When friend Stuart Carter announced he was off to New York and Washington I envisaged him returning with a mini Statue of Liberty or something emblazed with I Heart NY for the £5 Souvenir Challenge.  But Stu didn’t disappoint and returned with a 3 inch tall nodding Barack Obama from DC!  With the start of the election trail this political souvenir seemed aptly poignant.

I asked Stu what prompted this purchase, he replied “I was looking for something that was clearly American but wasn’t obvious.  I was amazed that somebody somewhere thought that the perfect souvenir would be a nodding President – I think it says more about the psyche of the American people and their view of their leaders than anything else!  I can’t imagine these being sold in North Korea!”

Thanks Stu for adding to the departureboard’s growing souvenir collection.  Now we have a president as tall as the Burj Khalifa!

We have introduced a scoring system based on tackiness, comedy value and how represents the country, each out of ten.  Well done to Barack for winning this election, so far!

Leaderboard:

Nodding Obama (USA)  Tackiness: 6   Comedy Value: 8   Represents Country: 9   Total: 23

Kefalonia Windmill (Greece)  Tackiness: 7   Comedy Value: 4   Represents Country: 6   Total: 17

Gold Burj Khalifa (UAE)  Tackiness: 6   Comedy Value: 3   Represents Country: 7   Total: 16

What we are reading: We know people who love to travel love to read about travel.

Simon is reading The Backpacker by John Harris: If you enjoyed Alex Garland’s The Beach or William Sutcliffe’s Are You Experienced? then The Backpacker by John Harris should entertain you.  The true story starts with John and his girlfriend in India then following her returning home he embarks on a series of increasingly bizarre journeys.

Gavin is reading At Home by Bill Bryson: If you think that your mind is always in overdrive, spare a thought for Bill Bryson, who can’t seem to switch off no matter where he is! If you enjoy an element of history and travel in your reading material, ‘At Home’ would be a worthy purchase. It is a book written along the same lines as ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’, but it also has many similarities with his travel books, written in his usual witty style, just set at home.  ‘At Home’ succeeds in answering many questions, some of which you wanted to know and others, you probably had never given any thought!

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