Sarajevo in 2003: there and back by train. The following was written in 2002 shortly after our journey to Sarajevo to visit our friends Arthur and Elena, who were working in that distressed city at the time. The images and commentary were published on my website as separate galleries but these were subsequently lost or degraded. This is an attempt to resurrect what turned into a travel diary, using my original words which reflect the impressions made on me at…
Concerning our trip to Sicily where we absorb a lot of history and experience the kindness of strangers. If you dig down through the layers of Sicily's history it would seem the whole European story is represented. In reverse order, there are traces from pre-history, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans and most other Medieval European powers. The thought that sparked an intensive session of online booking was: if all these peoples were attracted to this one place, then there must be something there worth going to see. This indeed…
Tears and white knuckles in La Suisse Normande. One of the advantages of being retired is that an unexpected opportunity to travel can be indulged without consequences. Halfway down a third or fourth bottle of wine last year, we had agreed, apparently, to accompany Former Colleagues, M and B on a trip to Normandy. When the subject came up again and firm proposals were being made this year, also at the third or fourth bottle mark, even a smooth verbal…
The journey of a lifetime... probably... Some things stay with you. Back in 1952, Mrs Holland, who confidently asserted then, that by now she would be pushing up the daisies, was the form teacher for class 1A at Hexthorpe Junior Mixed School. She was a good teacher who etched a host of vivid traces in my memory, one of which is the description of her journey to Canada to visit a friend in Calgary. She spoke of crossing…
Slab laying for the only modestly competent: an incomplete guide. Wandering around the garden I often spot something that starts to annoy me. The garden contains many things that could be improved and normally my reaction is to shrug and mentally add the defect, whatever it is, to the long list of “things I ought to do one day”. Sometimes a job will be brought more vigorously to my attention when it happens to coincide with Long Suffering Wife’s complementary lists of…
Our visit to Looe with foam (and a touch of paranoia.) We had only been in the apartment for a few minutes when a figure came up the steps, tapped on the door and let himself in. He was wearing a stained and worn high visibility jacket, which we scarcely noticed because our eyes were drawn to his face. His eyes were slightly bloodshot and had what is sometimes described as “the thousand yard stare”, a phrase I had not really understood until…
