While in South Australia we visited Victor Harbor, which is about eighty kilometres south of Adelaide. Note the missing ‘u’ in Harbor due to a spelling error by an earlier Surveyor General (he was not an American). Oddly enough the current railway station at Victor Harbor is spelled Victor Harbour. The town has a history […]
Nev’s Big Yellow bus – much cheaper than the cruise ship tours and only about eight passengers – easy to get on & off. We were picked up by Nev’s driver / guide and ferried the thirty minutes from Port Chalmers, where we docked, to the centre of Dunedin. The cruise company charged $15 for the […]
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 Goodread, which is a book readers web site, and I was very pleasantly surprised to hear from Stephen […]
As we entered the harbour we passed the Chinese fishing nets, and some of the old buildings that I first saw in 1963. ‘Babu’ was our driver – his tuk tuk on the left. sometimes another tuk tuk wanted our little bit of the road, but Babu always managed to miss them . . . Near […]
Today it is the cherry capital of Australia. In 1847 Edward Taylor planted the first cherry tree in the Lambing Flat area. James White was the first European to lay claim to land in the area in 1826. He had been convicted of horse stealing in Buckinghamshire in the UK in 1812 and transported to […]
Many of us have a book inside that we would like to write if we just knew how – I am not talking about putting pen to paper, but to construct a story that others would wish to read. For years I wanted to write and would throw away my attempts, because I was not […]
Perth mint, which until 1970 was part or the Royal Mint of Britain. In 1970 ownership passed to western Australia. On our recent visit to Perth we took a tour of the old mint. The ‘Mint’ in the city of Perth is now mainly a museum with the ability to sell and market coins etc. […]
We arrived off Muscat, Oman around 7.00 am on the 29th April – Maureen’s birthday. I’d not seen Muscat for about fifty years, and my memory of the city was of ‘yesterday’, so when we arrived the only piece of Muscat I remembered was the cliffs, the old fort and a few houses along the […]
Three guesses for our next destination. I was eighteen when I first visited Japan and have always wanted to take Maureen, so when a positioning cruise came up, at the right price, – I booked Diamond Princess. We sailed in the Diamond Princess from Sydney to Singapore in 2016 so hopefully it’ll be like coming […]
Having flown with nearly fifty different airlines I have finally found an airline that I would not wish to fly with, even if they offered free seats. Rayani Air began services last Sunday (20th Dec). This airline is the first Malaysian Sharia compliant airline. Of course they don’t carry wine, which is not a problem, […]
When 4780 vaults, containing the remains of people, becomes a tourist attraction, it can be hard to think of them as no longer alive. Recleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires is such a place – the above photograph is the entrance to the cemetery. I’m not sure but I think the last person to be entombed […]
Our accommodation in Broken Hill was a converted pub that used to be called the Duke of Cornwall I’d asked for an upstairs room so that we could use the balcony in the evenings. ‘You know who’ on the balcony – in the background can be seen the ‘tailing’ or waste products from the old […]
I asked this lady’s permission to take her photograph. It was during a ‘formal’ evening on the Diamond Princess when a number of Japanese ladies dressed in the national dress of Japan. Our next port of call was Akita, which would be the last for Maureen & I, because we would leave the ship in […]
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 […]
