Disconnected Jottings

We’ve been in Cairns, in beautiful tropical Queensland! This is another spot that has been on our list for years, Great Barrier Reef, tropical rain forest, crocodile infested rivers – this place has it all. Read the rest of this entry »

It makes sense to think about developing a strategy for staying healthy, for staying alive while maintaining a good quality of life. In my case, 50+ years of hill-walking and jogging has just about destroyed my knees, so a new approach was indicated, something that would allow a good cardiovascular workout without undue strain on the joints. Read the rest of this entry »

The NZ leg of the trip didn’t work out quite as planned. At the last minute, our friends in Auckland were called away to the South Island to visit a terminally ill friend of theirs, an elderly man recently diagnosed with leukaemia. Read the rest of this entry »

This part of the trip was to fulfill a childhood wish, something that had been in the back of my mind even before my teenage years. I really don’t remember what gave me this idea, perhaps it came from reading about the fascinating exploits of Captain Cook (he ‘discovered’ the islands in 1778 and died there in 1779). Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday a.m., sitting in the departure lounge at Los Angeles, waiting for the Honolulu flight. Made the right decision to fly with British Midland and their Air NZ partners on this trip, the alternative supplier would have been BA, commonly described as a ‘pension fund with an airline attached’ and the employer of some of the worst examples of customer service personnel that it has been my misfortune to experience. Read the rest of this entry »

John Tribe’s photo of Davidson’s Linn introduces our annual pilgrimage to Alwinton Show 2007, traditionally the last major agricultural show of the season and a ‘must’ for all old Wullupians and/or lovers of Northumberland. Read the rest of this entry »

I admit it – when I travel by air I’m worried about the carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and water vapour emissions being generated by the aircraft that whisks me off to foreign parts. Read the rest of this entry »

As a ‘late developer’, I have an interest in just what it is that enables some folk to continue at a reasonable level of intellectual involvement as they age, while many (most?) other people appear to lose their performance edge as time ticks away. Read the rest of this entry »

This Greek sojourn happened almost by accident. Via the internet, I had helped some members of a Greek walking club to visit Morocco for a walk up Djebel Toubkal and a look around Marrakech. Read the rest of this entry »