Announcing my new book: Trials & Tea Ceremonies: Misadventures in Far Away Places. READ MORE Yaks for tea and Tibetan Temples. Living the high life in Shangri-la READ MORE Mount Wudang and the Meaning of Life READ MORE Remembering Catherine READ MORE The day I met the Buddha, and killed him READ MORE Basho rewrites: Rime of the Frostmaiden - Destruction's Light. READ MORE You're the Pretender - a Tier 1 tribute READ MORE Critical Praise for "Trials & Tea Ceremonies" READ MORE Varanasi City of Gods - Special Edition READ MORE Chan Buddhism, Daoism and Zen - Journey through the East READ MORE The Hidden Context in some Great Movies READ MORE The Iron Church - Why Do People Quit Fitness Training? READ MORE “Countryside walk” – Digital Watercolour READ MORE Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, green tea and finding inner peace READ MORE Varanasi - City of the Hindus READ MORE Iron Church goes LIVE on the Apple iPhone iOS App Store READ MORE Harvest Bales, Late Summer Mist READ MORE The Iron Church - Why Do People Quit Fitness Training? READ MORE “Morgan” – Digital Watercolour READ MORE The Storm King's Thunder and the Dragon's Bane READ MORE Basho rewrites: Rime of the Frostmaiden - Defeating Auril, DM's guide and ending READ MORE The Alam Clock Lesson READ MORE And so I went for a walk... READ MORE Waterdeep: Dragon Heist | Dungeons & Dragons READ MORE What is Daoism/Taoism? READ MORE Basho rewrites: Rime of the Frostmaiden – Sunblight READ MORE Beijing and the Great Wall - Our final days in China READ MORE Convention Chronicles #1 READ MORE Basho's bonus modules: Rime of the Frostmaiden – an Adventure with Pirates READ MORE On the nature of art, a definition READ MORE
Welcome to the Outside Context Homepage2026-06-29T20:06:25+01:00

About Outsidecontext.com

Articles and films from Outside Context have been licensed for use by airlines, featured in Webby award winning phone apps, published as degree level English exam questions, played on Indian evening news and in global advertising by Google.

Harvest Bales, Late Summer Mist

Painted from an evening walk through Suffolk. The almost-pink mist and long shadows, combined with the sweep of the field to the epic sky above, created a true and warm sense of space and clarity. Prints and full landscape portfolio: https://www.saatchiart.com/en-gb/bashomatsuo

The Alam Clock Lesson

Early in my leadership career, I had a junior member of staff who was late to work. Nothing unusual about that, you may think, for are we not all occasionally late into the office? Most of us commute and moreover [...]

Remembering Catherine

"Remembering Catherine" by Basho Today, on the anniversary of her passing, I present a new painting; a present for my mother in law. This digital portrait was painted in Rebelle 5 Pro.

The Storm King’s Thunder and the Dragon’s Bane

There follows the campaign we have played all through the 2020 lockdown. It has helped us all resist the mental anguish of the COVID virus, recover from the infection itself and be a beacon of bright enjoyment for all. Truly the great value of this magical game cannot be overstated when played with attentive and imaginative children. So, I present the chronicle of my son, my daughter and my wife playing their first campaign after the starter set, Storm King's Thunder!

Udaipur

Udaipur is famous for many reasons. To those in the west it is mostly known for its gleaming white Jag Niwas hotel found in the middle of one of its many lakes. To the Indians [...]

A Wild Sheep Chase

**Caution this post contains spoilers for The Wild Sheep Chase!** When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons and Dragons with, it being the 80’s and the game not being popular here in the United [...]

Tier 1 Military Simulation – Airsoft Training Day

It is often said that Airsoft is a game of extreme variety. At one end of the spectrum there are the speedball players who only play in small arenas. For they the game is about CQC accuracy, high rates of fire and aggression. Tactics tend to be personal and if they play as a team at all it is usually in very small groups. There is hardly what could be called commanders. This was the airsoft of Electrowerkz. Veterans of that site tend to be tough, able to run into massive volumes of fire without flinching and a little unhinged. All the way at the other end of the spectrum is the sort of military simulation that companies such as Stirling offer in the form of training missions, hiking into countryside for 2 days for a 10 minute fire fight and being tortured when captured. It is into this enormous dichotomy that Tier 1 Military Simulations has launched their services pitched at both parties.

Tier 1 Military Simulation – Urban Airsoft Training Day

Criticism isn't as easy as people like to think. This is because that, while everyone knows when things have not gone optimally, as the old adage goes, “opinions are like assholes; everyone has got one”. However opinions are not often the result of well thought-out analysis, but rather the result of frustration and the need to vent anger. In airsoft, where bad command decisions can lead directly to the unquestionably real pain of being laced or embarrassed, most teams have a very simple method of dealing with the potential for such situations: They don’t have commanders at all.

Tier 1 Military Simulation – Tier 1 – Year 1

This film is a compilation of clips and unseen footage from the games I attended run by Tier 1 Military Simulation. Before 2011 I had not played much milsim, now... well I recently laid in a puddle from 1am, freezing cold and surrounded by poisonous mushrooms, for 8 hours to spring an ambush! I fell asleep and started snoring. Moments later I was awoken by a wet weight crashing down on my back. Team commander Trip had thrown a log at me, missed, hit a tree and it had collapsed a rotten limb across my sprawled form. Had the opposition walked past at that particular moment then they would have heard the rest of the concealed team completely failing to stop laughing.

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