It should not be forgotten that Blackpool's meteoric rise since being brought back from the brink by owner/custodian Simon Sadler has been achieved using a considerable number of players whose respective journeys through the divisions have been equally expeditious, if perhaps more hasty than originally planned. After the dust has settled on what was a…
A Season of Triumphs, Fine Margins, and What Ifs for Blackpool FC
That was the season that was. After a sour end to a campaign which in August threatened to be one of toil and chastening defeats, in the end Blackpool never looked to be in the relegation trouble which most of the pundits and those supposedly 'in the know' suggested would be the outcome of their…
This season the Championship is a paper tiger; will Blackpool F.C. feel they should have done even better?
When Kenny Dougall's two goals at Wembley nine months ago sent Blackpool back to the Championship a lot sooner than Head Coach Neil Critchley and owner Simon Sadler could have anticipated, the reality of (re)joining what has become a Premier League 2.0/Premier League-lite immediately dawned on all with tangerine in their hearts. Dialling back nearly…
Wildschoenau: what I miss, and why I may never return
Wildschoenau: Wild and Beautiful. This Tirolean high valley has much to live up to, and delivers in digger-sized buckets. It is though the use of the aforementioned construction apparatus that is slowly dragging the valley back into the pack, from its once nonpareil position of being perfectly formed and relatively untouched by human intervention. It…
Bohinj: what I miss, and the things that I look forward to seeing
The last two years have been a serious reality check for globetrotters, frequent fliers, and those who usually got away as often as they could. Travellers now inhabit that rather uncertain no man's land between unrestricted movement and outright lockdown, with day to day pandemic-related uncertainty impacting upon decision-making of whether to venture forth, and…
Oetzi the Iceman – 30 years on
Thirty years is a long time in the lives of most people but to Oetzi, the mummified iceman monikered as such due to the location of his discovery, it represents barely a blink of an eye in the timeline from when he roamed the high alps to the present day, via his introduction to the…
A personal odyssey within western Shropshire and Mid-Wales
Shrewsbury Castle & Shropshire Regimental Museum Picturesque side streets of Shrewsbury The remaining features of the 11th century Clun Castle. The more manorial 13th century Stokesay Castle Bucolic examples of Shropshire countryside straight from the pages of A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad Welshpool's Powis Castle, gardens, and surroundings The Powys-based, man-made, and almost Bohinj-like…
Kobla ski resort must seek relevance and a realistic rebirth
It is several years, perhaps half a decade ago, since I last wrote about the proposed Bohinj 2864 ski centre, an ambitious project to not only reactivate the redundant Kobla 'resort' above Bohinjska Bistrica, but to develop it into a Tirol-type winter sports' destination that are ten-a-penny in neighbouring Austria. Slovenia has never sought to…
Third time’s a charm: Hotel Bohinj finally lives up to its name and location
My first memories of Bohinj's then Hotel Kompas stem from the late-1990's, a time when Slovenia was still in its infancy as an independent state. Although the era of Marshal Tito's rule over what by 1991 became the former Yugoslavia had concluded on his death in 1980, Slovenia's briefly fraught secession from the collective of…
Hotel Zlatorog: Decline, fall, and rebirth
The imminent demolition of Bohinj's iconic Hotel Zlatorog is now the best and realistically only course of action available to an ailing edifice left to wither on the vine by its previous owner. Once favoured by Marshal Tito as a bucolic setting in which to receive fellow Non-Aligned and Communist leaders when Slovenia formed the…
Air Adriatic falls at the first hurdle in its quest to replace Adria Airways
Should a country the size of Slovenia expect to have a national airline? A nation of just over two million citizens is not an ideal market for an established flag carrier or one that is considering starting up, and had the former Yugoslav republic not previously been serviced by the now defunct Adria Airways, I…
Ashgabat: Expensive living rings hollow in a deserted land of make believe
For most expats, Turkmenistan or for the purposes of this exercise its capital Ashgabat, would not rank highly on a list of locations they expect to find themselves. The hydrocarbons sector is heavily underpinned by foreign nationals brought in by countries sitting on a wealth of gas and oil, and accounts for a significant proportion…
Wildschoenau development precedents threaten its wild and beautiful reputation
When I returned to the Wildschoenau three years ago after an absence of over a decade, I was quickly reminded why my 2007 vacation in Niederau was perhaps up there with the best I have ever had. In the twenty years I have been travelling to the Austrian Alps throughout Salzburgerland, Carinthia, and Tirol a…
Lake Bohinj sets the agenda for responsible, sustainable tourism
The four sides of Lake Bohinj afford visitors diverse pleasures and limitations, but the body of water itself has become the subject of much debate along a common theme: limiting the impact on its ecosystem from outside influences, both human and otherwise. The road along the southern edge of Bohinjsko Jezero links Ribcev Laz, where…
The Tirol’s Oetztal – where social distancing is an established bonus
For those accustomed to overseas travel the last twelve months has been a time of great frustration, but also represented an opportunity to reflect on the places we have missed so much, and what makes them special to us. It is now twenty years since my first visit to the Oetztal, which served as a…
Abadia Retuerta LeDomaine, Sardoncillo, Valladolid, Spain
Nestled within north-western Spain wine country, a truly five-star experience awaits those staying in this former 12th century abbey. Opened in 2012, Abadia Retuerta LeDomaine offers sophisticated, contemporary accommodation and attentive service within natural surroundings as luxuriant as this converted former home of Premonstratensian Order canons. Guests staying in the 27 rooms and 3 suites, many…
The Internet of Things(IoT) revolution will only be limited by any failures to secure end user data
Such has been its runaway success and the seemingly endless possibilities of its application, future developments within the Internet of Things(IoT) sphere of interrelated connectivity were unlikely to be disrupted by an unprecedented pandemic which has arguably future proofed its purpose to control devices not previously thought of as ripe for ‘internetization’. As tentative steps…
Ballard and Simms the standout performers of Blackpool’s loan rangers
As the dust continues to settle since Blackpool FC brought their 2020/2021 League 1 season to a close in perhaps one of the most stunning turnarounds in the club's history, thoughts have inevitably turned as to how promotion will affect the squad's makeup in the Championship, which of the players won't make the cut, and…
League One play offs: Blackpool FC entertain the football world and quieten any of coach Critchley’s lingering critics
In my junior years, Lincoln biscuits represented a rare treat that to this day are sadly missed, both for their unique taste and ubiquity of availability. Putting aside the obvious but lazy dreaming spires and punting on the Isis(river) cliches, Oxford is brought to my mind for reasons of Robert Maxwell, the old Manor Ground,…
Bohinj strives for greater balance between agriculture and sustainable tourism
One of my earliest memories of vacationing in Slovenia's Bohinj region was of a headscarf-wearing lady of indeterminate age, perhaps in her late fifties or early sixties, cutting pasture grass by hand; in other words, with a scythe - before placing the presumed silage in a back-mounted basket. Now, if I was to ask you…
Alpine Adventures, Soccer, Central Asian Autocracies & Secessionist Politics 
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