Firstly, to those of you who’ve been waiting with bated breath for me to kick start the blogging, may I offer my humble apologies. Frankly, too much fun mixed with just a dash of trepidation has gotten in the way of me contributing to this, my first blog.

For context, I should explain that Same Small World At Your Heels was set up to document my ventures, adventures and misadventures on my first world tour, which I set off on shortly after Christmas ’12. Those amongst you who are fans of quite spectacular music might recognise the title which is taken from lyrics in The National’s Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks. After months of deliberating, it came to me at an outing to All Tomorrow’s Parties with assorted members of Team Awesome and a truckload of lager. I hope, dear reader, that you enjoy.

And so, the dazzling roll call of countries is as follows; Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Belize, Guatemala, US and Canada. Dependent on time, Jamaica or the Bahamas may well be thrown in for good measure. Join me as I mispronounce Spanish words, encounter the kind of wildlife that fills me with terror, hunt high and low for pubs showing the City games in the middle of the night and grapple with altitude sickness. Through it all, I’ll let you know what the soundtrack was, be it physically playing or simply an earworm traversing my cerebrum…unless it was shit, then I’ll mainly suggest better soundtracks.

To sum up, if you like travel, music, football and me then hopefully you’ll enjoy this blog. If you don’t, then I hope you kept your receipt…