Welcome to RANTING MANOR
home to the semi-automatic ramblings of (I hope) your favourite word nerd.
Hello there, and thanks for dropping in to my page; 'tis nice of you to visit.
Hmmm ... where to start? Let's see. I'm guessing that, like most of the people who arrive here, you already know me in one way or another. Therefore the usual autobiographical palaver seems a bit pointless. So let's get straight to the creamy centre: these pages contain my blog/journal/whatever you like to call it, as promised to various people before I left Australia in 2005 to spend a year teaching English in Russia. In other words, I basically started it to record my travel and other experiences in whatever odd corners of the world I may end up in.
By all means drop me a line if you'd like to be added to the list of those who are informed when I post new entries here. And btw, I love guest book messages, so feel entirely free to enhance my day-to-day life by telling me what you think of my rants ... especially if you have a different perspective on something I've written about. Scroll down to the bottom of this page, where you'll find a link to the guest book, and add your name to the prestigious list of guests.
I'm currently living in Tallinn, the beautiful seaside capital of Estonia. It's kind of a strange situation; I sort of moved here 'by accident', in that I was on my way elsewhere but got held up by visa problems and couldn't continue. So now here I am in one of my favourite cities, but almost penniless and facing the challenges of 'settling in'. Koroche: It's turning out to be an interesting couple of months.
So, read on if that sounds ... well, if it sounds like it might be worth reading about :-)
THIS YEAR'S RANTS
2009 (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Estonia and Finland)
18.08.09: there's that word again ...
16.08.09: baltic trivia lord meets caffeine killer
13.07.09: and the award goes to ...
12.07.09: crawling towards motherhood (samarkand part 2)
11.07.09: digressions on the square (samarkand part 1)
09.07.09: pan-fried cultural learnings
07.07.09: khan you believe it?
PREVIOUS YEARS
2008 (Kazakhstan, Budapest, Slovenia, Finland & The Baltics)
30.12.08: kilts, crocs and coal smoke
11.08.08: closed in (a.k.a. a cool kind of ugly)
24.03.08: transit therapy #5 (going peripheral)
14.02.08: transit therapy #4 (towards the beloved)
12.02.08: transit therapy #3 (the twilight lounge)
11.02.08: transit therapy #2 (timely reminders & killer headware)
20.01.08: transit therapy #1 (tedious exposition)
2007 (New Zealand, South Korea & Kazakhstan)
24.10.2007: that snow, burning sensation
2.10.2007: how to tell you're back in the real world
25.09.2007: crossed (like a peninsula)
21.09.2007: crossed (like a book)
20.09.2007: tiny fun in a huge metropolis
20.03.2007: don't worry - everything's okay (except the rice)
10.02.07: road trippin' to the black, black water
2006 (Russia, Finland & Estonia)
22.06.06: the heart of the experience
30.04.06: stories from the city, stories from the kleenika (part two)
4.04.06: stories from the city, stories from the kleenika (part one)
20.02.06: "a land of eeks and baars"
15.02.06: mythical parrots, whimsical clocks
12.02.06: back on the edge ...
2005 (Japan & Russia)
11.12.05: the deliberate tourist
4.12.05: three down and "doing both"
29.10.05: eight-year-old dilemmas, part two
27.10.05: and now, let's cross live to our weather desk for a short update ...
19.10.05: a beautiful day (awaiting the freeze)
10.10.05: eight-year-old dilemmas, part one
1.10.05: and a special welcome to our foreign guests ...
24.9.05: mystery of the metro babushkas
13.9.05: seeking out the little things ...
4.9.05: culture and customs (the word nerd takes a hammering)
1.9.05: autumnal shades (a single day in moscow)
30.8.05: the best thing about my new flat
28.8.05: sayonara, you mad marvel ...
25.8.05: day one - boy meets world, ponders happiness, gets rained on
Your own words here: