An American in Leeds

"You're not bored, you just don't do enough side quests" is something I read on the internet one day. For those that haven't lost hours of their lives to video games, a side quest is an optional activity that has little to nothing to do with the main plot of the game. Doing the side quest may get you some extra XP or fun extras, but doesn't usually affect the main game play.  I had almost every Friday off in July, August and September. I was, in fact, feeling a bit bored and stuck in my life. I decided to use some of these Fridays to do side quests.  Each side quest had to be something outside the "main storyline" of my life and had to meet certain criteria:  It wasn't overly complicated. It had to be easy to get to, not start too early, not be expensive (under £25) and be 1 to 2 activities tops. It took a maximum of 5 hours to complete. It wasn't something that I had done recently (last 6 months).  I started easy. I hadn't been to the ci...

The first thing I did after finalising my decision to take a job and move to the UK was to buy a digital camera. It was 2008. I bought a Canon Powershot in brown because the brown was half price.  If you were the going out type in the late aughts (I was), you had one of these or something similar.  And you have loads of blurry photos now stuck on a dead external drive or laptop.         It's a simple point and shoot camera. It's light. It fits in your pocket. It's nearly indestructible. It takes great outdoors photos:  From the only time I did the Yorkshire 3 Peaks, Spring Bank Holiday 2009.  Left: At the top of Ingleborough. Right: Coming down off Whernside. I did the 24 mile walk in 11 hours and 57 minutes. The only reason I did it was to prove some sort of point to my new coworkers. That's a story for another time.  I bought this camera to document my adventures in the UK. I took a lot of photos of mundane things, like washing up liqu...