Ushuaia on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, is considered the most southerly city in the world – also known as the end of the world. We arrived in Ushusia at 6.00 pm and immediately went alongside. We were all looking forward to the excursion the next day, which was a trip on the End of […]
Our first port of call on the way to Japan was Darwin, which is the capital of Northern Australia, with a population of about 150,000. Charles Darwin 1809 – 1882 In 1839 Lieutenant John Lort Stokes of HMS Beagle, was the first British person to spot the harbour of what was to become Darwin. Commander […]
This blog is aimed mainly at Australian readers, so I apologise to my other readers. I am tired of the multi-coloured banner across the top of my blog, even though I’ve tried to have it removed, and investigated how to remove it myself, but I don’t have the computer knowledge. It is obviously a banner […]
James Brooke (29th April 1803 – 11 June 1868) The picture is from a painting by Sir Francis Grant in 1847 Sarawak, the name brings forth ideas of head hunters and ‘daring do’ from comics that I read in the 1950’s. Little did I know that one day I would sail up the Sarawak River to the town […]
The emblem of Kuwait Kuwait is about 277 miles north of Dammam, or a short seventeen hour voyage, but far enough away for the weather to have changed for the worse. We arrived off Kuwait at night during a wild storm with high winds and dashing rain that hammered on the bridge windows. The clear […]
After leaving Nuddea I was asked to attend an interview in London. I was a little apprehensive because I thought it was because of the near closing of Liverpool docks, when I asked a crane driver not to rip the bottom out of the cargo. It wasn’t, it was to tell me that I was […]
Two days after Pearl Harbour the Japanese attacked and captured Tarawa in December 1941. The island became a fortress, buildings were knocked down and all the palm trees removed. The local population became slaves and were forced to create bunkers, an airstrip and concrete structures with metal spikes concreted into the coral reefs around the […]
Our third and final promo was with Aer Lingus – the above shows Aer Lingus B 707 at Manchester Airport.We picked New York again, but this time we didn’t fly direct, but via Dublin and Shannon. The memorable thing about this flight for me was at Dublin Airport while we were in transit. I visited […]
On one diversion that had monkeys as cargo we had to remove them from the aircraft to have the hold cleaned and also to feed and water the animals. Unfortunately, one of the monkeys escaped and ran across the warehouse floor to the wall and within a few seconds had scaled the wall and […]
Two and a half times around the deck equals one mile (1.66 km) Yesterday we thought we’d do the mile before breakfast, only to find that the deck we wished to use was ‘closed’ due to the crew washing down and they didn’t want anyone to slip and hurt themselves. We climbed to various other […]
On receiving the contract, I read it quickly and then read it again more slowly and then one more time, after which I decided that I needed help to make the correct decision. I bounced the idea off members of Goodreads , which is a book readers web site, and I was very pleasantly surprised to […]
Catherine’s Palace at Peterhof (Petergof is the Russian spelling) It was a warm day and I didn’t envy the staff in their period costumes. The picture shows the north side of the palace, or what was called the carriage courtyard. The palace originated in 1717 by command of Catherine 1 of Russia. If you like […]
We arrived safely in Moji, and when off duty, I was free to walk around the town. It was 1967 and the lack of English language signs was noticeable, considering that all of the other Japanese ports (about five or six) that I’d visited, had some western symbols, even if it was only a neon […]
With a capacity of 800 you had to be seated at least 30 minutes before the show began. The Princess ships have their own dancers and singers, and their own musical backing – in addition, various outside entertainers are engaged for one or two nights. They would fly in – entertain the passengers and fly […]
