The last night of the cruise – don’t know how many balloons they go through in a year, because there is a big ‘bash’ at the end of every cruise. We’d left Akita and headed north east through the night and the following day, which was a sea day. During the night of the sea […]

How to turn a pollywog in to a shellback. On the 5th April we crossed the Equator on the way to Bangkok. Many passengers had not crossed the ‘line’ before, so according to tradition they are Pollwogs. A ceremony was required to satisfy King Neptune and turn them in to Shellbacks. Fortunately I had crossed the […]

Recently flew from Helsinki to Bangkok with Finnair, so of course they offered reindeer as a choice of meat for the evening meal. It was very lean meat with a nice texture, which went very well with the red wine. I had to try it because I like to try ‘new’ meat having eaten kangaroo […]

On our arrival in Lisbon I phoned the ‘greeter’ to let her know that we had arrived and that we were queuing for a taxi. As we reached the front of the queue I indicated that we required a large vehicle to accommodate four people and all our luggage. The vehicle assigned to us resulted in […]

Acropolis by Leo von Klenze 1846 It was a short voyage from Istanbul to Piraeus, which is the port for Athens.  Once again I took advantage of the student tours and walked around the Parthenon overlooking Athens. I took this photograph of Athens in 2015, the Parthenon was behind me. Visiting the Parthenon was nowhere […]

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 members of Goodreads , which is a book readers web site, and I was very pleasantly surprised to […]

The first commercial wet dock in the world was opened in Liverpool in 1715. It was known originally by the engineer’s name Thomas Steer’s Dock, but later, as other docks were built it became known as the Old Dock. This Old Dock was infilled in 1826. When Liverpool One was being created they found the Old […]

M/S Dunera in Malta After a four month voyage in MV Chilka to East Africa, I was allowed ten days leave before the telegram arrived that I as to join MS Dunera in Venice. Three days later I flew with Alitalia from London to Venice, via Milan. Fortunately, ALITALIA didn’t live up to her acronym Always […]

Llangollen to me means two things, beyond the beauty of the town of course, – the international music eisteddfod and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, so when we visited the UK for our self drive, self catering holiday with our Australian friends, Llangollen was on the list. In 1943 the British Council organised for members of governments in exile […]

Our next port of call was Tauranga – the above is of the sunrise as was we entered Tauranga harbour, which is a beautiful place to visit. Entering the harbour. Maureen & I were fortunate because our daughter in law’s parents live in Tauranga and had offered to be our guides for the day, and to […]

After leaving Nuddea I was asked to attend an interview in London. I was a little apprehensive because I thought it was because of the near closing of Liverpool docks, when I asked a crane driver not to rip the bottom out of the cargo. It wasn’t, it was to tell me that I was […]

Danang, China Beach and Good Morning Vietnam – with Robin Williams’ Viva Danang comes to mind when I think of this area. We flew from Saigon to Danang airport, which is the airport for Hoi An, where we would be staying. On arrival in Danang (about 9.00 am), we were met by Phong ‘Our man in Danang’, […]

Chakdara We loaded tea in Trincomalee for five days before sailing to Madras.  I stayed on board this time because I was not going to be accused of not being aware of our sailing time. Our next leg took us from Madras to Aden, which is across the harbour from Little Aden – at least we […]

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 […]