Peterborough – Jason likes to travel

Summer of culture in the city of culture – Peterborough

Hello dear readers! How are things!? Hopefully 2026 is going well so far. I’m back with another blog post and this week it’s a post focusing a little closer to home!

As I continue with the 2022 adventures, I thought it’d be fun to look back at a fun birthday weekend basking in some local culture. By pure coincidence, last week Peterborough then announced its intentions to bid for the UK’s “city of culture” in 2029. It’s funny how the timing married up but such news changed my plans for this post and now you’re treated to a much longer post – aren’t you pleased!?

Before we get to that though, I need to give you more context and a little “ProudOfPeterborough” story!

“It’s always an essay with you, isn’t it Jason?”
“Shh..”

Okay. So some of you will know that although I have spent much of my life living in Peterborough, I’m actually a Londoner at heart. It has shaped me in many ways and for the longest time caused a little caveat to make it clear that I am a Londoner!

“Where are you from mate?”
“Well.. I live in Peterborough but I’m FROM London. London, alright? I’m not Peterborough born and bred!”

Despite being so in-your-face London (myself and Danny Dyer are practically one!), I now acknowledge that the subsequent 28 years have possibly also had some bearing on my life (“take away his Londoner badge!!”).

Peterborough has repeatedly been voted the worst town in the UK to live and even with my London-tinted glasses, I’ve long felt sympathetic to such a lack of love for Peterborough. It’s not a town for starters so lets make that award null and void straight off the bat. Peterborough is a city!

The reputation has always felt somewhat harsh to me though. Don’t get me wrong, for the longest time I’ve dismissed Peterborough’s appeal myself but in true British fashion – it’s not that bad, is it?

Look, it’s not London of course! London is and always will be the greatest city in the world but every place in this world falls second to London. I blogged about and compared New York City to London a few years ago and rather fairly, I thought, judged that NYC fell just short on the grounds that “it wasn’t London”. A damning verdict but “them’s the rules” a perfectly reasonable judgment.

Anyway, point being that even as someone with no real skin in the game (“28 years Jason..”) I’ve felt that Peterborough’s reputation has been a little unjustified over the years.

One of my own gripes with Peterborough is that I’m a city boy. I’ve been to London three times already this year and it’s a city that has it all. Comparing the millions of inhabitants of London and the endless life that comes with that, I’ve always considered Peterborough a little quiet for my liking. A city of roughly 200,000, I’m practically living in the sticks, you know?

Travel plays a big part in changing your views, both globally and closer to home. I had a jam-packed 2017 of travel. I kicked off the year in Paris, I blagged a work trip to Scotland on the last day of February which spanned in to March. In April I had a multi-city break in the USA, in May I went to Germany and then I had to wait until August for the next trip!

Two travel-free months! What the fuck!? I’d be lying if I said that on June 30th I hadn’t been tempted to skip work and maintain my “trip a month” quota but being a true professional I ~~bitterly~~ went to work.

It did pose a question though.What was I supposed to do for the next two months? My other big passion was football of course and which two months of the year does football take a break? June and July – nightmare!

I could have moped around for two months, resenting how difficult life can be when you have to go two whole months without an overseas trip and having to work for a living but I did the next best thing and looked towards my own doorstep.

As dreaded as the work day is, I made the best of my lunch hours and working in the city centre and repeatedly took a little lunch-time outing over the summer.

Isn’t the cathedral gorgeous? Aren’t we lucky to have a free museum to visit? The bishop gardens are just lovely aren’t they? Who doesn’t want to spend their afternoons eating their lunch sat besides the river Nene? Peterborough is much nicer than it gets credit for.

I was inspired! I was also particularly fond of Instagram at the time and an idea came to me – a dedicated Instagram page sharing all things positive about Peterborough. There’s so much negativity about the city, particularly from its inhabitants, and yet there’s plenty to love about it. All I needed was a name – something alliterative maybe?

P.P..

I deliberated a few different P words but none of them fit just right. I was inching closer.. Pride? No, that’s not appropriate. Proud? PeterboroughProud? ProudPeterborough? ProudOfPeterborough.. Yes!

It wasn’t as alliterative as I’d originally hoped for but it rolled off the tongue nicely. Proud Of Peterborough! Instagram was very hashtag-focused at the time and I envisaged a hypothetical little community all contributing towards #ProudOfPeterborough (HA! Be careful what you wish for!).

On the 1st July 2017 I launched the account with this photo and thus ‘Proud Of Peterborough’ was born! A page dedicated solely to all things good about Peterborough.

I started with the best intentions. Alas, the travel and football lull didn’t last long. In August I went to Greece, September I visited Washington for the first time (hard to believe there was a time before Washington). In October I went to Madrid for football, followed by Germany for football in November and then a return to Edinburgh for Hogmanay / New Years. Alongside the domestic football, time with family and friends, work and other things I’d very quickly neglected ‘Proud Of Peterborough’

I think I only posted a handful of times within the first 9 months of the account and ProudOfPeterborough drifted off in to a little coma. Any time I’d try and resuscitate the bugger, I’d inevitably forget what the password was – “Never mind, just post this to my main Instagram account”

My love for Peterborough was growing but travel and football still dominated as much of my free time as humanly possible. Fast forward a few years and as some of you will remember, I decided to pack in my job and go “live” out in Washington for 3 months. Three whole months with Haleigh!

2020 was to be a year of great things. I left my job at the end of January and flew out to Washington in early February. Of course we all know what happened in 2020, it was an interesting time to be overseas and sadly I didn’t get a full three months as intended but nevertheless it was a big change.

I’m mindful I’ve not even got to the crux of this post yet so I’ll try keep this part short but long-story-short I was a Londoner going to live out in little Moses Lake for three months. Moses Lake with a population of 20,000-25,000! Fucking hell.

For those reading that don’t know me in real life, I am a quiet person. I’m not the most talkative, I am very much an introvert but there’s just something about big cities that I adore. I am fascinated by people. I love being in cities where life is happening around me and I feel a heavy dose of comfort in such cities.

London epitomises that perfectly, Peterborough has always felt a degree of too quiet for my liking. There are only 200,000 people here! Nothing happens, it’s too quiet. Blah, blah, blah.

and now I was off to temporarily live in Moses Lake? Haleigh would go off to work and what the hell was I supposed to do? I was surely going to die of boredom! My very first experience of Moses Lake three years earlier had seen me dropped off at a bus stop three miles outside of town – a good sign that out-of-towners do not visit Moses Lake for fun.

and yet I embraced it. I’m naturally an optimist. I think I’ll find the best in any situation and who knows what would happen with Haleigh, maybe Moses Lake would be a permanent home one day (it wasn’t).

