Shigeru Mizuki is a Japanese Manga author who was born in 1922 and lived in Sakaminato. Shigeru Mizuki When he was a child he was a prodigy and during his time in primary school his skill with a pencil was so good that one of his teachers arranged an exhibition of his work. When he […]

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 […]

Thanks to Covid Maureen and I were unable to spend our Emirates frequent flyer points, which we had saved for a trip from Singapore to Sydney after cruising to Singapore.We were keen to spend the points before they were cancelled by the airline. After considering several options we finally decided to spend them on accommodation, […]

According to some people Mark Twain said, ‘Everybody talks of the weather, but nobody does anything about it.’, but he didn’t make this comment, it was his friend Charles Dudley Warner who said Twain’s famous comment first. When I was at sea in the 1960’s we tried to do something about the weather. We didn’t have the luxury of satellite communications […]

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, […]

On our return to Singapore I received a letter from head office informing me that I was to fly to Calcutta to join an Australian bound ship. More frequent flyer points lost . . . I flew to Calcutta and stayed at the Great Eastern Hotel, which had been a hotel since 1840 and it […]

My first view of Buenos Aires from our balcony – not a very attractive site with the heavy rain clouds. Our arrival meant that we would be alongside from early Saturday morning until Sunday afternoon, when the ship would sail with a new ‘cargo’ of passengers. Our plan was to experience BA on Saturday morning, […]

In my last posting I promised photographs of the public areas inside the Ruby Princess. This our cabin, on first impressions we thought it was smaller than similar Princess ships cabins. On a positive note it had plenty of storage space, a standard bathroom, which included the shower, which was one of the best that I’ve […]

Chakdara – launched 1951, 7,132 gt The first Chakdara (3,035 gt) was launched in 1914 and was named after an important trading town in northern India, which was on the main trading route to Afghanistan.In 1933 she was sold to Burma Steam Nav Co., but she foundered off Burma in 1935. After partition the town of Chakdara was […]

Considering the current pandemic I thought I would throw in a comment or two about a visit to Fremantle to load cargo for the Middle East, but before we could leave port a number of us had to have our vaccinations updated. This happened periodically to protect us from ‘catching’ something dangerous from yellow fever […]

Flag of Wales The Eisteddfod can be traced back to Cardigan Castle in 1176, when the House of Dinefwr, which was a royal house of Wales, supported the eisteddfod. The House of Dinefwr can be traced back to King of Gwynedd in 844. The above is the flag of Dinefwr. The Eisteddfod had it ups […]

By 1946 over 500 Japanese had died in Australia. This number included those who died in the breakout of August 1944. The Japanese who died in attempting to escape were buried in a plot next to the Australian War Cemetery in Cowra.  The war ended and the RSL (Returned and Services League) of Australia would […]

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 […]

Entering Akaroa, which in English means ‘Long Harbour’. Our ship anchored off the small port and used the ship’s tenders to get the passengers ashore. The wharf where we were dropped off by the tenders. A beautiful area where I just couldn’t stop taking pictures – I only wish my photographic skill had been better. […]