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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…

Text started late April 2023, then revised and completed June 11th, 2023. There is a very good reason for embarking on a (for example) 102 night voyage in the middle of January, if one lives in Northern Europe….to escape!  One is assured of a gradual retreat from grey skies, cold icy winds, being stuck in…

Day 102 of 102. The last full day of this epic voyage has arrived. And at 5 o’clock tonight, the packing is not yet quite  complete.  Day 103, 00.36 hrs. We are already in Southampton, having arrived at around 10 o’clock tonight. I finished the dreaded packing before dinner.  I had enjoyed one last breakfast…

Day 101/102…and a small bit of Day 102 of 102 You couldn’t make it up!  Last night, presumably tongue-in-cheek, Jo said to me, “I hope it rains tomorrow – then I can spend the time packing….”   She got her wish!  This morning, the Promenade Deck is awash with precipitation from the heavens.  But there are…

Day 100 of 102 In 15 minutes’ time, I am due to be met at Stairway A, Deck 12, and escorted to the Bridge. I expect I shall be introduced to the Bridge Crew and eventually given the script of the Captain’s noonday Navigational Update to familiarise myself with, before actually reading it at 12…

Day 99 of 102 Tenerife presents a very dramatic backdrop from some distance away. The island is far more developed than when I first visited in 1981. There was a time when I would look forward very much to a holiday in Tenerife, a Spanish island where it is rarely cold, even in the depths…

Day 98 of 102, Tuesday 18th April That went quickly! This is the final day of 8 at sea between Walvis Bay, Namibia (which now seems an age ago), and Tenerife, where I have booked a whale watching cruise. No sleeping in until mid-morning tomorrow, then! After a lousy sleep last night, I only just…

Days 95 and 96 of 102 Saturday 15th April Quietly, I am quite pleased with that weird watch I purchased at the beginning of the voyage.  Ship’s time is midday; but really, because of our position west, it’s actually two hours earlier! Sunday 16th April after Church, over a late breakfast. Day 96 of 102…

Day 93 of 102, and now, Day 94. Written yesterday, 13th April. Rarely on any voyage are 11 sea days punctuated by just one final port of call, unless perhaps while returning home via Africa’s West coast.  From Cape Town, our ship takes a Northwesterly course as we steam directly towards Tenerife, crossing the Equator…