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The Cultural Insensitivity of Airbnb

I love Airbnb, but the booking process is deeply culturally insensitive towards English people. By the time we've penned an informal yet appropriately polite booking request (complete with apologies for potential slight inconveniences) then rewritten it multiple times to ensure we are using vocab...

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The Book is Out!

It finally happened. After a lifetime of writing nonsense, I finally managed to focus for long enough to write a whole book. It's still nonsense, and looks like no other book you've ever seen in your life...but I love it. It's based on the characters and island invented by Darrell Thorpe of D...

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Parmesnip Soup, Eh?

Herein lies the recipe for parsnip and parmesan soup, as passed down from generation to generation of mighty Guildsmen who like their soups like they like their gold: golden. If, like me, you find the whole process of food preparation to be a needless waste of time, just do this: HACK: slice s...

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Climbing The Highest Volcano

--- This post is adapted from a letter I wrote to a lovely man called Carl, who received my book A Rum Run Awry as a father’s day gift. When I came to write up the story for my blog, I realised that my letter to Carl was close to being the best summary I was capable of writing, so here it is. ---...

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Ghost Squad 2016

After 96 intense hours, the days leading up to and including Tough Guy 2016 have finally released me from their carnival of madness. I don't have the words to describe them. I really don't. Possibly because I am physically and mentally exhausted, but possibly also because the descriptive potentia...

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Lucha Britannia: November

[gallery type="rectangular" ids="7137,7134"] Another month of Lucha Britannia mayhem has come and gone - this time with none other than Juventud Guerrera on the show! Sadly, I didn't get to work with him again, like at Wahaca. This time around, El Nordico Fuego found himself in yet another Luc...

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Five Hours

Today I had a realisation that will change my life. Wait. 'Realisation'  is the wrong word. I realised this thing a very long time ago. This morning, however, was the first time I have genuinely believed in it - to the extent that I was compelled to take action. And compelled I was! I dres...

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Spartan Race World Championships

I am not a Spartan Race World Champion. Let's just clear that up right now. Anybody could pay to enter the race in Lake Tahoe and not run in the elite wave. Indeed, about 10,000 people did exactly that - myself included, side by side with Scott and Amber Keneally. I say "side by side". I mean...

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12,320 Steps Too Far

"A Guildsman does not train for events. He wanders the Earth being mighty. He performs feats as fleeting extensions of his power. Like flexing." So sayeth the Guildsman's handbook, the code by which I live. Today, however, I am feeling a tad apprehensive about my blasé approach to physical challe...

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To California!

Today is the day I fly to L.A. Waking up is a multi-tiered and painful process. It begins at some ungodly hour, when Vikki's alarm goes off. She is catching a very early train to Birmingham. By the time she has her lunch, I will be mid-air. In a plane, hopefully. I wake up again when Vikki...

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Mudnificent 7: A Masterclass in OCR

This weekend, the Ghost Squad descended upon Coventry for the inaugural Mudnificent 7, mud racing expo and combo-race. Seven different obstacle races, each of whom transformed 1km of a park into a representation of their own race: Tough Guy Big Foot Challenge Reaper Events Bear Grylls Survival...

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