Announcing my new book: Trials & Tea Ceremonies: Misadventures in Far Away Places. READ MORE Basho rewrites: Rime of the Frostmaiden – Sunblight READ MORE A Wild Sheep Chase READ MORE Beijing and the Great Wall - Our final days in China READ MORE The Iron Church - Why Do People Quit Fitness Training? READ MORE Critical Praise for "Trials & Tea Ceremonies" READ MORE The Hidden Context in some Great Movies READ MORE Children of the Red Rose READ MORE Varanasi - City of the Hindus READ MORE You're the Pretender - a Tier 1 tribute READ MORE Udaipur READ MORE Basho rewrites: Rime of the Frostmaiden - Destruction's Light. READ MORE "The Backroad to Bures" READ MORE “Morgan” – Digital Watercolour READ MORE What is Daoism/Taoism? READ MORE OMEGA Speedmaster Professional “Moonwatch” review READ MORE The Storm King's Thunder and the Dragon's Bane READ MORE Jawbreaker - Ultimate AI Upscaled 4k edition READ MORE Things Will Change - a Basho travel film READ MORE Yaks for tea and Tibetan Temples. Living the high life in Shangri-la READ MORE Harvest Bales, Late Summer Mist READ MORE Varanasi City of Gods - Special Edition READ MORE Chan Buddhism, Daoism and Zen - Journey through the East READ MORE Waterdeep: Dragon Heist | Dungeons & Dragons READ MORE Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, green tea and finding inner peace READ MORE The day I met the Buddha, and killed him READ MORE “Countryside walk” – Digital Watercolour READ MORE The Purpose of Travel - Now Published! READ MORE The Alam Clock Lesson READ MORE The Iron Church: Why Most 'AI' Fitness Apps Are Just Marketing (And How I Built One That Actually Works) READ MORE
Welcome to the Outside Context Homepage2025-10-28T11:33:16+00:00

About Outsidecontext.com

Articles and films from Outside Context have been licensed for use by airlines, featured in Webby award winning phone apps, published as degree level English exam questions, played on Indian evening news and in global advertising by Google.

Harvest Bales, Late Summer Mist

Painted from an evening walk through Suffolk. The almost-pink mist and long shadows, combined with the sweep of the field to the epic sky above, created a true and warm sense of space and clarity. Prints and full landscape portfolio: https://www.saatchiart.com/en-gb/bashomatsuo

The Iron Church – Why Do People Quit Fitness Training?

The Four Goals That Run Every Training Programme — And The Adaptive Engine That Serves Them When a new disciple opens Iron Church, we don't ask them to pick a "split." We ask them what they actually want. There are six options on the screen, but four real adaptations underneath. The New UI for the Iron Church "Aesthetics" is simply hypertrophy with a specific visual slant. "Just get me training" is a default for the undecided. But the four truly meaningful goals, established as distinct physiological processes by sport-science literature, are: Get Stronger Build Muscle Lose Weight Feel Healthier Each one trains a different system. Each one has a different evidence base. Each one demands a different discipline, a different volume profile, and an entirely different relationship to fatigue. The most common reason lifters stall isn't a lack of effort—it's training for one adaptation while expecting another. A powerlifting [...]

Announcing my new book: Trials & Tea Ceremonies: Misadventures in Far Away Places.

A hilarious and heartfelt journey for anyone who has ever wondered: "Is this it?" What happens when the life you've built no longer feels like your own? For Basho, turning thirty felt less like a milestone and more like "a splinter in the mind." A series of personal crises convinced him and his partner, Cesca, to make a radical choice. They walked away from their careers, put their lives in storage, and set off on a year-long, unscripted adventure across a dozen countries to answer one question: Is there a better way to live? Their path takes them from the rugged shores of Australia to the spiritual heart of India and the serene temples of Japan. But between the moments of transcendent beauty, a deeper, wilder journey unfolds. They must face down spitting alpacas, chaotic farm hosts, a terrifying encounter with the world’s largest spider in a Laotian toilet, [...]

A Wild Sheep Chase

**Caution this post contains spoilers for The Wild Sheep Chase!** When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons and Dragons with, it being the 80’s and the game not being popular here in the United [...]

Jodhpur

Cesca left me snoozing in our room and went out to the roof top café/restaurant to take some photos of [...]

Spamalot!

"Spamalot!" "Spamalot!" "Spamalot!" "It's only a stage show." "Shhh. Knights, I bid you welcome to the West End! Let us [...]

The American War

They say the better part of travelling is meeting the people from the countries you visit.  They do not say how much that meeting will affect you, neither how heartbreaking such encounters can be.  The first time I met a one legged man in Laos, while visiting COPE – the charity for the war injured, I asked him how he lost his leg? “The American’s took it,” he replied.

iPhone Review: the best office PDA ever

Many people have jumped both onto and off of the iPhone release wagon. First it was touted as the next big thing, a mind blowing, life changing and stylish entry into the phone market. Bringing with it some amazing connectivity apps and the Apple pledge “that if you used this phone then you were officially cool” Even the price wasn't putting too many people off.

Bodh Gaya Part 2 and onwards to Sarnath

Eating food in India is no joke. On one hand there are high-end coffee cafes that have prices that could only make sense to the gainfully employed. High-end coffee needs to be carefully metered out as it is too comforting and familiar a western experience to eat in such a cafe. Not only does it take you away from your local-encounters in this mighty country, but also takes a large amount of Indian coin from your purse and that directly affects how much you have to spend on the fun things.

Basho’s art 1992 to 2011

I have finally finished a long time project (no more procrastination for me!) to scan in all my paintings, drawings and sketches from the last 15 years and post them up here. After all they were not doing any good in my case on my cupboard!

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