The light rail from Port Melbourne to the city takes about fifteen minutes, and costs $7.50 return, if you are a pensioner or $15.00 full fare. After the Golden Princess docked in Melbourne, we caught the light rail to the city centre. The cost includes a reusable card that can be ‘topped up’ over the […]
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 light rail from Port Melbourne to the city takes about fifteen minutes, and costs $7.50 return, if you are a pensioner or $15.00 full fare. After the Golden Princess docked in Melbourne, we caught the light rail to the city centre. The cost includes a reusable card that can be ‘topped up’ over the […]
Lifou Island is part of the Loyalty Islands, which is part of New Caledonia, and Noumea is the capital. We approached the island and anchored. The tender boats from Ruby Princess would take us ashore to the small piers. The island is 80 km (50 miles) long and 16 km (10 miles) wide, and is […]
A few years ago Maureen & I and three other couples had a seven week holiday of self catering, self drive around the UK. We hired a mini-bus and stayed in farms and apartments – all self catering. We were a mix of three ex Poms, three Australians, a New Zealander and a Russo – German. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Waterfall & Potatoes We decided to visit Fitzroy Falls because the last time were visited the falls was in 2006 and at that time the falls were covered in mist. The above is the river that feeds the falls and as you see it is not very ‘active’ due to it being the end of […]
The Royal Palace in Nukuʻalofa, which is the capital of the Kingdom of Tonga. I took the photograph from our balcony as we slowly approached the wharf. The maps below will give you an idea of the location of Tonga. The pier as we came alongside. We could see the locals setting up stalls all […]
M/V Chilka The Bay of Biscay and Gibraltar behind us and Chilka heads for Almeria on the southern coats of Spain. From memory it was a small town with few attractions for the cadets, but we loaded over 2000 barrels of grapes in to our freezer chambers destined for Mombasa, in Kenya. Chilka was not a freezer […]
This was the second part of our ‘back to back’ cruising from Sydney in Diamond Princess. We spent a day in Yokohama before sailing to cruise the Japanese coast and a single foreign port in South Korea, Busan, which is across from Japan via the southern part of the Sea of Japan. We would stay […]
The media used to set a certain standard for the correct use of English – but not today. Have you noticed that people no longer utter the word ‘Yes’ for the affirmative, but will answer ‘absolutely’, and if you wish to emphasis ‘Yes’ it has to be ‘Absolutely Correct’, or ‘you are absolutely correct’ if […]
I’ve managed to trace my family back to John Woodland, who was born around 1610, near Newport Pagnell. His grandson, Richard, married Mary Exon, a girl from Ware in Herts , which is 50 miles (80 km) from Newport Pagnell. The distance today is less than an hours drive, so to marry someone so far away in […]
It’s Always You Bing Crosby sang it to Dorothy Lamour, in Zanzibar of course . . . Christmas Day 1964 – we arrived off Mombasa and berthed alongside the Chakla, another Company ship. Also, in port was a BI passenger ship named ‘Karanja’ and this name had a family link for me. My father was […]
