Hello, world! I'm ThunderingTyphoons!, or "Jamie", as people in real life tend to call me, when they're being nice. I come from Hampshire in the United Kingdom, with family roots in Liverpool and Cardiff. A graduate of the University of Sheffield, I have been a fully committed francophile for as long as I can remember.
As of 15 January 2024, I have been a Wikivoyager for eleven years and I am a bureaucrat on the administrative team.
My work on Wikivoyage
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I prefer to work on destination articles related to the United Kingdom and France, though I also patrol recent changes and my watchlist. Many of the weirder Discover facts you read will have been chosen by me. Pages I have created (bold) and / or have contributed extensively to:
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Rather annoyingly, my 10,000th edit on Wikivoyage, usually a milestone to celebrate, was undoing vandalism to my own userpage. Ten thousand thundering typhoons!
Thoughts on editing
As an editor, I enjoy:
- writing in lively style about places I know.
- finding new facts for Wikivoyage:Discover all over the world's best travel guide.
- writing article leads.
- contributing to history, transport and food-related articles and sections.
- welcoming new users to Wikivoyage.
I think the following aspects of editing are tedious but necessary:
- adding images
- adding listings (seriously)
- copy-editing
- dealing with problematic edits
- anything to do with impossible-to-remember but damn useful templates
Things you won't find me doing:
- doing "technical" things - my programming skills are nonexistent
- making a static map - see above
- working on anything related to the United States - we have a large number of fine American editors who are brilliant at what they do, so a destination article for just about anywhere else in the world is much more in need of my time.
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
| Next to excellence is the appreciation of it. So here is your medal of appreciation. We need ten thousand thundering typhoons like you! Well done Jamie. Saqib (talk) 14:27, 3 March 2015 (UTC) |
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
| For being willing and able to change your mind, and for having the courage to say so. Happy and successful communities depend upon people like you. WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:29, 1 November 2017 (UTC) |
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
| Great work on handling outdated docent notices. ---Selfie City (talk | contributions) 00:29, 23 August 2018 (UTC) |
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Barnstar of Good Humor |
| Thank you for making me smile today. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:30, 9 April 2020 (UTC) |
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
| I just read the Stratford-upon-Avon article, and the quotes are a great touch. What a delightful theme for that article. —Granger (talk · contribs) 16:04, 15 August 2020 (UTC) |
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
| I am giving you this for all your hard work on Wikivoyage, although this is Wikipedia and I am mostly found here. Cupper52 (talk) 17:17, 16 December 2020 (UTC) |
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The Original Barnstar | |
| Thank you for helping me! I saw that you had a barnstar and thought I'd give you a second one. 82.3.185.12 14:12, 23 December 2020 (UTC) |
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
| This Barncompass is for helping me creating those new articles. I also saw you were collecting them. 82.3.185.12 14:14, 23 December 2020 (UTC) |
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The Kiwi Barncompass |
| For making, maintaining and keeping Oamaru to Dunedin avoiding State Highway 1. Hope I can use that route when I go to New Zealand next year. --08:25, 12 April 2021 (UTC) |
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The Sysop's Barncompass |
| This Barncompass is to show appreciation for your great work on being a great admin on Wikivoyage and reverting the Projects guy's harassment and vandalism.--SHB2000 (talk contribs en.wikipedia) 05:47, 21 April 2021 (UTC) |
Trips
Current
Canada
Recent
- November 2024: Bracklesham Bay birdwatching bonanza
- October 2024: Seattle long weekend in the real Emerald City (and met the Cowardly Lion. No, that is not a euphemism or a drugs thing).
- January 2024: retour à Paris
- November 2023: Bracklesham Bay and Chichester long weekend
- September 2023: Cancale between Saint-Malo and Mont-Saint-Michel
- May 2023: Return to Edinburgh; first time in North Berwick and Newcastle-upon-Tyne
- March 2023: Shanklin, IoW long weekend
- January 2023: Bristol "normal" weekend
- September-October 2022: The Algarve - postponed since 2020
- May 2022: Berlin
- March 2022: Cardiff
Trips made earlier than two years ago are stored in my trips archive. Because I'm thoroughly anal like that.
