Living the dream..

10,000 miles, 22 days, nine different countries. What effect did traveling across the globe have on Gary Merrill? 

When he quit his job after eight years at Cardiff University in May 2008 and set out to travel to Taiwan traveling only by train and boat taking a total of 22 days to get there. What effect did this journey have on Gary? In a bid to seek adventure Gary Merrill decided to travel 10,000 miles across the globe and leave his friends, family and home.

Gary had a great job in a fantastic university but he was bored with it. He hadn’t travelled before, and he thought if he didn’t do it now, then he wouldn’t ever do it, so he took a leap of faith and took the chance to travel. Understandably he felt if he could do this then he could do anything. so he did it. It wasn’t until he got to his third or fourth day of his drastic decision when it had really hit him that he left home, quit his job and with only a single ticket with him, he had no idea when he would be going home. It could be one month or even six. There were a lot of unknowns on this journey but he was committed to see it through.

He wanted to make the journey using only trains and boats, he doesn’t enjoy flying, he finds it claustrophobic and not only that there was the global factor as well and thought about the carbon footprint. He wanted to do something radical and a plane would have been to easy, if you travel by train you meet different people and different cultures, its dealing with the unknown and with whatever may come your way.

On his journey he stopped in various different countries such as Brussels, Moscow and Tokyo. All with had different atmospheres and culture. His train in Brussels was as he described ‘sleek and fast’ but once he got on his train in Moscow it was a hot stuffy carriage, he really was experiences completely different surroundings during his journey. These surroundings did make him appreciate the UK more, not having the a mobile phone or the food he’s used to, in traveling it made him realise how good his life is at home and how billions of people in the World are suffering more than he is, which is pretty pro-founding on a journey like this.

Many would think meeting people in a situation in different countries could be difficult and you could feel isolated on your journey when your traveling alone, yet Gary said language wasn’t a barrier, he was able to mix with locals and see everyones kindness and generosity in his visits, the conversations involved talk of food, love and life. Topics of politics weren’t brought up as food, love and life are the things that unite people.

Gary’s mission was to travel to Taiwan without flying. He had no idea he would meet such interesting people and he especially remembers one man fondly, a Russian soldier named Slavich. He seemed cold at first, but one night he brought brandy and chocolates and shared his warmth with Gary, they spoke about their homes and lives, Slavich showed him photos of his girlfriend who he hadn’t seen in a year. He showed everyone has a story and his positive personality is what kept him going and hit home with Gary. He knew it would be easier to get along with people if you didn’t stereotype and this proved that thought perfectly.

When returning Gary’s perspective had changed from at the start of his journey, he had an empty feeling, he wasn’t illuminated, the realisation of no job, no home, no savings had got to him. He says he thinks the pessimism he had felt was from his mum and although he had to tackle finding a new job and home, he remained optimistic, if he journey taught him anything there are more people out there with worse problems then him.

The one thing I think that this journey really taught Gary is that ‘No matter what tomorrow brings, it’ll be okay.’ Paul Therox’s conclusion of optimistic fatalism and although sometimes he thought himself a pessimist but the experience he had proved is that destiny in life is to be positive and not optimism. You have to trust the good in people and that people do help you out and that you do have to put some trust in human kind. So when looking back at what he would change about his journey, one thing came to mind rathe than second class he would try third or fourth, just to make it a bit harder.

Sunday Times Review.

Extreme Midwifery.

Midwife Suzanne Saunder Bledell from Sutton, Coldfield took a trip that ended up being the most challenging two weeks of her life. In the BBCs new series, toughest place to be a, Suzanne visits Liberia, South Africa to try her job in completely different surroundings and in the toughest of conditions. Seven years ago Liberia had the worst civil war in African history. 250,000 died and child soldiers as young as ten had control of who lived and who died. Liberia has been struggling to rebuild their country since. At the beginning of the episode Suzanne delivers a baby called Jessica, her mum describes childbirth as ‘The best six hours of my life.’ Skip forward two weeks, women in Liberia are having stillbirths, babies without any means of antibiotics and dyeing without medicines to save lives. The conditions the midwifes have to work in show a lot of strength and character, in some cases it can take 2 hours to get to work, and once they’re there they are under a lot of pressure, two midwifes to seven patients leaves them struggling with a heavy work load. Suzanne, bares such different culture issues in terms of food, living and equipment, the hospital had two incubators but were unaware how to use them until Suzanne showed them. Suzanne particularly struggles when one women has a still birth, although this is a frequent occurrence for women in Liberia Suzanne worries about the lack of sensitivity when the women is left to stay in the same room as women who are having abortions, their babies and someone with diarrhea. Suzanne has many different emotions, happiness of her welcome and the strength of community and family in Liberia, but it becomes too much when a woman asks her to take one of her children because she can’t afford to look after them anymore.  

