(Backdated. Posted 29/9/2017) Good morning! It was garbage day in our street in Chiswick. As usual, you notice the little things that are different from home. In the London Borough of Hounslow, the garbos (what’s the local term? Not sure) don’t have an arm on the truck that grabs the bins; they have to manually ... [More]
Backdated. Posted 21/9/2017 Time to head back to London for the last few days of our holiday. We packed up our stuff and left the Air BNB flat. A word about the flat. It had been chosen for its location (walking distance to Brussels Midi/Zuid station), which along with the price, which were its best ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 18/9/2017) Monday! Our last full day in Brussels, and also a day when, generally, most museums in Belgium are closed. It was raining in the morning for the first time on the holiday, apart from some drizzle in Penzance. We got a little wet walking down to the Metro, and decided to use ... [More]
This in the Herald Sun a few weeks ago: Melbourne traffic congestion on par with world’s biggest cities like London, Rome and New York (paywall): TRAFFIC congestion in Melbourne is on par with New York and could rival the world’s worst cities if nothing is done to combat the problem. Figures supplied by Tom Tom ... [More]
Backdated. Posted 15/9/2017. We headed back to our Brussels Zuid/Midi Station, wary again of infestations of pickpockets, but again seeing none. Seriously, I was doubting the numerous reports of this — either they’re invisible to me or they simply aren’t there since the military and police have moved in following recent terrorist attacks. I bought ... [More]
Backdated. Posted 7/9/2017 I was starting to get more comfortable in Belgium. It was getting easier as we realised how many people spoke English (most of them) and as I picked up a few words of French. We had worked out a few more things to do while in Brussels – and on this Saturday ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 2/9/2017) What with sleeping in after a big day, and clearing the laundry backlog that had built up since Cardiff a week before, we didn’t leave the house until after midday. So if we only did one thing today, make it something good. Given we were in Belgium, and I’m a lifelong Tintin ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 26/8/2017) Good morning! It’s 5:30am! Here’s your breakfast tray! Actually the sleeper train wake-up call was not as perky as that. And it was fine getting up, despite being early, because I’d set my phone to beep 10 minutes beforehand. I pulled up the blind and looked out the window. We were sitting ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 22/8/2017.) Unlike the budget hotel in Bath, this hotel in Penzance included a full English breakfast, of which we availed ourselves. Very tasty. We’d be spending the day in and around Penzance, but leaving in the evening, so we had to check-out. The hotel initially seemed a bit iffy about having the space ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 16/8/2017) We bade our farewells to the family and my uncle K gave us a lift to Taunton station. First step to our next destination was a train to Exeter, or to be precise, Exeter St Davids. As with Bath a few days earlier, Exeter is served by multiple railway stations, originally built ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 15/8/2017) Sunday, and today was the day we were scheduled to meet all the English relatives – aged from 2 to 92 – this was one of the primary reasons for the trip. But first – breakfast! We hit the streets of Bath in search of food, discovering yet again that before 8am, ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 10/8/2017.) The hotel, being a cheapie, didn’t offer breakfast, so we sprung out around 7:30 looking for food… and discovered that almost nowhere in Bath is open before 8am, at least not on a Saturday. Eventually (eg at 8am, or just before) we found a great cafe near Bath Abbey just opening up, ... [More]
Friday morning in Cardiff, yet another warm sunny day — I was in danger of getting sunburnt. The locals all swore it was highly unusual to have this much sun — apparently “sunburn” and “Wales” are words not often found in one sentence. Time to head elsewhere, but first, one more walk to Cardiff Bay ... [More]
Yes, it’s that time when I run out of blog post ideas delve into the photo archive and post another in my series of photos from ten years ago. This first photo I probably took because I’ve long had a bee in my bonnet about fare gates being left open. But look how amazingly empty ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 4/8/2017.) We’d be leaving Cardiff the next day, so before heading out we decided to get some laundry done. This is one of the benefits of Air B’n’B over hotels – at least if you’ve booked somewhere with a washing machine. Then, what excursion today? We’d considered trying to get to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 31/7/2017) Oh the joys of jetlag. Having gone to bed at 8pm, I woke at about 5am. But being summer, it was already light. Eventually it seemed like a half-decent time to get up and out, and we prepared for our mission. Why had we come to Cardiff in the first place? And ... [More]