ThunderingTyphoons!

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 2023, I have been a Wikivoyager for ten years and I am a bureaucrat on the administrative team.
My work on Wikivoyage
Babel user information | ||
---|---|---|
| ||
Users by language |
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:
|
|
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.
Favourite infoboxes of mine
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 |
Cream tea wars Devon and Cornwall are divided not just by the Tamar, but by the proper way to prepare scones... Read more |
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 |
Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé ! Every third Thursday of November, the new Beaujolais wine arrives at bars and restaurants across France... Read more |
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 |
The girl beneath the Gherkin In 1995, during construction of the Gherkin skyscraper, the skeleton of a young girl was unearthed... Read more |
The Highgate vampire As 1969 turned to 1970, letters sent to the Hampstead and Highgate Express related frightened locals' alleged encounters with evil... Read more |
'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 |
Barncompasses
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) |
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) |
The Wikivoyage Barncompass | |
Great work on handling outdated docent notices. ---Selfie City (talk | contributions) 00:29, 23 August 2018 (UTC) |
Barnstar of Good Humor | |
Thank you for making me smile today. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:30, 9 April 2020 (UTC) |
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) |
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) |
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) |
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) |
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) |
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
Upcoming
- January 2024: retour à Paris
Recent
- 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
- September-October 2022: The Algarve - postponed since 2020
- May 2022: Berlin
- March 2022: Cardiff
- December 2021: Edinburgh, fulfilling a lifelong ambition.
- September 2021: Llanrhian in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park
- July 2021: York, Harrogate, and Knaresborough
- May 2021: Isle of Wight - it's the era of the hyperlocal staycation!
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 | The Trossachs | 56.24° N |
Southernmost | Sea Lion Island | 52.26° S |
Easternmost | Taupo | 176.06° E |
Westernmost | Port Howard | 59.50° 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 | Kraków | 500 km (310 mi) from Baltic Sea |
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: Tours (Saint-Pierre-des-Corps) — Strasbourg (Ville) Multiple trains: Farnborough (Main) — Tours (Gare de Tours) |
700 km (430 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
- 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 22 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
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, Winchester, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Wrexham, York
- Mostar
- 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
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