Pointless lists to do with my own travels that I find interesting
Travel records
(table shamelessly stolen from Andrewssi2)
| My records | Place | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Northernmost | Reykjavík-Keflavík Airport | 63.59° N |
| Southernmost | Sea Lion Island | 52.26° S |
| Easternmost | Taupo | 176.06° E |
| Westernmost | East Sooke Regional Park | 123.42° W |
| Closest to the equator | Singapore | 1.29° N |
| Highest | Fox Glacier | 3,000 m (9,800 ft) above sea level |
| Lowest | Channel Tunnel | 115 m (377 ft) below sea level |
| Furthest inland | Edmonton | 793 km (493 mi) from Howe Sound |
| Longest flight | Single plane: RAF Brize Norton (BZZ IATA) — RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN IATA) Multiple planes: Christchurch (CHC IATA) — London Heathrow (LHR IATA) | 13,000 km (8,100 mi) 19,000 km (12,000 mi) |
| Longest sea voyage | Plymouth — Santander | 770 km (480 mi) |
| Longest rail journey | Single train: Edmonton — Vancouver (Pacific Central) Multiple trains: Farnborough (Main) — Tours (Gare de Tours) | 1,245 km (774 mi) 790 km (490 mi) |
| Longest road journey | Farnborough — Barcelona | 1,600 km (990 mi) |
| Longest walk | Southampton — Portsmouth on the Solent Way | 40 km (25 mi) / 9 hr |
| Longest border crossing | Karasovići (Dubrovnik-Neretva) / Debeli Brijeg (Herceg Novi) | 90 min / 2.2 km (1.4 mi) |
Most-memorable travel experiences
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20 August 1944
Two local men were caught stealing a bomb from a munitions factory. As punishment, they were taken by Nazi soldiers and shut in the factory to be blown up with it... Read more |
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Cream tea wars
Devon and Cornwall are divided not just by the Tamar, but by the proper way to prepare scones... Read more |
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Culture shock
In some cases, culture shock is unavoidable, but learning to recognise it in yourself is the first step to overcoming it. Contributing factors include... Read more |
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Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé !
Every third Thursday of November, the new Beaujolais wine arrives at bars and restaurants across France... Read more |
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Quelle cuisson ?
A common question when ordering meat in Francophone countries (especially steak) is how long you want it cooked for: bleu, à point, or bien cuit? Read more |
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The girl beneath the Gherkin
In 1995, during construction of the Gherkin skyscraper, the skeleton of a young girl was unearthed... Read more |
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The Highgate vampire
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'Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma' what?
York is popularly known as a place "where the streets are gates, the gates are bars, and the bars are pubs!"... Read more |
- Teaching kids English for seven months in Tours.
- Any time I go to Wales, the land of my father(s).
- Experiencing the spectacular wildlife of the Falkland Islands.
- My first time in the Channel Tunnel, as a wide-eyed four year-old.
- Flying to and walking on the source of Fox Glacier on Mount Cook in New Zealand: in shorts and a t-shirt!
- Anything archaeological, particularly prehistoric art, stone circles, Roman stuff, or proper nice castles.
- Seeing over 50,000 northern gannets (depleted from 150,000 due to the pandemic), plus puffins, shags and eider ducks on and around the Bass Rock.
- Being stripped of my European citizenship (acquired at birth) and travelling back in time 50 years.
- Visiting the remains of Auschwitz-Birkenau, for reflection and mourning.
