A Few Words of Introduction

  This blog is mostly about my travelling life, museums that impress, and the occasional bit of travel ephemera, alongside a smattering of history.

I’ll try not to be too “Pliny the elder” by giving dates and figures and if I do go overboard sometimes on the historical data, no doubt someone will pull me up for it.

There will not be too much personal material here, my main aim is to offer you a view of the culture of the places I visit, to savour its smells and its spices, and the things that make a place different.  I shall try to show behind the scenes if possible but I won’t be offering you any very intimate tales.  I was in Thailand when the tsunami struck, lost some very good friends in that tragedy, but was never able to write about it. Still can’t, though I did visit Khao Lak a couple of years ago and managed a piece on the recovery made in that area.

‘Ten best’ is still good when reviewing towns or resorts but if I ever use material from a Press Release I will post a spoiler alert about this.

I’ve been travelling and writing about travel for upwards of 30 years now, hitch-hiking between London and the continent when I was in my late teens and early twenties and then cycling and driving with my husband during a happy marriage that including a lot of travelling.   Now I either travel alone or with friends.

I love reading, writing, cinema, theatre, eating out, gardening, and spending time with friends.   Recently I’ve developed wet macular degeneration in both eyes, a condition for which there is no cure, so I won’t be able to blog as often as I would like, nor can I read as many blogs as I used to.  But I shall try and read as many as I can and comment where I can.