Meeting Philip
This evening I had the honor of getting together with Philip Blazdell, his father Frank and Naho from Japan. Philip has been one of BootsnAll’s most faithful contributors with his articles on Japan, Brasil and an array of other places.
I phoned him up earlier today and he told me he was arranging to do a Jack the Ripper walk at 6pm at Tower Hill station. The tour didn’t start till 7pm but we had to leave time for a drinky. I must admit I was somewhat in awe of Philip (world traveler, smart guy, PhD, witty and self assured) and was going over his articles in my mind beforehand (’I'm going to meet the guy who wrote those Brasil articles…..Mr Fortaleza!’).
Philip turned out to be a very humble guy who actually offered that he wasn’t a good traveler (I disagree). Frank, his dad, told me he was amazed that Philip was the author of his articles. We chatted about the awesome members we have and how cool it is to be involved with a great bunch of people who share the travel urge.
The tour was $5 a piece (that’s pounds), lasted 2 hours and was worth it. The guide was extremely knowledgeable about the history of London and projected his presentation in a dramatic and interesting way to the 60 people on the tour. I was surprised that on a cold and very rainy night so many people came out. My jacket was drenched and by the time we made it to the pub my hands were so cold I had trouble picking the money out of my wallet (no that’s not an excuse).
Frank kicked us off with some Scottish Grouse whiskey which I accompanied with a Guinness or 2. Very fun time and our bartender, who was Polish provided extra entertainment by giving us the inside scoop on Poland. She almost did a somersault when I asked if she liked pirogies (I’ve had one myself, they are a Polish delicacy - crescent shaped dough with cheese and potato). Philip was in fine form and had the best line of the night when she asked him what he was doing at the university of Warsaw ( ……’professor’ ). Philip taught in the same room as previous Nobel prize winners.
Here’s a selection of photos from the evening.
Old London street in the Whitechapel area.
Pub at the finish of the walk.
Enjoying the company of our Polish bartender
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Comments
Philip,
Come and visit us in Bali ya bloody alkie.
nick
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BootBlog is the company blog of the BootsnAll Travel Network, a company that has been connecting travellers since 1998. Our goal is to inspire, educate and cultivate an organic community of independent travellers. But what does that mean? Well, we love to travel and we love to connect other travellers who have the desire to get out and see this great world of ours. BootBlog will showcase what is going on around the office, around the company and within our community of travellers.Top Categories
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It was great to finally meet Nick. I mean, we have been emailing for 5 years or so and we had never actually met…
I always assumed he had two heads or something
After a beery night I came to realise how much effort must have gone into Bootsnall by the boys over the years. I dont think many people really know the whole story of the founding of Boots and the amount of sacrafice and hard work that it has taken the boys to get where we are today. If I met have as many companies with their determination and vision I am sure we would all be richer..
The interesting thing to note that after 5 or so years the boys still maintain their vision of building a community of like minded people - I guess if they werent into travel - they could always start their own religion - how about it Sean??? - such is their apparant drive and belief…
I guess the ultimate ackolade is that we are all still out there travelling and reporting back to Bootsnall on our adventures….Long may this continue…