I used to have another blog...

I used to have another blog.

It was, in theory, all about travel. I have, after all, done a lot of travelling. The trouble was that while I was travelling I hadn't the time to keep up with it and when I stopped travelling I hadn't got anything new to write about. I managed a grand total of six entries in three years so it could hardly be described as a roaring success. It's still there and I could have resurrected it but I decided to start afresh. Clean slate and all that.

So here we are again. In the unlikely event that anyone is actually interested what can they expect to find here?

Well first of all there's travel – obviously. I can still write about places I went in the past and things I saw and did. It may not make up the entire blog as it did with the old one but I expect it will be there.

Next up there will be language. Specifically, there will be the English Language. I contribute to a number of word related sites, some in an ad-hoc fashion, others on a more frequent basis. Two of my favourites are wordcraft (a small but friendly community of logophiles) and the OEDILF (a glorious folly: writing a complete dictionary of the English Language as limericks). I expect there will be quite a lot of this.
Connected with this I expect there will be some work related entries. I'm an ESOL teacher and I'm bound to have some things to say about that.

There will certainly be some poetry – mine and other people's – as this is another lifelong interest.

There will probably be comments on books, TV and movies too.

And I'm pretty sure Alice In Wonderland will come into it somewhere along the line as that is less of an interest and more of an obsession. The shelves full of books, DVDs, CDs, board games, biographies, comics and so on testify that in this one area I'm certifiably bonkers.

What I'm hoping is that by not setting myself any specific brief I might be inclined to write more often.

And what does the title mean?

Glad you asked. Back in 2002, in a melancholy mood ,I entered a poem for the Wolverhampton City Arts Festival. It didn't win (that went to a poem by Emma Pursehouse) but I was one of the runners up and my poem, along with the other prize-winners. was displayed on the local trams for a month.

Right now it's too long since I did any travelling and too unlikely that I'll be doing any in the near future. I'm feeling a bit trapped again.

So here's the poem.

The Hitting The Road Again Blues

I got the dirt track, dust bowl, hit the road again blues.
It's time to put back on my boots, lose my city shoes.
The road is singing its siren song for me
It's only when I'm movin' that I'm ever really free.
I got the dirt track, dust bowl, hit the road again blues.
If I stay here in the city, I think I'm gonna blow a fuse
I have places to go, I have things I gotta see
It's only when I'm moving that I know who I want to be.
I got the dirt track, dust bowl, hit the road again blues
I got the dirt track, dust bowl, hit the road again blues.