You might not think that the first regular round-up of new travel content of 2025 that’s been recently published on this site would include many new articles what with it taking place so very early in the year and what with us just having had a busy festive period where everybody’s been off doing things and seeing people and, after all, nobody in their right minds has time to waste on their personal blogs, but you’d be wrong to think that because we work and avoid people as much as possible at this time of the year. People! Urgh! So, I’ve been busy.
Yes, there are, in fact, over six – that’s seven! – new bits of writing up on the website that you’ve almost certainly not seen before. And without any further ado because I don’t want to use up my quota of ado for the year ahead too early, here they are:
The travelogues covering our 2023 cruise on Britannia to Norway have continued, starting with the departure from the port of Stavanger. “What sort of things can you possibly see from your balcony when leaving this Norwegian port that you didn’t already show when you wrote about sailing into the port?” I hear you ask, and yet conveniently fail to answer.
A chance to visit a new port in Norway for us was then scuppered by the weather so we were treated to a day of scenic cruising in the fjords instead. And the Norwegian fjords are pretty damned spectacular, as I’m sure you already know. Also, on this occasion, incredibly cold. So, so cold. On account of that weather.
The following day on this cruise was t-shirt weather just to keep us on our toes and it was also a chance to return to the incredibly picturesque village of Flåm (the little ‘o’ above the ‘a’ means you pronounce it as if you’ve wedged a doughnut vertically in your mouth, just so you know). We ended up walking a gorgeous little trail that took us past stunning views and to a waterfall. Have you even been on a Norwegian fjords cruise if you don’t go and visit at least one waterfall?
Hiking to the waterfall gave us a good excuse to reward ourselves with a return to the Ægir brewery in Flåm, something we absolutely would have done anyway even if we’d just walked straight off the ship and in through its doors. We’d encountered this star of Norway’s craft ale-brewing scene when we’d visited this part of the world a decade earlier. There was no way we were not going to go in for a drink or four.
The final port of call on that 2023 cruise on Britannia was a first visit to Haugesund for us and the first write-up covering it saw us brave the cold drizzle of the day and head off for a walk to the Haraldshaugen National Monument. Who was Harald? Why does he have a monument? Can I have a monument?
That’s all for the cruise travelogue write-ups, but if you’ve been counting the pictures that link to articles on your toes then you’ll realise that five is not even close to being more than six, as previously promised. Am I the sort of person who will lie to readers? Absolutely. However, there have been two more articles on the site but those have been a couple more of my not-filler-honestly posts. I don’t want this site to be one unending series of travel write-ups in chronological order when there are so many other things I can stick in to confuse things. Basically, sometimes I’ll open up a folder of images from yesteryear and think “Ooh, I haven’t put them online yet!”
First up, from 2014, a look at what you would have seen if you’d attended the Southsea Rural And Seaside Show. Can you imagine if someone genuinely did want to see that? That’s the sort of question that keeps me up at night. If the internet isn’t for answering questions like that then why are we even bothering with it?
Finally for the new content, and even further back in time, it’s a look at Clandon Park from 2007. To me – and I freely admit, maybe not to you, or anyone for that matter – there’s a bit of interest in this post. Firstly, this was early in my using a camera with more than one button era so the pictures I took back then were truly terrible; the ones that made it into the post needed a lot of love and care to get them that far. Secondly, it was interesting to compare what you can read online about the National Trust property and what we knew from our guidebook bought at the time. As a result, there’s stuff in my post that you won’t find on Wikipedia. Ooh! Thirdly, the house was devastated by fire in more recent years and is still undergoing some work to restore what they can and reopen. That might arguably make the post somewhat useful. That’ll be a novelty.
So that’s all the new travel content since the last blog (or newsletter for those who’ve signed up to receive this that way), and with there having been an end-of-year review recently published there’s not been time to do or see anything newsworthy enough to stick here at the end that hasn’t already been published.
However, I thought I might just describe a lovely bit of flouncing I engaged in recently and also address the final part of the title of this post for anyone who for reasons best kept to themselves was looking forward to finding out what the hell I was talking about there.
I have removed all the videos from this site. And all the videos have been removed from everyone’s first choice of video-hosting platforms when they think of videos (it rhymes with moo boob) too. And I’m unlikely to ever put videos back on this site.
I don’t take a lot of videos. I tried for a while because there’s a use case for them for people who want to see something. But, that’s what the photos are for too. Videos are a time-sink and their usefulness for this site’s write-ups was very limited. I’ve never tried to monetise videos either, and would never have qualified for revenue-sharing without effectively playing the content-creation game and becoming an overworked and underpaid employee of a behemoth with no benefits.
Every company can work out how to be profitable and every person who uses a service can work out what they’re prepared to pay in terms of what they give up or what reward they get for it, but when a company tries to take away that choice it crosses a line.
I support the right of people to not be tracked and to not be assaulted with adverts. I use an ad-blocker, like many people do, but still, importantly, a tiny fraction of people online. That’s important. When a stupidly rich company decided it needed to block the blockers and removed compatibility from their browser, that’s when I stopped using Chrome. When the world’s largest video company who also happened to be owned by that same stupidly wealthy company started trying to block people who were blocking their ads from doing so that’s when I deleted all the content I’d uploaded to them and removed all references to them from this site.
Those videos I deleted weren’t great but they had attracted tens of thousands of views, lots of positive comments, and not one single thumbs down in the decade or more of uploads. They likely kept visitors to that video site there and viewing something else and most of those people likely saw ads. That’s free content I made for that site which then tracked and sold data about those people so it could make money. It has a lot of money. But it wanted more money. So it can fuck off. The people using ad-blockers make the barest dimple in its obscene profits but every year it looks to find ways to squeeze more out – changing the rules around who qualifies for monetisation, increasing the number of ads, adding more “premium” features – because it probably knows deep down that it’s absolutely fucked up over-investing in all this AI crap that can never do what they claim it will do because it’s snake oil. Very expensive snake oil. And someone needs to pay for it.
So, I flounced. And I felt good about it too. It’s very therapeutic and I recommend it to everyone. Maybe I’ll find a way to remove all my Google Maps photos and reviews at some point when I next get a strop on. Probably the next time Google tries to circumvent the latest changes that already get around their attempts to block the blockers. Everyone should have that nuclear delete option with these big companies that make use of our content. I really don’t like bullies.
Anyway, second day of January and already ranting. Must be a new record. Looks like I’ve got something to aim at and beat for next year.