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Wednesday 1st May 2024. Really?!  It feels like late January outside, or at least it did as I set off for Church this morning.   Attending church on a Wednesday is a more recent part of my post retirement routine, now that time, although still precious, is more plentiful these days.  Late yesterday afternoon/early evening, Cunard’s…

Thursday 21st March 2024 (Published 23/4/24) It will soon be time to prepare for my journey to Lisbon and La Coruna on board Cunard’s Queen Anne as she sets sail on her much awaited maiden voyage. Lucy (my long-suffering travel consultant) secured me sole occupancy of a balcony cabin, aft, on Deck 8.  Of the…

Saturday 16th March 2024. Annual Christian Aid Walk around Tittesworth Reservoir So very close to home, there is some remarkable scenic countryside, a fact that I have been well aware of since moving to my present home in 1975.  Back then, Fred Thurkell, whom I first knew as a result of house-hunting, introduced me to…

A small piece of me is lamenting not having joined the QM2 2024 World Voyage to Australia, out via Tenerife, Walvis Bay, South Africa and (with luck) back via Asia the Red Sea and Suez Canal.  I say “with luck”  because, as I perceive in the News, tensions in the Red Sea are effectively blocking…

CENTENARY WORLD VOYAGE, QM2 January-April.   Totally unplanned: QM2 CORONATION CRUISE, LIVERPOOL to SOUTHAMPTON (3 nights) May 2023. REUNION of FORMER RAIWAY WORK COLLEAGUES, some retired, and others waiting to! A FEW DAYS IN BOURNEMOUTH, 21 September 2023 STEAM TRAIN SPECIAL from PRESTON to BUXTON, 29th October 2023. THE EVE OF CHRISTMAS EVE That’s NOT…

It’s not quite Christmas Eve yet.  I am very surprised that my cruise blog still attracts small numbers of visitors and views despite my not having posted anything since September.  Nevertheless, davidscruise.blog will operate for at least another year, during which there will be some less ambitious travel, which should still be worth writing home…

Bournemouth and Buxton have at least one thing in common. Both are “resort towns” visited frequently by holiday makers and day-trippers.  Buxton is about as far away from the sea as it is possible to be in England, Bournemouth nestles very nicely on the South Coast, and is blessed with the ever-present English Channel and…

No illustrations Saturday evening, 16th September 2023 I have just returned from a choral and orchestral concert in St John’s Church, Buxton, Derbyshire, presumably inspired by the fairly recent coronation of King Charles III. I had been looking forward to this ever since it was announced early on in the year. All four of Handel’s…

This blog title is inspired by a car window sticker seen sometime in the 1990s I suppose the height of the Buxton International Festival, along with probably the busiest period for tourists, holiday makers, and visitors was an appropriate time to schedule major road works in the Centre of Buxton, necessitating temporary control of four…

To me, these days, the annual Buxton International (really?!) Festival is a bit like Christmas; it’s either a long way off or tomorrow! This annual event has run with only one interruption in 2020, and a partial curtailment the following year due to the Pandemic.   From year 1 in 1979, Buxton Festival has been highly…