Adventurer Reaches Covent Garden Shocker

Hooked up with blokewithlotsofjobs last night, and went to a book launch for Benedict Allen's new book which is all about how you survive in extreme situations. After a very dusty introduction from his editor or publisher, Allen recounted some of his tales of being shot at by headhunters in the Amazon, and being abandoned by his guides in the Rain Forest hundreds of miles from any sort of civilisation, and falling down an abyss with his pack of dogs in Siberia.

It was all very British self-deprecating stuff, and made all the men in the room shuffle a bit about how boring their lives are, and most of the women in the room probably fall in love with him. Allen concluded with some rather random - but fuck it, he's been there so I believe him - thoughts on the fact that it is only belief that gets you out of such dangerous situations. He seemed a really cool guy. blokewithlotsofjobs - one of which is teaching at Bath Art School - wants to get Allen to go down to talk to his students to shake them up a bit and get them thinking beyond getting a job with MTV or designing DJ Shadow's next album cover.

And then blokewithlotsofjobs and I went to a really terrible pub in Covent Garden and drank a few warm pints of watery lager and talked about how expensive houses are in London and whether or not life coaching can really change your life. Sitting in that nasty pub seemed a pretty pointless urban experience having just heard about Allen's adventures. Don't get me wrong. There was no epiphany. I'm not about to set up an expedition to the Amazon or go and try and find a lost tribe in South America. But it did remind me that there is a little more to life than London and nasty pubs and mildly pissed Austrian tourists smoking cheap cigars over half-eaten 'pub grub' fish and chips that looked like it all came out of the same packet. When did Covent Garden get so 70s again? Maybe it's the Christmas decorations.

I imagine Allen goes to pubs, and sits next to Austrians, and worries about what he does. But - very much in the mad Brit tradition of it's there so it needs to be done - he struck me as someone who really knew what he was doing, even if he does manage to get almost killed every time he goes travelling. I was a little disappointed that he sells himself as a motivational speaker on his website, but I guess adventurers need to earn their living in between adventures. And unlike a lot of motivational speakers, whose literature I have been researching for this website I am writing (Don't ask. I'll tell you when the site goes live.) he does actually appear to have something to talk about. And some experiences that are worth learning from, one of which was just a gentle reminder to me not to go back to Covent Garden for another decade or two.