When cruising, food is a major consideration – after all good food, which is pleasing to the eye, as well as being tasty, is part of the holiday. On sea days Maureen & I normally visit the dining room for breakfast, rather than the buffet area, because you can meet some interesting passengers over breakfast. […]
We sailed from Southampton the day after we’d arrived with a fresh group of students. This voyage was to Vigo, again, and later Cadiz, where according to Sir Francis Drake he ‘Singed the King’s Beard’ . Sir Francis Drake Singed a King’s Beard in 1587. Drake’s original map, the pink arrow shows how he approached Cadiz harbour. Spain […]
I think that every bus in Cochin (Kochi) had been hired for our arrival. This time we didn’t take a ship’s tour because it is just as easy to DIY. Two of our friends had decided to join us for a tuk tuk tour of Cochin. Our other two friends where having no end of […]
In my youth I used to be a merchant navy deck officer. I started as a cadet and after passing the Second Mates ticket I was offered a job as Third Mate on an LST. When I was interviewed for the position I asked what an LST was, and was told that it was a […]
SS Shieldhall, used to be a Clyde ‘sludge boat’. 1972 GT, built in 1954 and now saved as a piece of history and maintained by volunteers. In 2012 she was repainted in the colours of R.M.S Titanic to mark the centenary of the sinking. She operates over the weekend as a pleasure steamer taking tourists […]
I wrote three months ago about out recent visit to Dubai, with air conditioned bus stops, very clean railways station and the largest shopping centre in the world. The above photograph shows Dubai Creek flowing sluggishly towards the Persian Gulf in 1964 – I never dreamt that I would return as a tourist fifty two years […]
Floating Market outside Bangkok. Hire a boat and enjoy the experience. They cater for all tastes. Access to the market can be made from the landward side. We walked through the market to get to the boats. The locals also buy from the boat people. The young girl had just bought a hot meal. Most […]
Where there is faith there is light and strength The translation of the moto above. My father’s family have lived in Birkenhead since around 1870, after moving from St Albans in Hertford via Derby. My mother’s family were relatively newcomers having moved from Caernarvon in North Wales in 1921. I was born in the same […]
I was sixteen when I made my first visit ‘abroad’ in 1960, I’d been asked to help a teacher to look after a group of British school children while visiting Germany. We were to stay at Youth Hostels as we made our way up the Rhine by rail and returned via paddle steamer, Bismark Paddle […]
Arriving at Laem Chabang, which is the port for Bangkok, around 6.00 am, I rushed out with my trusty point and click camera. As I clicked the shutter my glasses fogged, as did the camera lens – I hadn’t allowed for the huge change in humidity from our air conditioned cabin to Thailand’s humidity even […]
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 […]
I’d always wanted to return to Sri Lanka (still Ceylon in my mind) to show Maureen something different, but this time I wanted to stay at the Mount Lavinia Hotel, not just visit for lunch as I had when I was at sea. We flew in from Malaysia and after immigration & customs we entered a […]
I wrote three months ago about out recent visit to Dubai, with air conditioned bus stops, very clean railways station and the largest shopping centre in the world. The above photograph shows Dubai Creek flowing sluggishly towards the Persian Gulf in 1964 – I never dreamt that I would return as a tourist fifty two years […]
I’ll never go abroad – which was a stupid comment that I made at thirteen, comes back to bite me. My first adventure abroad was just after I’d just turned sixteen in 1960. Billy Beedles, who was a family friend and a schoolteacher asked me to accompany him in August to help shepherd a […]