I went to Moses Lake with the best intentions to make the best of it. Find some favourite hangout spots, try and acclimatise as best as I can. Just enjoy this rare experience of life somewhere else.

Truthfully, I know that this was aided by not having to work. Finance-permitting, I would retire tomorrow so three months without a job was bliss and definitely added to what was only a nine-week experience in Moses Lake but I loved it.

One of the things that struck me most about my time in Moses Lake was the community feel. I got a little swept up in it. I posted a nostalgia-heavy blog post a while back about it because there’s a little part of me that still misses Moses Lake. I know it’s not somewhere I’ll ever go back to but I have so many good memories of that place and one of the more vivid ones from that particular trip was drinking a beer in a carpet store whilst watching a rock band – one of the last “normal” pre-Covid experiences I had.

I should add that I don’t frequently spend my days drinking in carpet stores. This was part of Moses Lake’s inaugural “Brews and Tunes” festival but besides enjoyment, the overwhelming feeling was how has this happened here?

Logically, such a festival could not possibly happen in somewhere like Moses Lake and yet it had. It had because the community banded together and found a way to make it work and as a result I found myself beer-tasting my way through carpet stores, jewellery stores, estate agents and other such nonsensical locations to be hosting breweries from all over the Pacific Northwest.

I was truly inspired. Peterborough is ten times the size of Moses Lake. If Moses Lake can make me feel like this, what am I missing out on back home? There must be so many things going on back home that I have no knowledge of because I get swept up with the mundaneness of life and working.

Being in Moses Lake made me more appreciative of Peterborough and I vowed once I returned that I’d start doing more of this on my doorstep. Alas, Covid struck and soon enough we were in-and-out of repeated lockdowns which sadly disrupted my plans but the Covid experience just exacerbated everything Moses Lake had already made me feel. I was already chasing the best life has to offer and Covid keeping us cooped up made me even more determined.

2020 was a bit of a write-off really but come 2021 I was eagerly anticipating the country opening back up and trying to get back to some semblance of normality. The UK kicked off the year with yet another lockdown before things gradually started re-opening in the Spring. It was time to start rediscovering a city I’d already called home for 23 years!

In a rather strange coincidence, this new focus on Peterborough overlapped with upcoming local elections in the UK. Peterborough’s own Conservative MP was campaigining with a particularly interesting political slogan – #ProudOfPeterborough

“Wait, what!?”

Now, I’d neglected my dedicated Instagram page for almost three years at this point but Proud Of Peterborough? Is that not the name of that Peterborough page I had? Can I even remember the password for that?

I successfully logged in and BAM!

XYZ has liked your post, ABC is now following you, JCR has tagged you in this post. The #ProudOfPeterborough hashtag had been flooded with posts, mostly political posts admittedly but it was traffic nonetheless and felt like an opportunity.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t reconsider changing the name. I didn’t particularly want the Conservative association but ProudOfPeterborough rolled off the tongue nicely and well, its second coming had arrived.

In the months that followed I found that Peterborough has so much going on. It turns out that a little research and investigation goes a long way and that if you seek out all that Peterborough has to offer, it comes back at you tenfold. In addition to my own amusement, ‘ProudOfPeterborough’ went from strength to strength with more than just Conservative MP’s jumping on the bandwagon.

and that long-winded story brings us to the beginning of this particular post.

“Wait, this is the start of your story!?”

I know, I know. Sue me, I like to ramble.

The Moses Lake 2020 experience had inspired me, I’d spent 2021 rekindling love for a city I’ve loved more than probably even I realised and that continued to grow in 2022. People were far more receptive to ‘ProudOfPeterborough’ than I’d ever really anticipated and yet in my mind, I wasn’t really doing all that much.

I think we can all play roles within our communities and there’s certainly a need for different roles but my part was largely promoter or maybe “unofficial ambassador” to glam it up a little bit. Truthfully, there are so many creative and incredible people doing far more good for Peterborough than I was and whilst I helped spread the good word of some of these things going on, it felt a little strange to be reaping any praise for a fairly small effort on my part.

I wanted to step up my efforts a bit in 2022 and signed up to volunteer at the inaugural “Peterborough Celebrates” festival in the Spring. Sadly, days beforehand I caught Covid and as quickly as I’d signed up to volunteer I was then withdrawing. Typical!

One summer event I was particularly looking forward to was a touring exhibit of London’s Natural History Museum – hosting a T-Rex exhibit in Peterborough’s stunning cathedral. I sought out the dates to spread the word, jotted them down but the thing that really caught my eye was a call-out for volunteers. Sign me up!

I blogged about it at the time because I genuinely think it’s one of the coolest things I’ll ever be part of. Roaring animatronic dinosaurs in a 900 year old cathedral – incredible!

NHM T-Rex Exhibit at Peterborough Cathedral

It kickstarted a summer of local culture and fun. Volunteering every weekend was a joy and this was a summer that perfectly encapsulates why Peterborough is far more cultural and interesting than it perhaps gets credit for so here’s a little glimpse of what I got up to.

I was only going to look at August 2022 but on reflection it looks like I had a busy 31st of July so we’ll start there. Last time out I blogged about the significance of the Women’s European Championship hosted in England that summer and it just so happens that England won the final on this particular night.

The poetry scene in Peterborough is one to be particularly proud of and poet-guru and former Peterborough Laureate, Charley, was hosting another of her infamous “Freak Speak” nights at a park cafe which was bigger than I’d actually realised.

Having since been to a few poetry and spoken words events around Peterborough, it blows my mind at how talented people are in this city. This was an event that really gave people a platform to show off that talent.

It was a fun start to what proved to be a month full of fun cultural outings and topped off with news that England’s women had won the Euros – Chloe Kelly immortalising herself in to English folklore!

I was running incredibly short on annual leave by this point of the year so work was a pesky inconvenience for the summer but that didn’t stop me making the best of my lunch hours.

Peterborough’s museum is free to visit, with the occasional exhibit that has a fee, but for the most part free and with ever-changing exhibits I was curious to go and check out the ‘Proud To Be Posh’ exhibit taking place which was dedicated to the history of Peterborough’s biggest* football club, Peterborough United.

