Josh Oldridge
My two new books!
A couple of years on from Love in a Lost Year, I'm releasing two new books. In the unlikely circumstance someone has a question, or...
top of page
Search
Josh Oldridge
- May 6, 2022
- 10 min
I Dropped Out of Uni With Depression Aged 19 and Restarted at 25: Five Things I Learnt
1. There’s a difference between ‘going for it’ and ‘rushing into it’ People often say ‘go for it’; take the plunge. This can be amazing...
694 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- May 31, 2021
- 10 min
Self-publishing a novel!
Below is a run-through of my self-publishing journey, including some of the key decisions involved and important things I've learnt. I...
187 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- May 29, 2020
- 13 min
COVID-19 Short Story Series: 3. Getting Through
Light pitter-patter, rhythmic: rain on the fly sheet. Viewed from inside, the tent was a shade of blue like that midsection in the ocean...
42 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Mar 23, 2020
- 16 min
COVID-19 Short Story Series: 2. Imminent Tide
“We are gathered here to say farewell to Graham Wallace and commit him to the hands of God,” said the greying vicar, three huge,...
45 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Mar 19, 2020
- 17 min
COVID-19 Short Story Series: 1. Early Days
“What do you think you’re doing?” Sarah asked. Ryan froze, poised with a hand around his knife, ready to scrape his leftover green bean...
49 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Feb 7, 2020
- 8 min
13. Things fall apart and future plans
So came the last full day of the trip. It began at 7am with a round of Wii golf and an iced coffee with Sam, a Maltese guy from the...
54 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Feb 4, 2020
- 6 min
12. Avocados and LDRs
Do I still have time to join the avocado party? There’s late and there’s fashionably late. Maybe after that comes that really awkward...
36 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Feb 1, 2020
- 5 min
11. Elderly Sri Lankan men and sunglasses
Home away from home again. I absolutely love it at Spindrift. On the way to the bus station in Hikkaduwa to get back to Weligama, an...
33 views1 comment
Josh Oldridge
- Jan 29, 2020
- 6 min
10. Real love and waves
After a crazy sweaty train ride, for an hour-and-a-half of which nobody could even lift a hand to scratch their nose and three or four...
68 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Jan 26, 2020
- 8 min
9. Writing and wrist scars
I am a writer. I am a writer. I am a writer. In his book of tips on how to become a writer in the twenty-first century, Jeff Goins...
94 views1 comment
Josh Oldridge
- Jan 25, 2020
- 9 min
8. Alcohol deprivation and opulence
Adam nudged me awake this morning before his bus out to the Knuckles Mountain Range. We hugged and said goodbye. Sad, even if I was a bit...
50 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Jan 23, 2020
- 8 min
7. Loud noises and Milo
Ella is a lovely spot. I can’t help but wonder what the rolling hills of misty rainforest would have looked like before tourism, but the...
51 views1 comment
Josh Oldridge
- Jan 21, 2020
- 10 min
6. Sweaty buses and Monopoly money
I read in a guidebook before the trip that it’s easy to get stuck in Weligama as the days and even weeks roll by. I can completely...
54 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Jan 17, 2020
- 6 min
5. Cinnamon and short-term friendships
I haven’t kept to the self-set schedule of posting a blog update every two days. Apologies to faithful readers. The last few days have...
79 views1 comment
Josh Oldridge
- Jan 13, 2020
- 5 min
4. Parrots and online shopping
I’m consistently having some of the best surfs I’ve ever had. While for some people travelling is about never having two days the same...
65 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Jan 11, 2020
- 5 min
3. Surfing at dawn and Swiss fiction
I shuffle out from under my thin sheet and slide the big box with number 4 painted on the side – my bed number – out from under my bunk....
59 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Jan 9, 2020
- 7 min
2: Leaving the past behind and an Arabian night
Before I went to the USA on my own after dropping out of uni in Leeds, a very nice friend of mine, who I think sensed I was going through...
61 views0 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Jan 7, 2020
- 6 min
Sri Lankan adventure. 1: Travel fears and Murakami
I woke up this morning to a mixture of giddy excitement and a dull feeling of anxiety. I still haven’t changed the alarm tone on my new...
127 views2 comments
Josh Oldridge
- Dec 9, 2019
- 5 min
Book review: I Never Said I Loved You
Reading about depression can seem depressing. At least, at first. But there is something healing in seeing depression written down....
41 views0 comments
bottom of page