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 […]
My next stop was to visit our agent in Apia, Western Samoa. Western Samoa consists of two main islands and several smaller islands. The island called Upolu is the main island where the capital Apia is located and Faleolo airport and the airline code for this airport is APW, if you plan to visit. The […]
Port Arthur taken from the ship. Maureen and I attended a talk about Port Arthur and Hobart. At the end of the Port Arthur talk the speaker stated that we would be anchored off shore, because Port Arthur was not a port that could cope with a vessel of our size. In fact, all they […]
As I sat in the transit lounge at Tehran airport & scanned my ticket – it was a BOAC ticket, but the the airline was Qantas. As was the boarding pass The aircraft in 1968 was a B 707 /138, which had been modified by Qantas with a turbofan and they renamed their modified aircraft […]
Port Arthur taken from the ship. Maureen and I attended a talk about Port Arthur and Hobart. At the end of the Port Arthur talk the speaker stated that we would be anchored off shore, because Port Arthur was not a port that could cope with a vessel of our size. In fact, all they […]
During the Corona Virus lock down, I decided to do a spot of Spring cleaning of my study. All went well at the beginning until I started to find things that I’d forgotten about, so of course I welcomed the distraction by checking out my own bits & pieces, which I had not seen for […]
In 1945 the Americans bombed the real bridge on the river Kwai. The centre parts of the bridge (the flat bits) are new, and the original part of the bridge has the curved sides. We could walk on the bridge; it is a rail bridge only, and not available for road transport. There was a […]
Eventually I was back at Funafuti airport waiting for the plane to Suva, which is the capital of Fiji. Large international airlines use Nadi, but as my aircraft would be a propeller aircraft our destination would be Suva. The airline that was supposed to fly us (fourteen passengers) failed to arrive, so a substitute had […]
Over fifty-five years of flying as a passenger, with comments on various airlines that I have used. In alphabetical order, not in historical order. I flew part way across the Pacific Ocean in the above aircraft, and years later I found her at a small aerodrome near where I live – no longer in service. […]
We arrived in Colombo on the 8th June at 2.pm for fuel and water, because our next port of call would be Muscat in Oman and it was already getting hot and summer months in or near the Persian Gulf is an experience I can do without. There was little for me to do so […]
In 1945 the Americans bombed the real bridge on the river Kwai. The centre parts of the bridge (the flat bits) are new, and the original part of the bridge has the curved sides. We could walk on the bridge; it is a rail bridge only, and not available for road transport. There was a […]
Savusavu is on the island Vanua Levu, which is on the smaller of the two larger Fijian islands, and I have marked the location. Savusavu is unspoiled & a place that is unhurried and free of most modern trappings and has managed to retain much of yesteryear. Savusavu was a popular trading port for sailing […]
The title of this blog is a dictate that is drummed in to authors – show the reader, don’t lecture the reader. A few years ago we were told that the e-book was overtaking the printed book in popularity – today I am not all that sure. I have an old adage that if I […]