To rehash a phrase used earlier, I’ve no “skin in the game” when it comes to Peterborough United. I was fully immersed in to Tottenham long before ever moving to Peterborough but its undeniable the city reaps the reward when the football club are doing well and suffer the consequences when the football club aren’t doing well. That’s true of many cities, towns and villages across the UK.

Proud To Be Posh exhibit at Peterborough Museum, 2022

Peterborough United shirts from over the years

Photos of Peterborough United Women’s games

I thought it was particlarly interesting that a section of the exhibit had been dedicated to Posh’s women’s team – very much playing at an amateur level of football but this was very much the summer of women’s football so it was nice to see that the exhibit focused on both the men and women’s football team.

The next weekend was my birthday weekend. I kicked off Saturday morning with another morning volunteering at the coolest exhibition ever, where else would you want to be on a Saturday other than hanging out with dinosaurs in a cathedral?

Following another fun shift I grabbed some food in town and then made my way over to another edition of the “Millfield festival”. I’d attended last year’s effort but it wasn’t the best day of weather which disrupted some of the festivities. This year it was a glorious sunny day and a perfect day for such celebrations.

Millfield is a very multicultural neighbourhood / area within Peterborough that largely has a reputation for being unsafe and a “no-go” area in certain circles and was certainly something I was aware of growing up.

What Unites Us? Mural from 2021 Millfield Festival

In recent years local community group, Peterborough Presents, have worked very closely with those in the Millfield area to show off the best of the community and promote the different cultures and value that brings to the city. It was a fascinating day with a variety of different forms of entertainment to appease locals and “outsiders” alike and a credit to all involved.

Sandwiched in the middle of the festival was a typical Saturday afternoon festivity across the country – a 3pm Saturday football match. One of the beautiful things about football in this country is its pyramid system which means it doesn’t matter how small your club is or how far down the pyramid you are, you can theoretically climb to the top of the game. From the local leagues to the regional divisions, onwards to the national football league and eventually the glory of the Premier League and European competitions.

Realistically there’s a limit to what you can achieve but local “Peterborough Sports” were daring to test those limits and were quickly rising up the divisions. Peterborough is very much a “one club” city in my eyes so it has been surprising in recent years to see another Peterborough based team reach the 6th tier of English football – not all that far away from Peterborough’s “only” football team.

My curiosity was piqued and it just so happens Peterborough Sports play at an unknown stadium within walking distance of Millfield. Perhaps testament to its “no-go” reputation, I had no idea this venue even existed within the city – “the bee Arena”.

Mural of peace with the colours of Ukraine and Palestine

Quick sidenote but the photo is one of many murals in Peterborough by the infamous Nathan Murdoch who currently has an exhibit on at Peterborough’s Museum.

Anyway the “Bee Arena” is more of a local community centre, with a little playing field tucked away that they’ve made the best of. Calling it an arena is particularly kind but I couldn’t resist the temptation to tick off another stadium visit and watch some non league football.

It was a closely contested game with the home side, Peterborough Sports, coming out on top so a great way to kick off a new season. It was particularly nice to watch football with a beer on a warm sunny day, a luxury still not afforded to the bigger football games in England.

After the game I swung back past the Millfield festival to catch the last of the day’s festivities before calling it a night and heading home. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and a good start to the birthday weekend.

Scary Millfield promoting love, hope, peace

Sunday happened to be my birthday and I was keen to go and do something to celebrate. I’d sooner do something, make memories or whatever rather than receive gifts. A birthday outing with the family was on the cards.

A big supporter of ‘ProudOfPeterborough’ over the last year or so had been nearby “Elton Hall” in a village on the outskirts of Peterborough, unsurprisingly, called Elton. They’re only open seasonally during the summer months but I vowed I’d make a visit and this was as good an excuse as any for such a visit.

Elton Hall has a long history, originally built in the 15th century, and has been owned by the same family since the early 17th century – impressive.
Myself, my parents, sister and brother-in-law took a short drive out to Elton to pay a visit and look around its gardens and the hall itself.

It’s a pretty place. It was clear that a lack of rain had had an impact but the gardens are beautifully maintained nonetheless. We spent a good while looking around the gardens and getting some photos before stepping inside Elton Hall and learning more about its history. The highlight was undoubtedly its library which was gorgeous. I don’t appear to have got any photos of the interior so I’m guessing photography is prohibited but if you want a little look, you can check out their website: Elton Hall

We wandered over to the nearby ‘Mulberry Cafe’ and Bosworth Garden Centre for a cuppa and some cake before driving over to Oundle’s “Tap and Kitchen” for a late lunch / early dinner.

Again, this wasn’t somewhere I’d been to previously but I’d heard good things, helped by the fact its next door to “Nene Valley Brewery” which means the restaurant has a few NVB beers on tap.
It’s a nice restaurant with an outdoor beer garden with a little stream running through it – very pretty on a warm day. The food was good, the beer was good and the company even better. It was nice to have paid visit to a couple of new places in the area today.

You can never be assured of good weather at any time of year in the UK but the summer months typically welcome “festival season” across the country and there were two exciting festivals still to come this month.

Firstly, Peterborough Pride was hosted in mid-August this year. It’s the latest I can recall it being hosted, it’s usually hosted in June or July, but I guess the organisers had the foresight to know I’d be blogging about it four years later and it fortunately makes the cut for this particular post.

Joking aside, it is of course a significant annual event in the city’s calendar and this particular year was no different. “The Green Backyard” hosted the event which is a local community garden encouraging all things community (obviously) and sustainability and is a real gem in the city centre.

The Green Backyard, home of Peterborough Pride

It was a lovely day. It always is. Pride is essentially all about inclusion and any event that makes everyone feel welcome is an event worth supporting. I popped along for a little while and caught some of the entertainers on show. It’s an event that, even with insufficient funding, seems to have grown year-on-year and hopefully 2026’s event in July will be back even bigger and better.

The other big annual festival in the city is Peterborough’s Beer Festival which is hosted in the penultimate week of August every year. It boasts claim to be one of the biggest beer festivals in the entirety of the UK.

I don’t know if that’s down to the number of people visiting, the number of brewers showcasing their beers or the “UK’s longest bar” that spans 100+ meters but whatever the reason for such a claim, I’ll accept that it’s true and consequently means that Peterborough hosts the best beer festival in the UK.

