About Me
Hello, I’m Nick and this is my mid life crisis web site. I never liked Harley Davidsons, so this seemed like a viable alternative.
I’m a strong believer that everyone should have a passion in life, whatever it may be. Finding a passion helps you fulfil your dreams and makes you a better person.
My Father was a ten pound pom and spent a few years in Australia, before moving back the UK to marry my mum and have two beautiful children, Nicholas and Richard. Lucky man! I remember as a kid rifling through all his old travel stuff, including an old Map and being absolutely fascinated that this huge word existed, of which we were a tiny blob, clinging onto the edge of Europe.
I had a few holidays when I was young, but maybe not as many as other families as my parents were self employed and worked incredibly hard at building their business.
It wasn’t until I was 22, recognising that my post university career in a call centre wasn’t really fulfilling my dreams, that I decided to explore. So after a staircase conversation with one of my housemates at the time, I decided to pack everything in and go travel. I spent a year testing the water and made it to parts of India, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, America, the South Pacific and a few other bits. It really was the most fascinating and wonderful year and this is where my addiction began. Following any addiction, comes cold turkey. I’ve had travel cold turkey a few times and I have just come to live with the fact that the only way to address this is to stop fighting and feed my problem. Since 22 I wouldn’t say I’ve travelled the word but I’ve seen more than the average person. As I got a little bit older, greyer, wiser, I thought I would get this out of my system. As I move further away from being that super cool surf dude that writes a whacky travel blog from the back of his VW camper van, sporting a six pack, lock curly locks and an all over tan, I really didn’t think I would fit into the travel scene any more.
How wrong I was. We live in a wonderful world, where technology enables to do the things we once dreamed of. Travel has never been so easy and fun. We are so well informed, we can happily find the best hotels and experiences along the way. Because we spend so much time reviewing these experiences, the very people that provide these experiences are trying even harder to avoid a bad review. The world is smaller, the world is changing.
My other passion in life is food. Cooking it, eating it, watching it being cooked, reading about it… anything. Food is central and essential to every community in the world. It bring people together, creates ever lasting bonds and entire communities and economies exist purely to provide. The majority of the people reading this web site will know where their next meal is coming from. Many communities in the world still don’t.
Combining food and travel is completely obvious and I’m certainly no ambassador in this field. What fascinates me in a world which is far from peaceful, far from ideal and incredibly unequal is that food and travel unites us. When you travel, you meet people. Somehow you unite in this virtual no mans land, where people don’t have a political agenda, the beliefs of your country and the political ideologies don’t matter any more. What matter is who you are and who you’re with, where you are and what you’re eating. Race, creed or colour have no bearing. For a moment in time and for many moments in time, you are united with your fellow human being, without boundaries, without fear or care. This is travel.
