This page contains recent writing on the site – a bit of a shock, I know – or recent modifications which means you will see both Blog posts (which are summaries of recent updates on the site plus occasional forays off into other subjects) and Travel Portfolio posts (which are the main pieces of travel writing you’ll find on this site, comprising reviews, photos, and travelogues), and you’ll see them in most recently-updated order. This is because I occasionally revisit older posts and rewrite them, and because I occasionally add a new feature to the site and need an easy way to track what’s been changed using the modified date of posts.
So, if you want to see just the newest blog posts in the order in which they were most recently published you can take a look at the Blog page. If you want to see the most recently published travelogue, review, or photo update then the Travel Portfolio will list those. To see content from both categories of website posts but in the order in which I’ve most recently made a change then this is the page for you.
A page that has to explain its purpose is probably something serious website owners frown upon, but fortunately I’m not one of them. And I’m fully aware that nobody cares enough to browse a site these days, making a page like this mostly pointless, and that it’s all about the instant gratification from clicks, but, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, this site is for me and my memories mainly. And I like to tinker with things so this was fun to do as well.
Recent EventsNovember 19th, 2018 Why haven't there been any updates on this website for over a month? Well, funny you should ask but we've been cruising in Asia aboard Diamond Princess and since coming back we've been a bit down (because that's what happens after a cruise) and we've been a bit snowed under with processing photos (because that's what happens to me after a cruise) and, well, now you know. More details inside...
Our First Foreign HolidayAugust 29th, 2017 It's coming up for nine years since my wife and I got married and took our first, proper, foreign holiday together as our honeymoon treat to ourselves. I say proper because technically we had taken a day trip to France with a previous company I'd worked at as part of their Christmas gift to the employees. But, our honeymoon was our first trip to foreign soil of any real duration and it involved something other than a channel-hopping ferry. In fact, it involved another couple of firsts for the pair of us and those were our first trip to Asia and our first cruise. It started a bit of a love affair with that latter form of holidaying.
I Amsterdam City CardSeptember 6th, 2017 We've booked a short break in Amsterdam in the not too distant future and were planning to simply wing it, seeing what took our fancy in and around the Dutch capital's streets but that was before I discovered the discount card provided by the city's tourist board. With free entry to museums (you forget that other countries charge entrance fees to their museums in far greater numbers than in the UK), free public transport, a free canal cruise, free gifts, and loads of discounts too I couldn't pass up this great resource for getting the most out of our short time in the city.
UruguaySeptember 11th, 2017 Portfolio posts relating to the day on our South American cruise that we spent in Uruguay are now completed. This post update contains links to the individual portfolio entries covering our stops at several sites of interest in Montevideo, our steam train ride through the Uruguayan countryside, and photos from the tango show we witnessed (and participated in whilst drunk) during a wine tasting at a vineyard.
What Annoys Me About Cruise ForumsMarch 27th, 2018 There are many things that annoy me about cruise forums and I'm only going to say cruise forums here rather than all forums simply because I don't tend to hang around any other sorts of forums these days. In this post I'm going to go through the three ones that bug me the most: the inability of people to be able to search, people being nasty for the sake of being nasty, and people who haven't bothered to read what they're replying to.
Princess Cruises Loyalty ChangesDecember 2nd, 2017 For many years cruising with Princess Cruises has benefitted from counting cruises with P&O towards their loyalty system, the Captain's Circle. This will soon change and there are arguments for and against this move. Generally, though, I see this as a negative move by the company that might be perceived as an indication of cost-cutting which is likely to be a precursor to a reduction in the levels of service offered in the minds of many cruisers.
Cruise Ship Conversation ChallengeOctober 9th, 2017 Conversations with strangers on cruises have a whole set of hidden rules. Do you know what they are? Did you even know they existed? Are you worried that you won't do well in the unofficial cruise ship conversation challenge? Well, firstly, don't panic. Not everyone takes part in the challenge. It's not compulsory. You might be content to just relax on your vacation. Secondly, help is at hand. With this short post I explain some of the rules and some of the challenges and where points can be won and lost. Conversations on cruise ships will never be the same again.
Cruising With Jane McDonaldSeptember 9th, 2017 One of two cruise-based television programmes that regularly air in Britain right now, Cruising With Jane McDonald follows the Wakefield singer and presenter aboard a number of different cruise ships around the world. This review covers my only real gripe with the series, that being the overwhelming positive view of cruising given. I like cruises too but things aren't always perfect and the people you meet on them certainly aren't. While I know that Jane is a very upbeat person it would be nice to see some critical viewpoints covered occasionally too. Nothing about this issue takes away from Jane herself, though, and it's a great show to watch in terms of seeing the various cruising destinations and types of ships available to experience.
Travel & Photography BlogAugust 28th, 2017 I swore I'd never have a blog and the archived version of this site still retains that disclaimer in some form but time passes and things change and the period when I wrote about everything and nothing has dissolved to practically nothing itself. In its place is this new incarnation of the site concentrating on travel and photography; originally this was going to be just a showcase for my own pictures and videos taken on holidays around the world but I've come to realise there's no reason not to include discussions about travelling and/or photography in general too. I wondered if I could do this in a shortform way not far removed from annotated link lists but then I remembered that I do like to put words down too; grudgingly, I came to realise that this was the essence of blogging. No getting away from it now, I suppose.