It’s undoubtedly a highlight of the summer and people across Peterborough and even those from further afield will visit Peterborough every August to taste a beer or two, enjoy the various bands playing throughout the week of the festival and participate in what is probably the peak of Peterborough’s social calendar every year.

Peterborough’s Annual Beer Festival – the best in England!

It’s always an enjoyable time and the only personal disappointment is that they bizarrely wrap it up before the three day bank-holiday weekend fully kicks in. I don’t think 2026’s dates have been confirmed as yet but if you fancy popping along, I’d bank on 18th-22nd August being the dates this summer.

It had been a busy summer with volunteering, museum trips, festivals galore and more but I had one final outing before the summer ended. Peterborough United hopped on the growing bandwagon for women’s football and for the first time, hosted Peterborough United’s women’s team at their stadium for a game against nearby Lincoln.

Of course there were no star players on display, with both playing at a fairly amateur level of football, but it was a great opportunity to support women’s football on your doorstep and with tickets priced at just £4 a decent crowd turned out to watch Peterborough win on a glorious sunny evening. For some reason I didn’t get any photos from the evening but 2,000+ locals went home happy.

That was it for my “summer of culture” in England’s “city of culture”. I think of all of the other things I’ve done in this city over the years that don’t get a mention here but are absolutely worthy of mention.

Music gigs, big and small. The plays, musicals and pantos at the three theatres in the city. The natural beauty of places such as “Ferry Meadows”, tower tours at Peterborough cathedral, other fantastic local landmarks. The wealth of talented artists and creatives. Art exhibits, art battles even. Poetry nights and lantern festivals and ice hockey and film festivals and book clubs and the list goes on. I could go on forever (“you already have mate..”).

The idea that Peterborough is lacking in culture is mind-boggling and I think even the locals don’t truly appreciate how many great things happen here, I was probably even one of them for a long time. This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about Peterborough on the blog but I definitely haven’t done it justice previously.

Is it a city worthy of being awarded the UK’s “city of culture”? I don’t know. History suggests I’m probably not the most impartial person to ask but nevertheless, I do believe Peterborough is a city to be proud of and one I proudly call home.

I find the variety of things happening in Peterborough and the people responsible for making those things happening really inspiring and I think the last few years have really shown me that if you make a little effort to find it, there’s something for everybody in Peterborough.

It’s no secret that I’ll soon be leaving Peterborough, and indeed England, and heading on to pastures new across the pond. With that development I’ve since relinquished control of “ProudOfPeterborough” and the reigns have been passed over for someone else to spread the good word of Peterborough but fear not, I’ll still be keeping tabs on what happens in Peterborough from afar.

and so I end this post with my fingers crossed that Peterborough is crowned the UK’s “city of culture” in 2029, if for no other reason than some reward to those contributing so much to the current culture of the city.

Finally, I leave you with some more photos of Peterborough’s scenery and various local events over the years that best showcase that.

Peterborough’s Town Bridge over the River Nene

Peterborough’s Ice Rink, home of the Peterborough Phantoms

Charters, a Dutch barge / pub / restaurant on the River Nene

Live music every weekend at The Ostrich, Peterborough

Morris Dancing at the annual Morris Day of Dance

Six the musical at New Theatre, Peterborough

Peterborough Central Library, home of the weekly Peterborough Arts Cinema Club

Schedule for Peterborough Arts Cinema Club (2023)

Comedy nights at The Cresset, Peterborough

Brochure for Switch Festival at The Key Theatre

Brochure for the Summer Film Nights at Nene Park

Brochure for “The Table” at The Key Theatre

The monthly Good Shout spoken word night

Brochure for the annual Peterborough Artist Open Studios

I Matter Exhibition at Peterborough Museum

Piece from the Bridging Landscapes Exhibit

Tony Nero’s “Half a Pencil” Exhbit at Peterborough Museum

Piece from Tony Nero’s “Half a pencil” exhibit at Peterborough Museum

Piece from Chris Porsz’s “Reunions” exhibit at Peterborough Museum

Photo from the Ladybird books exhibit at Peterborough Museum

One of many book benches during a Peterborough Reads campaign

Doctor Who exhibit at Peterborough Museum

Doctor Who exhibition at Peterborough Museum

Artists go head-to-head in an art battle at “Battle Lines”

Artists going head to head at Battle Lines

Street Artists painting at Peterborough Cathedral

Katharine of Aragon burial place at Peterborough Cathedral

Poppy display on Bridge St, Peterborough

Poppy display at Queensgate, Peterborough

Tim Peake’s Spacecraft at Peterborough Cathedral

Shaun the Sheep Exhibit at Peterborough Cathedral

Ready to watch The Lord Chamberlain’s Men Shakespeare at Peterborough Cathedral

Sea Creatures Exhibit at Peterborough Cathedral

Tower Tour views at Peterborough Cathedral

and there you have it. A long-winded photo-heavy glimpse of just some of the things that Peterborough has to offer.

The likes of Flag Fen, Sacrewell Farm, Railworld Wildlife Haven, Longthorpe Tower, Norman Cross, nearby Burghley Estate and Stamford are just a few other places of interest that didn’t even get a mention in the post.

If you’re ever in Peterborough or find yourself curious enough to visit, feel free to give me a headsup and I’ll throw some recommendations your way. Or check out Peterborough’s newly launched tourism website: Discover Peterborough

Until next time!

Jason
aka “ProudOfPeterborough”

2023 travel roundup

Hello dear readers! Happy New Year! I hope you all had a lovely time over the holidays and hopefully you’re excited for the year ahead?

I didn’t blog a great amount in 2023, I don’t really know why but I just didn’t find motivation to do so regularly. I looked back and it appears that I only posted seven times in 2023!

You’d be forgiven for thinking that’s because I was traveling so frequently but that wasn’t really the case either. Haleigh finally got her visa and moved over to England in February 2023. Consequently I think much of 2023 was spent trying to help Haleigh get adjusted to life in England and the majority of our travels this year were largely spent back-and-forth between Washington.

Nevertheless, let’s have a little look at some of the adventure we did have this year!

Washington State – January 2023
This was a pretty whirlwind trip. As I said, Haleigh was finally moving to England in February so at the end of January I went over for what was little more than a long weekend.

