In-house blogger: Jim O’Connor
With a father in the British Army I was fortunate enough to spend much of my childhood in Arabia, Cyprus and Germany. I was also brought up on family stories of Irish forebears who served as mercenaries in the the armies of the Austro-Habsburg Empire and Scottish ones who went to India as soldiers and engineers. My great great grandfather was a ship’s surgeon who arrived in Trinidad during the Napoleonic Wars and married the daughter of a French plantation owner - so I have numerous relatives out there. Not surprisingly I’ve had the travel bug as long as I can remember.
I’ve managed to have a few adventures of my own. A gap year sailing a 34ft boat from Tenerife to Falmouth, then teaching on summer camp in New England. Taking buses across Kenya and Tanzania then climbing Kilimanjaro. Hikes over the Pyrenees, across Scotland and along Vancouver Island’s West Coast Trail. Two weeks in Queensland on a recce for shooting a TV commercial to launch a new rum. A six week roadtrip through California, Oregon, Washington State, British Columbia and Alberta. Trinidad, obviously. And numerous short breaks - Vienna, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Seville, Venice, Amsterdam, Granada, Sicily, Geneva, Budapest, Salzburg, Genoa….
Being an advertising copywriter has helped. Especially as I’ve had some lovely clients in the travel industry. About ten years ago one asked me to write a blog for them. So I did. Now I’ve started to write some just for myself. Because I always come back with stories that I enjoy sharing.