of course Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson). Honestly, I follow a lot of sports, I reckon I could have a half decent conversation about any sport other than American Football, real Football or baseball.
- Food. Who doesn’t love food? I bake, I cook and I truly and thoroughly enjoy it all. All vegetarian though.
And of course, I have an absolute love of travel and hiking.
I have travelled a whole bunch around the world with my family. I have vague memories of South East Asia as a child with a single digit age, but what I really remember and appreciate nowadays are the holidays we took as I was developing into a real person! To summarise, these were a series of road trips. One to Greece, followed a year later by another to Germany and Austria, followed by yet another one to Spain via Eastern France. As I continued developing as a person and sanding down the rough edges, I went on a remote five-week expedition to the Peruvian amazon where I was humbled and learnt a good deal about who I was as a person and the limits that I had. And then to put the glace cherry on top, I also went on a road trip around Iceland as the final draft of who I was being fine-tuned.
And in amongst this discovery of who I was as a person, I discovered something that should have not been so surprising. I loved adventure, and specifically I loved adventure, outside in the wild, to new places. And as such, in 2018, my brother Cam suggested that we walk the West Highland Way, a 160km long-distance trek from Milngavie, Glasgow to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. And this opened my eyes to the world of hiking and trekking. I love it. Since then, I have walked the Fife Coastal Trail (with a university friend Joel), Hadrian’s Wall (solo), the Great Glen Way (with my dear sister Flora) as well as a bunch of smaller day hikes. I have intentions to complete the other big ones in Scotland, primarily the Cape Wrath Trail (Oh wait…), the East Highland Way and the Skye Way.
But I have also nurtured an interest in thru-hiking. This is just the long distance walks on steroids really. Instead of taking days or weeks to complete, these take months to complete. My eyes are currently fixed on two, the Pacific Crest Trail (AKA PCT, Mexican Border to Canadian Border through California, Oregon and Washington) and Te Araroa (AKA TA, North to South in New Zealand).
But, enough about my interests and passions! What is going on in my life?? Well, from this current moment that I am writing, I am graduating university in two weeks (with a Master’s in Physics). Or there abouts. Bit terrified of entering the real world I won’t lie. And so I refuse, or at least, I refuse for the time being. I want to enjoy myself and live a little whilst I have no tethers or commitments.
So, from this immediate point of writing, my plans are to do some hiking before and a little after I graduate. Then, come this July I am going out to Seville, Spain to have a small holiday with friends. They then all have life commitments to attend to but not me, I intend to inter-rail around Europe. My rough plan is to head to Barcelona, then the south of France before going to Italy (Genoa, Florence and Rome being the aims), Vienna, Prague, West Germany, Bruges, Paris and then finally come home. I am so looking forward to this big solo adventure! I intend to blog it as well so keep an eye out! Following on from my inter-rail trip, I would like to head overseas far far away. Currently, I am thinking about getting a small, cheap job in Australia in like a café or a restaurant and learning to surf for two months (a dream of mine) before I start the TA in New Zealand in November.
I do have a fixed point in space-time though. I have to be back in the UK for May 20th 2023 for a friend’s wedding. And so I will have to have finished the TA and my adventures by then. I intend to settle with a job in London (R&D maybe?), a place which I feel is calling me and which I have a love for. I can see myself finding a flat or apartment there, joining a squash club and a climbing gym, becoming a local at the nearest jazz club, joining an indie cinema and riding a fixie around London with no money but all the happiness and contentedness… But that is me just dreaming and hoping! I guess only time will tell.
As to my other hopes and dreams? I hope to one day live abroad. Places such as Paris, Morocco (no idea why, but the idea of living in Casablanca or Marrakesh appeal to me), Tokyo appeal to me. I would also love to climb Kilimanjaro one day. I also have an itch to run an ultra marathon. There is something about the extreme endurance that I just love the idea of! I’d quite like to write a book too, maybe. And then there are also a bunch of other dreams and aims I have in life, but I shouldn’t reveal all on here!
So yes, this is just a small introduction of who I am and what I am thinking and feeling at this current moment in time. A lot of it may not come true, or it could all come true. Only time will tell! But what I can tell you for certain is that I am looking forward to the future and to the adventures and opportunities and experiences are waiting for me.
For now, I will bid you adieu. I am gonna try and set up an email alert system for you to get alerts when I post a new blog story. So if that is set up, please consider subscribing (oh no I now sound like an influencer or a YouTuber!) and please, feel free to contact me. I love talking to people!
Love to you all,
Al