My flight to Washington was on the 28th of January and on the 31st of January we’d be flying back to England (arriving on the 1st of Feb). It’s a long way to go for such a short trip and isn’t something I’d recommend haha. I don’t think I even really suffered from jetlag because it felt like by the time I’d arrived I was going home again.

I flew in to Seattle and Haleigh was based on the East side of the state in Walla Walla. It’s a long drive and not advisable in the Winter months if it can be avoided, the public transport is rubbish so my only option to get to Walla Walla was to fly. Sadly at some point Alaska Airlines dropped one of the two daily flights between the two cities (they’ve since re-introduced them) which meant the only flight out of Seattle on the 28th was before I’d arrived.

It meant I couldn’t get to Walla Walla until the 29th (to then leave on the 31st!) but the upside was I had a night to myself in Seattle. I like Seattle, it’s a fun city and somewhere I always enjoy having a layover. I booked myself a hotel downtown and decided I’d go and watch a NHL game for the first time. The NHL recently introduced a new team based in Seattle and it just so happened the timing would work out nicely for me to watch the Seattle Kraken for the first time!

Alas, my luck with sporting events in the US is pretty rubbish. Something inevitably almost always goes wrong and usually after I’ve already paid extortionate amounts to buy a ticket. Honestly, it is so expensive to go and watch live sport in the USA – not helped by every professional sports team in America seemingly selling tickets exclusively with ticket sites rather than selling them in-house (curse you Ticketmaster!).

It was only three months earlier I’d bought tickets to see the Washington Wizards in DC and my plans changed and similar misfortunes meant I missed this game too. My flight was delayed and meant I was going to arrive in Seattle later than planned.

How much of the game I would have missed is guesswork, maybe a minimal amount. At a push I might have even made kickoff but it was unnecessary stress and with baggage in hand it wasn’t worth all the fuss. In the end I bailed on going to the game and just met up with a friend earlier than planned for food and drinks which was a fun way to spend my night in Seattle.

The next morning it was back to the airport for a quick flight over to Walla Walla and a just-as-quick weekend before returning to England. It was a whirlwind weekend that barely counted as an adventure but still, it was nice to see a few familiar faces in Washington and of course those mountain views.

London – February 2023
Sometimes the “fun gods” are with you and sometimes against. My misfortune at missing the NHL game in Seattle was offset by some fortune here, albeit at my parents expense.

They’d been gifted tickets to do a tour of the Houses of Parliament in London but as the weekend drew near it became clear they wouldn’t be well enough to go. Consequently we went instead!

We’re fortunate to live close enough to London that it only needed to be a daytrip so not the longest of adventures this time around but it was nice to go and spend a few hours in London. The actual tour was also pretty good. It’s the first time I’d seen inside the parliament building and it’s particularly impressive with some incredible displays of artwork throughout.

It’s a good way to learn more about the history of the building and government in the UK. Definitely a tour worth doing and made for a fun afternoon in London.

Lincoln – April 2023
Myself and Haleigh finally got married in April 2022. A lot of the wedding planning, honeymoon included, was made much more difficult because of Covid. We got married in Washington and ended up spending our honeymoon down in Oregon.

One of the places we visited during that trip was Lincoln City, Oregon – a coastal town which we visited on pretty much the only good day of weather we had whilst in Oregon (we arrived to snow and returned to Walla Walla to find more of the white stuff in Washington too!.

So having visited Lincoln City, Oregon in April 2022, it felt a little fitting that our one year anniversary was then spent in the “other Lincoln” – the better known one perhaps!?

I’d personally been to Lincoln before, although given its proximity it’s perhaps a little shameful that I’ve only visited the once and a daytrip at that. However it was Haleigh’s first time visiting Lincoln and therefore an opportunity for some adventure in a new city on this little island.

We were only in Lincoln for a little over 24 hours. Short and sweet but it was nice to get away and enjoy all that Lincoln had to offer. Haleigh’s overall feelings about Lincoln were positive, probably helped by exploring its castle and seeing the Magna Carta – Lincoln housing one of only four copies!

Our anniversary meal was a bit of a bust – visiting a nice rooftop bar. The setting itself was lovely but largely letdown by the food and the slow service. We’d probably have been better off somewhere less fancy but it didn’t take the shine off an otherwise lovely time in Lincoln – definitely a city we’ll return to, although yet to do so.

Washington State – June 2023
You can’t keep us away for too long. One of Haleigh’s cousins, Jessica, was getting married which gave us a good excuse to return to Washington, celebrate and catch up with family and friends.

The wedding itself was up in the Spokane area. I’d been to Spokane once before, solo infact, but it was nice to go back and see more of the area. The highlight of the trip was getting together with everybody for the wedding of course, set in a beautiful location on the outskirts of Spokane.

After a weekend in Spokane, the rest of the trip was much more relaxed. It was nice to get back to Washington for a bit, see some of our favourite people and forget about work and other such responsibilities back in England. Eventually it was time to go home and we said our temporary goodbyes knowing we’d catch up again later in the year.

London & Peterborough – September 2023
Haleigh was now living in England which presents a great opportunity / excuse for many of the American folk to come and visit. We had our first visitors in September as Haleigh’s Aunt Gina and Uncle Rob planned for a short-stop in England at the end of their 3 week Italy adventure.

Having previously visited them in Portland, Oregon it was nice to switch roles and play tour-guide for the pair of them on their first visit to England. We didn’t have a huge amount of time together but we squeezed in an evening in London (for drinks), a day in London and then a day in Peterborough.

I love getting to show off England to people and having seen a little of London with another family member, I was keen to then show off some of the more touristy parts they hadn’t yet seen. After breakfast and a quirky house / museum visit we ticked off Covent Garden, Westminster before rounding off the afternoon with a river cruise from Westminster down to Tower Bridge. I’d seen and done it all before of course, as had Haleigh with the exception of Covent Garden but I truly never tire of exploring London and even revisiting the more touristy parts of London retains its charm.

The next day the four of us caught the train up to Peterborough – just shy of an hour its an easy daytrip and the rest of my family were keen to reunite with Rob and Gina too so eight of us got together for the afternoon.

Peterborough isn’t what I’d call a must visit by any means but having lived here for 25+ years now it’s still nice to show off its best bits. I gave Rob and Gina a brief tour of the small city centre before wandering over to the 900+ year cathedral – the jewel of the city and one with a tremendous amount of history.

