Life's about experiences. These are mine.
Today is the last day of my 6th decade. Tomorrow I will be eligible for free prescriptions and a senior railcard. I don’t feel old enough to warrant those and other concessions but the grey hair tells me otherwise! While browsing the bookshops in Hay I came across these magazines from around the time I …
The final two stops on our Welsh tour today waking in the lovely Portmeirion and then travelling on to the bookish Hay–on–Wye. Portmeirion After all the hoi polloi paying day guests had left the village it became very, very quiet there and it was a pleasure to walk around the grounds. There were a couple …
Continue reading “Wales 2025 – Day Four – Portmeirion & Hay–on–Wye”
We moved on from Conwy today winding our way on towards our next top of the Italianate village of Portmeirion. Anglesey Our first stop was to be the island of Anglesey, where we had planned three stops, the first of which was the town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrn-drobwllan-tysiliogogo-goch, whose only claim to fame must be that it …
Continue reading “Wales 2025 – Day Three – Anglesey, Caernarfon & Portmeirion”
For our first full day in Wales we had decided to start at the nearby Bodnant Gardens, a National Trust property with extensive grounds. Bodnant Gardens We arrived just after opening, and there was hardly anyone there. Three hours later when we left, the car park was heaving, and there were plenty of people in …
Continue reading “Wales 2025 – Day Two – Bodnant Gardens & Llandudno”
We’ve talked about doing a Wales road trip for quite a while now and just never quite got round to it. Then when we were planning a few days away for my birthday, which may or may not be a big one, we decided now would be a great time to go, so here we …
A couple of years ago Reading Town Hall played host to an art work called Gaia by the artist Luke Jerram. Essentially this was a giant inflatable ball with an image of the Earth printed on it and suspended from the ceiling, slowly rotating to a soundtrack. I’m sure that Jerram wouldn’t describe it in …
When I was on the university campus the other day, visiting the new World Reimagined globes that had been installed, I made a slight detour to visit one of the ugliest buildings around— the Region 6 War Room. I didn’t know that this even existed until I stumbled across this video which highlighted it and …
Continue reading “Region 6 War Room, Reading University, Reading”
On New Year’s Day this year, we went over to the university to check out the globes that had been installed to create an art trail on the campus. This was part of a wider national campaign called The World Reimagined which had globes all over the country. You can read about this initial visit …
Continue reading “The World Reimagined Global Trail, Reading University (Updated)”
On this cruise, there have been two days at sea to fill. The first one was easiest as it was the first day, and so there was a whole ship to explore. Also, the weather was great, and so many were frying themselves on the decks, leaving the lounge spaces inside free for those of …
On almost all cruises you end up in a destination which is smaller than the rest, or further out from the action (Piraeus for Athens or Civitavecchia for Rome for example). Haugesund was that stop on this cruise. The town was 20 minutes from the cruise port, and while it would have been walkable, we …