Posts on The continuing adventures of Steve

Musings on Starship Reliability

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a space nerd, and recently I’ve been thinking about the reliability of SpaceX’s Starship.

Blog Update

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So I finally updated my blog.

El Regreso

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At the end of last 2024, I was invited to a wedding in Brazil. Similar to my trips to Nepal, India and Vietnam, I took this as an opportunity to take some time off and go backpacking around South America.

Vietnam and a wedding

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Once again, I was invited to a wedding on the far side of the world and took it as an opportunity to go backpacking (and pick up a suit) along the way.

Goa at last

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In January 2020, I moved to India for work. I was supposed to be there for a year, but the pandemic cut that plan short. In December 2023, I finally had a chance to go back.

New Year's on the Nile

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A little while ago, I made a brief trip to Egypt after visiting my parents for Christmas. As per normal, here’s a travel blog derived from my travel diary.

Kilimanjaro

Sun, 25 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to Tanzania and climbed Kilimanjaro. As per normal, I kept a travel diary. If you don’t like words, you can just visit Flickr album.

Everest Base Camp

Sun, 21 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Back in March, I was invited to a wedding in Sydney, Australia, so I took to the opportunity to stop off in Nepal and hike to Everest Base Camp. Once again, I kept a travel diary and am posting it here for posterity.

Round the World 3: El Gringo va al Norte

Wed, 06 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Part 2 covered my travels around the southern half of South America, now we cover my journey north before dropping back south and finally looping round to Rio de Janeiro.

Round the World 2: El Gringo va al Sur

Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Part 1 covered my trip through South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. This part covers the first half of my travels in South America, starting in Santiago then heading as South as South goes before turning back Northwards.

Round the World 1: Bangkok to Auckland

Sat, 19 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Long time readers of this blog (hi mum) will know that I tend to post travel blogs after big(ish) trips. Well, between October 2015 and March 2016 I took a sabbatical from work and travelled around the world. Obviously, this calls for quite the blog.

Romania to Moldova

Sat, 01 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Another trip, another travel blog. This time, I flew to Romania, then took the train to meet up with a Russian friend in Moldova. As before, this blog has been produced by copying my travel diary verbatim, editing for spelling/grammar and adding photos.

Steve Goes to Marrakesh

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I travelled from London to Marrakesh by train (and boat). Like with my Moscow to Shanghai trip, I kept a travel diary and have once again reproduced it in blog form.

Whisky in the Gobi

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this year, I travelled from Moscow to Shanghai to visit my brother, taking the Trans-Siberian/Mongolian railroad. This was my first major trip travelling alone and on the insistence of a lovely German woman I met in a Moscow hostel, I kept a travel diary of the trip. I found this to be a hugely valuable exercise, as it allowed me to capture my feelings in the moments of a journey that really meant a lot to me. Now, on the insistence of a friend, I’ve posted my travel diary below, where it may be of some interest. Each entry is reproduced as it was written on the day it describes, during or shortly after the moment (bar spelling/grammatical fixes).

Pimsleur and Michel Thomas

Sat, 07 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

If you’ve ever looked at language courses, the chances are you’ve run across The Pimsleur Approach and its lofty claims. Recently, I followed the Pimsleur Russian course as well as the similar, though slightly less well publicised Michel Thomas Russian course and wanted write up some of my thoughts them.

Learning Russian Part 3

Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Final update on my Russian learning before I jet off to Russia. Check out part 1 and part 2. This post covers January to March.

Learning Russian Part 2

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

More updates on my efforts to learn Russian between September and December. Check out part 1 here.

Learning Russian Part 1

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Travelling across Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad has been on my bucket list for the better part of a decade. When, in late May 2012, my brother moved to China to teach English, this gave me the perfect excuse to start planning an actual trip. Taking the train from Moscow to Beijing would put me put me only a few hours from visiting my brother and check off a major item from my bucket list to boot, so my plan formed quickly. But I hate to be ’the tourist’ - I wanted to speak the language and interact meaningfully with the people. I’d attempted to learn Russian once previously with little success. With the looming possibility of being unable to communicate effectively for several weeks, I vowed that this time would be different. This is the first in a series of posts on my attempts to learn Russian that will hopefully be useful to others doing the same.