You quite often hear of travelers suffering cathedral fatigue when on a long European trip such as theirs but their enthusiasm for Peterborough’s still shone through which was particularly pleasing after visiting the likes of Florence’s Duomo.

Our plans somewhat changed from that point and rather than go explore further we settled for an afternoon sat by the river enjoying the company, beers and food to follow. It was a short and sweet catchup but lovely to have American guests on English soil – hopefully more follow in their footsteps and we can show off even more of the country next time!

Jersey – October 2023
Speaking of cathedral fatigue, I’ve largely reached that same point with the USA. My parents took us on four family holidays to Florida growing up. Spanned over eight weeks between 1997 to 2008, I was certainly luckier than most in my childhood to get the opportunity to visit the USA but over 11 years it wasn’t overkill by any means. One state, largely based in one area of Florida and spread out over 11 years.

It was another eight years before I returned to the USA after that last Florida trip. In February 2016 I made the return to the USA and my first trip doing so solo – beginning my own American adventures and stories.

Since then there’ve been many trips to the USA. I have no regrets, it’s a wonderful country and I’m fortunate to have seen so much of it. The Pacific Northwest in particular is stunning and I’m lucky to have seen so much of it but one of my goals in 2024 is definitely to visit somewhere that’s “not the USA”.

Add it all up and I’ve now spent 45.5 weeks of my life in the USA – roughly, Given eight years ago that figure was only eight weeks it tells you all you need to know about how much time I’ve spent there in recent years. It works out as an average of between four and five weeks every year in the USA which is absurd really – particularly given I only receive five weeks of annual leave most years.

In that same period I’ve still visited Scotland, Ireland, Gibraltar, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland & Greece so with the help of public holidays I’ve absolutely maximised my annual leave to get the best out of my travels but I’d be content with fewer trips to the USA.

There’ll always be a reason to go back and I expect we’ll visit at least once a year but I’m hopeful we’ll have more time to see other places too. Our only overseas trip this year that wasn’t to the USA was to Jersey.

Overseas when talking about a place so close to home and a British territory also feels a little exaggerrated but we did leave our little island so I guess you can call it overseas. We flew from Gatwick and by the time we were up in the air we were pretty much descending to land in the small island of Jersey.

This was a little similar to my plans for the Gibraltar trip in 2020. The reasons for that were largely Covid inspired leaving me little other options, on this occasion it was education. Haleigh started teaching in September which meant we were restricted to school holidays to go anywhere and we also didn’t plan anything particularly far in advance which further limited our options due to cost.

I was a little resigned to going away somewhere within the UK. Haleigh hasn’t actually seen much of it so that wouldn’t have been as negative as it sounds. However having given up hopes on a cheap European getaway I pondered if there were any alternatives to the UK and considered how expensive the Channel Islands might be and luckily found cheap flights and accommodation in Jersey – aided by an Easyjet voucher I’d been holding on to for a while.

Like Gibraltar, I’d never given much consideration to visiting Jersey before but the more we looked in to what it had to offer the more tempting it sounded and so we enjoyed a few days away on the little island of Jersey.

The only downside to an “island getaway” so close to England is that the weather in October isn’t too dissimilar to home. We actually lucked out with the weather being dry for most of our trip but it had been miserable in the days leading up to it so most things closed for the season and some of those earlier than scheduled which scuppered a few of our plans.

We still had fun though. Jersey was a nice place to escape to, we managed to see quite a good chunk of the island and it really is a pretty place – the beaches in particular are gorgeous.

It’s somewhere we enjoyed enough that we’d go back to but I think that’s partially because of some of the seasonal things that we missed out on. I think if we’d done more we’d possibly feel less inclined to go back, if we’d gone a month earlier for example I think it would have been a better trip but we still had a nice time away. Visiting somewhere new was particularly pleasing for me given our other adventures this year were all in places I’d visited previously.

Washington State – November 2023
and of course, we rounded off our year with a third trip to Washington! Before accepting her teaching job, Haleigh ensured we’d get a week away for Thanksgiving. I did joke I’d go with or without her – why should I miss out on Thanskgiving because of those pesky kids?

Fortunately as a one-off it wasn’t a problem and Haleigh was allowed to take unpaid leave to join me in Washington. All that talk about USA-fatigue is kind of disregarded for Thanksgiving. I don’t know that we’d ever do Thanksgiving and Christmas and it may be that some years we’d prefer to do Christmas stateside but I think this is a week I’d always make an effort to get back to Washington for.

This was Thanksgiving number four for me. With the exception of 2020 for obvious reasons, I’ve been to Washington every November since 2019. Good food, great people – what more could you wish for?

It was lovely catching up with everyone and of course returning to Washington itself. I’ve visited a lot in recent years and it is very much a second home for me – why Peterborough doesn’t have any mountains yet I don’t know.

As ever the time in Washington went far too quickly and then it was back to England for the festive period. I took Haleigh to her first panto which was something she had to experience for a first time (“oh no I didn’t” Haleigh cries).

Yeah, it didn’t go down particularly well unfortunately but where else are you going to get tap-dancing pandas performing on stage, right?

Anyway, that just about rounds up our year of travel!

2024 plans?
Honestly, I could probably repeat word for word what I said in last year’s roundup. We have nothing concrete planned yet but we’ll undoubtedly return to Washington at some point in 2024. Whether that’s for Thanksgiving, Christmas or some other reason is yet to be determined but we will return in 2024.

Beyond that I don’t know where we will end up this year but I don’t want Washington to be the only place we visit. We have some family from Utah visiting in May so we’ll definitely make time to see them as much as we can. Ideally we’ll also explore much more of the UK ourselves this year as there’s still plenty that Haleigh hasn’t seen and lots of places on this little island I’d like to visit too.

As far as outside of the UK is concerned, we’ll see what happens. There are plenty of ideas but all of these are budget-dependent of course. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of adventure to come this year.

Lastly, non travel-plans for 2024? First and foremost I’d like to get back to blogging regularly. Seven blog posts last year was a pitiful effort and I imagine most of those were early on in the year. I want to get back to blogging weekly if possible but let’s aim for at least once a month, shall we?

I want to build up my savings a bit this year too. Finding that balance between saving and still doing fun things is always difficult but saving for bigger things is definitely on my mind.