Countries I have been to
I have been very lucky so far in my life to have done a lot of travelling. I have set foot in 25 countries around the world, mainly in Europe, though I have also visited Asia and Oceania and done my fair share of Atlantic islands:
Bosnia and Herzegovina / Bosna i Hercegovina
Croatia / Hrvatska
Germany / Deutschland
Greece / Ελλάδα (Crete / Κρήτη)
Hungary / Magyarország
Iceland / Ísland
Ireland / Éire
Italy / Italia
Monaco / Múnegu
Montenegro / Crna Gora / Цpнa Гopa
New Zealand / Aotearoa
Poland / Polska
Singapore / Singapura / 新加坡 / சிங்கப்பூர்
Spain / España (including the Balearic Islands / Islas Baleares / Illes Balears and the Canary Islands / Islas Canarias)
Basque Country / Euskadi / País Vasco / Pays Basque
Catalonia / Catalunya / Cataluña
Switzerland / Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera
Turkey / Türkiye
England / En-ger-land
Cornwall / Kernow
Scotland / Alba
Wales / Cymru
Cities of the world I have been to
London, Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Chester, Chichester, Durham, Edinburgh, Kingston-upon-Hull, Leeds, Lichfield, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Oxford, Portsmouth, Salford, Salisbury, Sheffield, Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, St Albans, St Davids, Swansea, Winchester, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Wrexham, York
Mostar
Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria
Dubrovnik
Stanley
Paris, Amiens, Angers, Bayeux, Blois, Bordeaux, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, Carcassonne, Colmar, Lille, Montpellier, Nice, Nîmes, Orléans, Perpignan, Quimper, Rouen, Saint-Denis, Saint-Malo, Strasbourg, Toulon, Toulouse, Tours, Versailles
Berlin
Chania
Budapest
Monaco
Cetinje, Herceg Novi, Kotor
Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch
Kraków
Funchal, Silves
Singapore
Madrid, Arrecife, Barcelona, Girona
Basel
Marmaris
Seattle
English counties I have set foot in
All counties I have set foot in rather than simply passed through, and not nearly as exciting a list as 'how many U.S. states I've set foot in':
- Berkshire
- Buckinghamshire
- Cheshire
- The City of London
- Cornwall
- County Durham
- Cumbria
- Derbyshire
- Devon
- Dorset
- Essex
- Gloucestershire
- Greater London
- Greater Manchester
Hampshire- Herefordshire
- Hertfordshire
- Isle of Wight
- Kent
- Lancashire
- Merseyside
- Norfolk
- Nottinghamshire
- Oxfordshire
- Shropshire
- Somerset
- Staffordshire
- Surrey
- Sussex: East and West
- Tyne and Wear
- Warwickshire
- West Midlands
- Wiltshire
- Worcestershire
- Yorkshire: North, South, East and West
Travel wishlist (no particular order)
- New York City
- Loads more of France, Turkey and my own country.
- Prague
- Moscow
- The Louvre, Paris ✔
- Canadian Rockies
- Snowdonia ✔ish
- Nepal and Tibet
- St Petersburg
- United States National Parks
- The Alhambra (Granada, Spain)
- Egypt, for the archaeology
- India
- Slovakia
- Mongolia
- China
- La Scala, Milan
- Edinburgh ✔
- York ✔
- Mainland Greece - particularly Athens - for the archaeology
- The interior of Montenegro
- Steinbeck's California
- Rome (I would travel back in time to late Republican Rome if I could just to marvel at the spectacle of an ancient metropolis)
- Istanbul
- The Carpathian Mountains
- Yellowstone National Park
- The top of the Shard, London ✔
- The Trans-Siberian Railway (Moscow to Vladivostok!)
- Nîmes ✔
- Lyon
- Penetrate deeper into the Black Forest
- Patagonia, particularly Y Wladfa
- Kyrgyzstan
- Monument Valley
- Louisiana
- Berlin ✔, ideally with my father ✔
- Heidelberg
- Amsterdam by Eurostar
- Tallinn
- Quebec
- The Knepp Estate, West Sussex ✔
- Glasgow
- Stirling
- Northumberland
- Newcastle-upon-Tyne ✔
- Cambridge
- Vienna
- Mexico - particularly MC, Yucatán, San Miguel de Allende, Sonora...
- Chicago
- Boston
- Corsica
- Basque Country
- See the Northern Lights
- Santiago de Chile
- Santiago de Compostela!
- Georgia
- Iceland
- Alaska - apparently Denali is accessible by train.
- Lille → Dunkirk → Kusttram → Bruges → Brussels
- Uzbekistan: Tashkent, Samarkand
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