Great to have this back.

Travel and dogs is the best combo.

I appreciate those words, lots more of both to follow for sure.

[Settling in Romania]

Settling in Romania


We arrived in August of this year minus our beloved dog Lulu who was forced to spend an extended holiday in Almaty, Kazakhstan due to the plethora of red tape to be overcome regarding her pet passport.

Here is our magnificent beast... she's some kind of maltese/shitzu cross of which the exact percentages I am unsure of.

Click to see full-size image.

I flew back to Almaty, collected Lulu, bribed various government officials and procured a Kazakh pet passport.

Click to see full-size image.

Throughout the preceding months I had heard and read numerous horror stories from people trying to get non EU animals into Europe. It's all about the threat of rabies apparently. All animals need to be micro-chipped and scanned at specified airports and any minor problems such as the airport's scanner was broken means you were sent back on your way.

Click to see full-size image.

Moving from a dark green to a light green was seemingly impossible without a ton of paperwork or a spell in quarantine. Due the the Kazakh proclivity to accept Tenge for dodgy paperwork their official stuff had zero credibility so I was worried as I disembarked clutching a pet carrier containing a nervous Lulu at Henri Coanda Airport in Bucharest.

I had been advised to seek out the veterinary office which I assumed would resemble this.....



I arrive at human passport control and it went like this

Me: Hello (hands over human passport and tries to look as little like a Cali cartel member as possible. Seriously what facial expression do people go for when greeting passport control? Smiling seems to invite suspicion as a double bluff)
Lady officer: Hello
Me: I also have my dog here
Officer: Can I see the pet passport
Me: (Hands over Lulu's passport)
Officer: (leans over counter whilst looking at the optional photo in the passport that I had glued in myself) Oh she's so cute (hands back passport) Have a pleasant stay in Romania
Me: ....................... (quietly walks through, collects my bag and drives home)

That was it, she looked at a photo I had DIY'd in myself. No micro chip scan, no rabies injection certificate scrutiny, no brown envelopes passed discreetly under the table (How I miss Kazakhstan), absolutely nothing.

So that's the story of Lulu and also the laxity of EU borders. I quickly swapped her Kazakh passport for an official EU one and now she is free to travel anywhere in the world.

Should we be worried at the lack of stringent borders in the EU? Probably, but I had my dog back and I didn't care at all.

Click to see full-size image.

[Logos part 2]

Logos part 2

Town and city logos should distill a place into the very essence of existence. They should entice, excite and imbue your subconscious until a visit is a mere formality.

Exhibit A

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Fantastically, this really is the official logo of Burnley. A snip as part of a 110 grand re-branding scheme.

Better efforts

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

So come on city of Bucharest, get your finger out and give us a decent logo!

I still want to know who to thank for pointing out that the London Olympics logo looks like Lisa Simpson doing a Monica Lewinsky!

That's somebody's daughter!

Click to see full-size image.

[The good]

A quick aside before I head out for a couple of hours work.

I got talking to a  Romanian girl I work with about the lack of tourists here in Bucharest compared with other European capitals. Beaches and mountains are close enough, there are some (infamous) historical sites to visit and the city itself is typical gritty and trendy.
After much deliberation we decided it's solely down to the fact Bucharest doesn't have a logo! Branding and marketing are so important in all walks of life.

This little chat got me thinking more about logos and although I have no evidence I would guess they have evolved from the old(and current) Olympic bid logos.

A nostalgic trawl through history followed....

The good





The bad





The unfathomably expensive

Click to see full-size image.

Designed by the good people of London based brand consultancy firm, Wolff Olins for the bargain price of $625,000

Finally, the nostalgic



More riveting logo talk to follow...

Never did deliver pictures of the Thug pub!

It's my biggest shame in this thread and probably stopped me starting it back up again sooner. I am combing my cloud to sate this request. Hopefully I can deliver on this. It's a great pub.

Wow just stumbled across this.
I was/am TommyPlus, the original author. I somehow lost the log in details and could not recover them no matter how hard I tried.
As some of you can tell from my new username I moved on from Kazakhstan to Romania for various reasons.
I think I will resurrect this blog and kindly request a title amendment from the powers that be.

Great stuff.

We can probably get the thread title amended - presumably you'd like "Romania and stuff"?

Succinct, I like it.

Welcome back.

Post often.

Thanks man, I will try my best

[April 20th 2016 - November 26th 2018]

April 20th 2016 - November 26th 2018

My job as an English language tutor was fascinating, rewarding and highly paid. I knew I wanted a career in education and I also knew I would need an education degree to achieve my goals. I absolutely didn't want to move back to the UK to do this so I settled on this fascinating institution.....



I am currently studying a BA in Education(primary studies) and I am absolutely loving being a student again. I am fascinated with the material in the course and can't speak highly enough for the OU.

My wife loves to travel and enjoys ticking off multiple countries wherever possible. Whimsically I presented this to her one Christmas many years ago......

Click to see full-size image.

The only problem was Amazon lied to me. The cost was not the $6.95 that they advertised because it's currently cost me approximately 50 grand to scratch off 47 countries on the map. Since the last time I updated we've visited Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Sweden, Denmark and Italy.

Amazingly we are missing a multitude of European countries so we decided to take jobs in Bucharest and take advantage of it's location in Europe and the access to cheap flights as well as an easier route home in case I need to return to the UK for my studies(It turns out I won't need to).
We flew Bucharest to Ciampino in Rome for $30 each. Incredible value. Greece is next on the agenda in April after a Christmas holiday to be spent exploring Romania.
It feels great to write up a small post on here. It's abreactive(?) for me and I definitely want to try and make this blog interesting again.

More to come on our initial thoughts of Romania in a future post....

Bye for now

Click to see full-size image.

Wow just stumbled across this.
I was/am TommyPlus, the original author. I somehow lost the log in details and could not recover them no matter how hard I tried.
As some of you can tell from my new username I moved on from Kazakhstan to Romania for various reasons.
I think I will resurrect this blog and kindly request a title amendment from the powers that be.

                        Chris Woods

                       Jon Woodgate

        Paolo Wanchope       George Weah

                         Ian Wright