Covid certainly helped but it’s unimaginable to me that I ever had savings for a wedding back in 2022. I know there are many people worse off than myself but I haven’t been comfortable with where my finances have been for the past 18 months – very much living from one paycheck to the next. By no means am I content with where I’m at but I at least ended 2023 in my best financial position in quite some time. I’m hoping to maintain that going forward and start getting back to the pre-wedding level of saving.

The only other hopes for this year are just to enjoy it – make time for family, friends and doing more of the things that make me happy.

Anyway, I’ll wrap this up. Have a great 2024 everyone and hopefully you’ll be reading more from me as the year progresses!

Until next time,

Jason

Dino Duty!

Hello dear readers! I thought I’d once again mix things up a little and instead of travel, write about what I’ve been up to recently.

Specifically I wanted to write about my jump into volunteering. I’ve briefly mentioned in previous posts that I launched a “little” Instagram page promoting all things Peterborough and I guess over the last year or so that it’s become a bit of a “passion project” if you want to call it that.

I think I’ll leave that story for another day but ultimately Peterborough has been at the forefront of a lot of my social activity over the last two years – obviously helped by a pandemic making travel so much hassle.

Bit by bit I’ve been more active in Peterborough. Chasing new experiences and trying out different places – finding new favourites along the way. There’s some really cool stuff happening locally and it’s kept me pretty inspired and has definitely made me fall in love with “my” city that little bit more.

There’s a part of me that still always thinks of London as my home. Nine years in London, 25 in Peterborough – nevertheless it’s that unshakeable attachment to my birthplace that has meant Peterborough can and perhaps never will compare. I’m a Londoner and it’s so much a part of who I am but I think I’m finally embracing the Peterborough within me too.

Having spread a lot of Peterborough positivity over on Instagram over the last year or so has been a lot of fun, a highlight even and definitely brought a lot of new experiences my way but one of my goals this year was to go further than that.

Spreading the good word of Peterborough and the work people are doing to make this city better is one thing but how do I become one of those people? How do I play my own role in making Peterborough better and making exciting things happen here?

I caught wind of this amazing-looking local festival happening in May and I was like “I want to be part of that..” – so I signed up to volunteer to help out! My first foray in to volunteering and just days before the weekend-long event I caught Covid – gutted!

I was so disappointed to have to withdraw my volunteering role but just as disappointed that I was missing the festival on a weekend with a perfect weather forecast in Peterborough’s gem “Ferry Meadows”.

It looked incredible, a huge wave of local talent performing in a variety of arts and sectors and I was missing it all. It was a huge success and I’m sure the festival will return next year but opportunity missed!

One of the other local events happening this summer that I was particularly excited for was a touring exhibit from the Natural History Museum in London. A TRex exhibit featuring a bunch of dinosaurs coming to Peterborough Cathedral! It looked amazing!

I was interested nonetheless but upon looking at their website further I saw that Peterborough Cathedral were actually welcoming volunteers for the exhibit – “maybe I’ll do that!”.

I signed up to volunteer and here we are! Three weeks in to a six week dinosaur exhibit at Peterborough Cathedral – a NHM exhibit at that! Peterborough cathedral the last stop on a 15 year tour!

The volunteering interview
I imagine with any volunteering role there’s a degree of “we’re happy to have any help” but nevertheless I’m a pretty introverted person and so there was a little nervousness that for some reason that I wouldn’t make a good impression and that they’d turn me away. Am I really the volunteering type?

The first shift!
To be honest, there was a bit of a learning curve here for me too. There were a few different roles with pretty much a “sign up for what you like” attitude which was great. The first few sessions I signed up for I signed up for pretty much every different role and I figured by the end of that I’d have a better idea of which fit me best.

The first shift I’d signed up to be an “exhibit assistant” which pretty much means watching over the visitors and making sure the dinosaurs don’t eat anybody. I was watching over the T-Rex skeletion which is the first thing you see upon entry to the exhibit which was special.

I’m quite pleased this was my first volunteering shift actually because seeing the first kids run in and see the amazement on their faces is definitely a volunteering highlight. It left me feeling warm and fuzzy and excited that this exhibit was happening on my doorstep and that I was contributing my own small part in helping it happen.

I’ve been so excited for this exhibit for ages, particularly after discovering I’d be volunteering at it but to get those first reactions to the exhibit was really nice.

Subsequent shifts
As I said, I’ve done pretty much the full range of available roles to see which fits best and all have their own good points. I think the only shift I didn’t really enjoy was helping out with the shop but that’s partly because of stock issues and there not really being anything in the shop. For most people it’s the last point of the cathedral visit and to have little to offer was disappointing.

I think stock levels have improved but I haven’t been inclined to repeat that role. I think it’s the role that I’ve found least visitor interaction which has probably and perhaps surprisingly been the part I’ve enjoyed most.

I think my next shift was ticket checking which I’ve enjoyed doing. It’s easy enough and also means you get to greet each visitor and excited face upon entry to the exhibit. The “cathedral welcomer” role is much the same and you’re the first point of contact for arriving guests at the cathedral.

The cathedral is free to visit so people can come in but the exhibit is ticketed which means you’re limited as to what you can see without a ticket for the exhibit. Notably you can’t “visit” Katherine of Aragon or Mary Queen of Scots resting places without a ticket to the exhibit which has led to a few disgruntled visitors but for the mostpart the reaction has been positive from people I’ve spoken to.

Although one such disgruntled visitor did give me a cracking quote – “you’ve turned ‘Our Father’s’ house in to a funpark”.. – a damning review!

The burning question!
Working with the final TRex has also been a fun shift of the exhibit. It’s the largest dinosaur model within the exhibit and where the exhibit ends. The purpose of the exhibit is to determine whether the visitor thinks the TRex was a scavenger or a predator and you can vote on the way out.

That’s a fun shift to do too because it’s the dinosaur the kids are particularly excited for (or scared of) and you also get to hear people’s reasoning before they vote on the big question!

Generally every time I walk past the little box it appears to be 50-50 though so make of that what you will!

The buzz!
This is something I don’t think I really appreciated until I started doing this. I was excited for the exhibit as a potential visitor, I was SO excited for the exhibit once I knew I’d be volunteering but actually doing it? Wow!

I’m very much of the mindset that I’m ready to retire. I have never been career driven or cared for a job. The only reason I work is because I have to – I have expenses both personal and practical. Be it paying for bills or paying for travel and such things.

