It is fifty years since Richmal Crompton died at the age of 78 in 1969. Her original idea was to write stories of children for adults, but they ended up becoming favourites of the children instead, and still are today. Over 12 million copies of her books were sold in the UK, at the time […]
Metro station entrance – note the lack of graffiti, litter and rubbish, nor did we see anyone constantly cleaning so the locals must have been well educated with regard to litter etc. Metro platform, well designed and marked out to let passengers off the train before new passengers enter the coach. Train about to leave […]
BOAC I joined BOAC in 1969 and in 1971 an Act of Parliament merged BOAC with BEA to take affect from 31 March 1974, which would create British Airways. The UK had joined the Common Market, as it was called then, in January 1973, so the merger of the two government-controlled airlines made sense. BOAC […]
One leaving the Royal Flying Doctor we had to find a cold drink so we decided to visit Bell’s Milk Bar , which is an icon in Broken Hill, and not far from the airport. Bell’s goes back to 1893, but is now stuck in the 1950’s. Regardless of Bell’s age the drinks were cold and […]
From the beginning the ship attracted a certain type of boy. 1860 Mathew Webb went on to be the first man to swim the English Channel. 1861 Warrington Baden Powell later in life was the founder of the Sea Scouts. 1868 Admiral Sir Sackville Carden Carden KCMG RN was asked by Churchill, who was First Lord of the Admiralty, […]
I’d been out East for just over a year sailing in the waters of the Far East and down to Australia & New Zealand, and in the last month or so my sore throat had been getting worse. Originally I thought it was a standard sore throat and that it would ‘go away’ in due […]
Golden Princess, a sixteen-year-old ship, which has managed to maintain her grace. The Golden Princess is registered in London. The above photo clearly illustrates the historical link between Australia and the UK. The flag on the left is the Princess company flag. We did notice a few things different from the more modern vessels. The […]
In southern Scotland there is an area that used to be called Peebleshire, until 1975 when Scotland abolished counties as local government areas. Robert Barclay of Glasgow, founded an engineering & ship building company in 1818, and and over the years it grew in size. In 1875 he built the first four-masted, iron-hulled fully rigged […]
Our driver arrived five minute early, I do love efficiency, and at 3.00 am we had the fastest drive ever to the airport, which was just over twenty minutes instead of the normal 45 minutes. Check-in went smoothly and our bags checked through to Rome. We were given vouchers for a hotel near Dubai airport, Le […]
We were picked up from the ship at 7.30 am for another day of sight seeing with TJ Travel. Our first stop was the the souvenir shop owned by the agency so that we could pay for our two day’s of sight seeing. The shop was quite large and the items on display interesting and […]
From the beginning the ship attracted a certain type of boy. 1860 Mathew Webb went on to be the first man to swim the English Channel. 1861 Warrington Baden Powell later in life was the founder of the Sea Scouts. 1868 Admiral Sir Sackville Carden Carden KCMG RN was asked by Churchill, who was First Lord of the Admiralty, […]
While in Prague we stayed at the Hotel General, where all the bedrooms are dedicated to different military generals. Hotel General – Prague – http://www.hotel-general.com/en/ the building dates from 1890 – and was converted to the current hotel in 2007. This hotel is out of the tourist area, which is a positive, because the evenings were quiet […]
HMT Dunera (B.1937) She is shown as a troop ship when visiting Malta, I think the photo was taken in the 1950’s. A couple of years ago Maureen and I completed a road trip around NSW, South Australia and Victoria. During the trip I planned to drive from Beechworth to Mildura; both towns are in […]
While researching Prince of Wales Island (now called Penang) for the sequel to Ice King (aka Triangle Trade) I came across details of the German cruiser SMS Emden, which had links to Penang. Maureen often says that I am more interested in the research than the act of writing, which to an extent is correct. Little […]
