My education, for all intents and purposes, was stellar, and I was given every opportunity to become a high-flying ‘city boy’. Yet, when I look back, I think I made more effort at avoiding that outcome than to embrace the corporate lifestyle and become ‘successful’. I did corporate, and literally mourned my death every day to work. But then, can anyone blame me when my first memories are of a deserted beach in the Canary Islands where I spent my first few formative years, exploring the coastline, finding pristine lizard skeletons and splashing in the inches deep water whenever the moon had waxed and brought the sea up over the beach to be slowly cooked to a pleasant 30 degrees allowing me to float in gigantic bath pools with no one in sight for 20km in either direction?

My fascination for the outdoors has always held me captive, although TV has fought a good fight to claim the same title. Thankfully the Gods have somehow always nudged me outside, or maybe it was my sugar overdose that forced me to burn off the nervous energy. Either way, I now have a collection of gear that more or less leaves me equipped for the apocalypse. The trick, however, much like sex, is knowing what to do with it.

The intention of this section of the blog is to share some healthy tips on how to enjoy the outdoors somewhat more, and maybe even help some timid types to regain some of those lost talents that sedentary city life strips from us. Seriously, if you don’t know how to make a fire without matches, that’s part of your evolutionary heritage you’ve just flushed away. Trust me, there is satisfaction in being able to achieve some of these survival traits.