I can’t afford not to work but I definitely believe if I was financially comfortable that I’d pack it in at the earliest convenience. I’m at my happiest when traveling and that can be doing something really exciting or just sat in a coffee shop drinking tea and watching the world go by and not giving a second thought to work.

Every time I travel I romanticise the idea of living somewhere. Be it New York, Lisbon, Walla Walla or most recently Newcastle – what a city that is by the way! The idea is always without the practicalities of living costs and work and whatever else but Newcastle a fine example of somewhere I immediately fell in love with.

I’m getting sidetracked but point being I’ve never believed the rubbish of “if you do something you love you’ll never work a day in your life”. Weighing up working or spending my day in a new city – it’s a no brainer and I don’t really believe work will ever feel anything other than just that to me. I don’t think I’ll ever find a career that brings me love and passion,

At 8:59 I don’t care about work, at 17:31 I don’t care about work, on holiday I don’t care about work but I accept that not working is not an option available to me. I’m more than content doing the 9-5 lifestyle as long as I have to (retiring at 80+ probably..) but if I didn’t have to be doing that I wouldn’t be.

and yet volunteering for this has thrown a dilemma my way. The exhibit is phenomenal, hearing and witnessing the reaction to it has given me such a buzz and a warm, fuzzy feeling.

I didn’t think I’d ever return to a customer-facing role or weekend work so to voluntarily be doing so and actually enjoying being a part of it has been the biggest surprise. I’ve wanted each visitor to have the best experience and it’s really put doubt in my mind as to what the hell I’m doing. I’ve never enjoyed a job as much as this.

Would it be different if it wasn’t voluntary? Would it be different if it wasn’t this particular exhibit? I really don’t know but “ProudOfPeterborough” has become my little baby and actually being part of an incredible event in the city has been the best experience and made me really ponder my career.

Peterborough has grabbed my heart at the moment and I definitely want to be more involved in other community driven events and volunteering roles. The cathedral asked yesterday if I’d like to continue volunteering after this particular exhibit and I said sign me up!

Whether this is a one-off buzz or maybe I’ve found my calling, I guess time will tell but nonetheless this has been a phenomenal few weeks and I’m really excited for the final few weeks. The exhibit ends on the 3rd of September and I’ve already signed up for a three-shift / ten hour day to see it out to the very end.

If you’re in or around Peterborough before then I would encourage a visit. My photos don’t do it justice but it’s so good!

Anyway that wraps up a little of what I’ve been up to this summer. Dino duty in my first volunteering role!

As for the future? Wait and see I suppose. It pains me to know that I’ll be working for another 40-50 years but maybe, just maybe I’ve found my calling?

Stay tuned!

Jason

Home for me, adventure for you!

Recently I’ve really started to immerse myself within the online travel community, mostly on Instagram, and I thought it’d be the ideal time to start blogging. Travelling has become one of my biggest passions and I wanted to use this as a platform to really talk about that, share experiences and hopefully offer some inspiration to others reading this.

I’ve been lucky to visit a number of different places around the world and I’m constantly ticking places off of my bucketlist, although that ever-present wanderlust usually means the list of places to visit is growing rather than shrinking!

There were lots of places I could have started this blog off – London, New York City, Sydney – the list really is endless but I thought what better place to start than right at home? I think one of the things that can quickly be forgotten among travellers is that home to you is an adventure to somebody else.
I was born and grew up in London and believe me I will post about London in the future but for now I live in Peterborough and here’s a post dedicated to it.
Would I recommend it as somewhere to visit? No, but if you’re a little curious here’s five reasons why you might want to visit!

1) The local experience
Travellers are continually looking for a destination off the beaten track and Peterborough ticks the box as a city less travelled. You don’t get swarms of tourists here, perhaps with good reason but it does mean that if you do visit you’re likely to only be dining, drinking and chatting with the locals. This is also a plus if you want to visit Peterborough’s cathedral, museum or churches which beyond peak times are rarely busy.

Peterborough28 — River Nene, Peterborough

2) Location
As cynical as I may be about how dull Peterborough is as a city, one thing you can’t question is its convenient location. Peterborough has great transport links. Situated next to the largest motorway in the country means it’s easily accessible by car, whilst Peterborough also has direct trains and/or bus links to most major UK cities such as London (less than an hour), Cambridge (1 hour), York, Edinburgh and more.
Buses and trains from Stansted Airport both also travel via Peterborough.
What better place to base yourself for a night if you’re planning a road-trip or visiting various cities throughout the UK.

3) The cheaper alternative
Staying in the UK can be expensive! You might want to consider staying in Peterborough just because it’ll save you money over staying in nearby Cambridge or London – both of which are only an hour away. Trains from London to Peterborough run late in to the early hours of the morning so you could easily spend your day in London and head back to your accommodation that same day to sleep in Peterborough.
You’ll obviously need to weigh up whether the time and cost of travelling make any savings worthwhile.

Cathedral

4) History & Culture
Like most European cities, Peterborough has its share of history. The city dates back hundreds of years and this is most evident in the location of Peterborough’s cathedral. The cathedral was built in the 12th century and is definitely worth seeing for yourself, some well known people were buried in the cathedral such as Katherine of Aragon or Mary Queen of Scots (later moved). If you time your trip right you might even catch a heritage/historical/medieval festival or event.

In more modern times, Peterborough has become one of the UK’s fastest growing cities. In some areas it’s still lacking but in the last year a number of restaurants and pubs have opened to make for a much more vibrant city centre. You now have much more choice for wining and dining
There’s a handful of venues which also host live music, sporting events, theatre and other arts which may appeal dependent on your interests.

5) Nature
Peterborough is in a relatively flat part of the country so perhaps isn’t somewhere you’d associate with stunning scenery, whilst this is true there are some areas which show off Peterborough’s beauty. First and foremost the River Nene flows through the city and on a nice day it can be nice to walk along the riverside.
You also have an area known locally as ‘Ferry Meadows’, I don’t think it’s considered a national park due to it’s size but is in the same spirit. It’s a family friendly park with activities for kids, wildlife and a great spot for relaxing – particularly good for picnics overlooking the lake!
As an alternative accommodation option, you can pay to camp here with watersports on offer and a golf course within walking distance for the golfers out there!

If I’ve sold Peterborough to you and you’re curious at to how long to spend here I’d suggest a day/night at most, you could feasibly see most of the city in a few hours.
If you do decide to visit give me a heads up and I’ll happily send some further recommendations your way.

Thanks for reading.

Jason