Exceptional Culture-Empire Magazine.

Factory Girl-2006-George Hickenlooper

Sixties fashion icon, Edie Sedgwick has been once again immortalised for the public. A film about the once named Superstar of her generation has been released and Director George Hickenlooper has created a film of the ups and downs of the icons life. The film shows the rise to her success and fame and the fall including her drug addiction and her relationship with Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan. Sienna Millers performance makes you feel as if you’re watching the real Edie Sedgwick, her mannerisms and accent have been copied perfectly after researching the films she had once made. The film makes you view the life and relationships of Edie in a completely different way to how it was portrayed in media in the 60’s. The film shows how Andy’s factory influenced her and her drugs, friends and fame. It’s a really sad story that has been depicted brilliantly.

One Day-2009-David Nicholls

 A fascinating story about love and friendship. One day has been described as one of the best books of the year, and I definitely think the book deserves the rave reviews it’s been receiving recently. The book that’s now a Hollywood blockbuster is possibly one of the saddest love stories I’ve read and the film doesn’t do the books story justice. The build up of intimate letters makes a connection between the character Emma and Dex that left me rooting for their relationship, david Nicholls created a whirlwind emotions to lead up to a tragic ending, leaving the person reading with a feeling of ‘carpe diem,’ seize the day. Although the book is a classic love story it doesn’t follow the conventions of a typical love story. The twists and turns in the book are unpredictable and true to form, a book to leave a tear in even the most unexpected on faces.

Nirvana Nevermind exhibition-September 2011

 Here we are now, entertain us. Remember the band that used those words to help change rock music. Twenty years on from the release of the 90’s grunge band Nirvana’s album Nevermind an exhibition opened up in London’s brick lane to celebrate the turning moment for grunge. Nirvana being one of my favorite bands because of their writing and the movement they created. I had to go and see the exhibition for myself. The exhibition was small which made it feel personal, moving and intimate.

The small collection of 90’s front page papers were displayed accompanied by perfectly framed images of the bands live performances left the exhibition left me feeling nostalgic. The plaques along side a broken guitar kobain himself had smashed during a gig made the exhibition personal and special, giving personal views on how the band had made such an impact on his life showed the band had touched so many lives in the messages they spread.

Leader for The Sun.

Look to a future without riots.

 The England riots were hard to escape in August of this year, and although they are now over what will stop them from happening again?

Although the police had lost control of the riots back in August the rioting finally ended its turmoil days later, but now it’s time to stop them from happening again in the future.

One of the biggest break downs of the riots was the relationship between the police and civilians. It’s important to get rid of the ‘us’ and ‘them’ divide.

The only way for us to change the divide is to increase the communication on both sides. A community meeting which include leaders and police would break down the divide we have.

Community projects and events would help to make sure people respect their community and take pride in where they live and not want to trash it or burn it down.

In order to make us feel like we have equal society bankers who make millions should be taxed as the rest of us do. It’s true some of the Country are struggling to survive and are still paying their taxes.  

The gulf between rich and poor is the highest it’s been since Queen Victoria was on the thrown and people feel they have been bailing out the irresponsibility of the rich.

Noticeably a lot of the rioters were younger citizens and in this case more youth projects and clubs would keep kids off of the streets and show them that people care. It would help them see there is a future and keep them away from gangs.

Many will say these changes could prevent such a thing from happening again, and if we can learn anything from the riots it is to listen to what they were saying and make a change.