Neil Bennion's Blog, page 2

I Went to Russia for the World Cup and All You Got Were These 4 Lousy Videos

Poland is right next door to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, so when I heard that Russia were hosting a bit of a football tournament, and that some of the games would be in Kaliningrad, I thought I’d drop by.

I’m not as big into football as I used to be. And maybe that’s a good thing – it used to have the ability to put me on a high or low for days afterwards. Frankly, I quite like the emotional stability that comes with giving less of a shit about something over which I have little or no...

The Good, the Bad … and the Weird of 2017

It’s that time of year when all self-obsessed (sorry, self-respecting) blogger types post their own personal summaries of the year, as though they’re at the centre of the known universe or something.

Working on that same basis, here’s mine.

Note that these things are my own personal favourites, and some of the things (i.e. the books) aren’t even from 2017. What a swizz!

Best Travel Experiences of 2017

I like watching the cars go round and round, and in 2017 I went with my sister to see that h...

Biking the Dunajec River Gorge [VIDEO]

Recently I went to visit the Dunajec River Gorge in southern Poland.  It’s well known as a place to go rafting, but it was a mite chilly for that, so I went for the two-wheels-and-no-hypothermia option instead. Oh, and I made a video about it (see below).

Much of the southern border of Poland (with Czechia and Slovakia) is mountainous, or at the very least uppy-and-downy.

The best known range is probably the Tatras. But not far from there is a smaller range known as the Pieniny (“pye-NEE-nih”...

Ever Had a False Epiphany?

One morning last year I looked at my calendar and was quite surprised by something I saw.

“Epiphany”

Eh? I’ve scheduled in an epiphany?

I should note at this point that I know all about epiphanies, because I had one when I was 25 years old. It was the thing that made me jettison my career in IT for something far more frustrating with worse pay.

And one thing I learnt was this… you don’t schedule an epiphany. THAT’S NOT HOW THEY WORK.

Then it clicked.

As you almost certainly worked out quicke...

That Time I Took the Folk Train from Manchester

I wrote this post back in 2011 and never published it. But with the folk train still going strong, now seems as good as time as any…

The 18.48 to Hadfield. It doesn’t quite resonate like The Flying Scotsman or The Orient Express, yet this is a special train in its own right. Or so I’ve been told – as I stand there on the platform at Manchester Piccadilly station it looks it looks just like any other suburban commuter train. In fact, I’m beginning to doubt whether I’m in the right place. But t...

The Time I Took the Folk Train from Manchester

I wrote this post back in 2011 and never published it. But with the folk train concept still going strong, now seems as good as time as any…

The 18.48 to Hadfield. It doesn’t quite resonate like The Flying Scotsman or The Orient Express, yet this is a special train in its own right. Or so I’ve been told – as I stand there on the platform at Manchester Piccadilly station it looks it looks just like any other suburban commuter train. In fact, I’m beginning to doubt whether I’m in the right plac...

My Fraught Relationship with Plants [VIDEO]

Me and plants don’t get on. Actually, that’s probably a bit unfair, given that it suggestssome kind of mutual responsibility for the situation.

Clearly, the only one to blame when a plant under my care fails to survive is the plant. If I could sue the plant for the distress caused by its untimely demise, I most definitely would. And when I say that, I’m definitely not trying to shift the blame through a sense of guilt.

It’s a big shame (as I’m sure the plant would agree), especially as I lov...

A Hostel on a Train Station – Like Literally Right on It [VIDEO]

This is my video review of a hostel on a train station. I’ve said ‘on’ rather than ‘in’ because it’s literally housed in a station building on one of the platforms, rather than right next to the station or some other cop-out like that.

I must admit that I’m slightly concerned that you’re going to think that I’m obsessed with trains. I am, of course. but I don’t want you to know that. So I’m going to hide behind the idea that it’s mere coincidence that I’m doing yet another railway-related vid...

Experiencing the Hungarian Grand Prix

What is it like to go to the Hungarian Grand Prix near Budapest? Probably not a question you’ve ever asked yourself, but one I’m going to answer nonetheless. My sister and I are both big Formula One fans, and we really enjoyed the Belgian Grand Prix last year, when we dug ourselves into a hillside, so we decided that this year we’d go to the Hungarian Grand Prix.

I was coming from Poland, and my sister from the UK, so we agreed to meet in Budapest itself.

One of the things I love about centra...

47 Amazing Things – Audio Version

As a few of you may know,I do voice work as one of my sidelines to writing, recordingonline adverts and the like (you can check out some of my earlier efforts here).So I thought it would be nice to finally put it outthere and record an audio version of one of my books.

In the past when I’ve done voice work, I’ve just gone into the studio and said what I needed to, and left a sound engineer-type person to edit and master it. But nowadays I have my own recording setup in my flat, so I decided t...