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Posts Tagged ‘travel’

I promised photos from the trip

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Newsletters, Travel, UK, Warhammer, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2024| 2 Comments »

I feel like a slacker but I have been busy. There’s so much going on, so much to write about. We’ve been back six weeks. It feels like a short time and a long time. I’ve been back at the day job and writing.

Now writing doesn’t just mean writing. I’m doing a bit more than that and writing admin takes time. But the good news is that I’m getting there. My newsletter has been sadly neglected and I will end up losing most of my subscribers with the last one I sent out. But it’s my own fault because being a slacktard! Lesson-Don’t stop sending newsletters! Because you get restricted to only those who interact with your newsletter in the last 90 days.

Next thing is picking up subscriptions for Bookfunnel, setting up my store (in progress), reducing the price of Awakening to $0.99 USD (check out the link in my books) and then getting in various newsletters etc. I’d really like to write a sequel to this story but i’ve got no reviews and it’s not selling and I don’t know why. Mind you I don’t advertise but that’s crazy these days, particularly on Amazon.

What have I been working on? Sihem, now called The Founders’ Legacy has been revised, reworked and will go to the CSFG novel crit group next month. Meanwhile I’ll start trying to put it on submission. I’m also working on a kids’ fantasy, Grandma Neebs: Through the Pantry Door. I had some lovely and encouraging feedback on this book. This, too, I will put on submission. It’s middle grade and around 43,000 words. I have a couple of things in drafting stage. A paranormal romance that links into by two series, Spellbound in Sydney and The Cursed Ones. I am also writing something else for a new pen name. Plus there is a backlist of stuff that needs revising/restructuring etc. My next project will be Amber Rose, in the Cry Havoc Series. We shall meet with Jemina and Fulton yet again. This time they are up against evil machines. Meanwhile I’m rereading Ruby Heart and Emerald Fire to make notes for Amber Rose. I’m also picking up typos so will fix them soon. I’m thinking of doing a paperback version of these.

Now for the photos.

This is the River Trent, Nottingham, in flood. It rained a lot before we got to England and more while we were there and it was still raining when we got home. I thought the submerged bench spoke volumes.

While in Nottingham we took a day trip to Cromford and Buxton, because there were bookstores there. This is Scarthin in Cromford. Cute town too. Below is a pond and tree opposite the bookstore.

That’s me walking into Scrivener’s bookshop, Buxton. I’m wearing my very warm Macpac coat. It was a godsend. Pity I’d spent a lot of money in Scarthins.

My bad but I can’t remember which shop this was in. Forgive me, I’m getting old. Matthew will probably know as he has a functioning brain. Lol.

By the way, Buxton is a pretty town. Apparently, the Dukes of Devonshire was wanting to make it rival Bath so there is some amazing Regency architecture there. It is also very hilly so some great views. If only I could paint.

In Nottingham we visited Warhammer World twice. Matthew was trying to connect with his editor but we had no luck as his emails went to spam. However, we had fun. Bought stuff and went to look at the gallery. I’ve posted pictures from this before. Actually my most popular images in the life of my blog. It used to be free but now you pay a small amount. But it’s now huge and amazing. Here are some shots.

I took this shot of Angron, because it was cool, of course, and because Matthew wrote a story about Angron in After Desh’ea, appearing in Tales of Heresy. The final masterpiece was a huge room for one diorama featuring the attack on a planet.

I should mention we took my son and grandson to Warhammer shop in Singapore, Katong to be precise. My son has painted some awesome miniatures but then he’s artistic.

And finally for this set of photos, me with Marc Gascoigne at a restaurant in West Bridgeford, Nottingham. Matthew took the photo. I have no idea what Marc is doing. Oh well. We’ve known Marc a while and he first published Matthew when he headed up Black Library. It was great to see him again. The food was good too.

Of course, there are more photos and I’ll try to put more up over the coming weeks. We stayed in a delightful village outside of Lincoln. Now I’m using it in a story.

Next time!

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A home: feels like a whirlwind

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

We’ve been home exactly one week.

I was telling Matthew that I haven’t found my groove yet. I’m currently grooveless.

Last post was from London. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in my life. Even using the tube and so on, there’s always a walk and those steps add up. This was a good thing because it helped with the weight gain. Lot’s of nice but expensive food to be had in London.

We also discovered the river bus (ferry), expensive but so much better than being crammed into a tube train. And there was coffee.

Biggest takeaway was how to ordinary people live-it’s so expensive. And why are there so many obviously wealthy people.

After two weeks in London we went to Malta for about five days. Why Malta? It was on a list of the possibles (Spain, Ireland, Italy) but what it had in it’s favour was one flight direct, warmer and dryer than the UK, cheapish flight and lots of accommodation to choose from. We loved Malta. We stayed in Sliema, with views of the beach (St Julian’s Bay I think) and we did tours as you do. Not quite warm enough for a swim for me. We even took a day trip to Sicily, which was awesome. It’s only 52 Nautical miles from Malta. Next time, more Sicily and Malta. Also, did my fan girl, Montalbano, visit to his police station. I didn’t pay to go in, just took photos.

Next stop was one night in London and the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 4 and then Singapore. We stayed with my son and his wife and my grandson in their apartment. We ate crab! Thanks Taamo! and did the Night Safari and the Amazon experience. Again more walking. We also did the Gardens by the Bay, which was lovely but Singapore is humid and hot. We caught up with some writing friends, Dev and Joyce and ate lots of yummy food and swam in the condo pool, well I walked in the pool, which was lovely and huge.

Sadly, all good things come to an end. We came home. For a few weeks we had started thinking about home, what we wanted to do, changes in our habits we wanted to make and thinking about our lovely granddaughter who started school while we were away. Nothing hurts more than those heart strings and she sent us messages that made us almost weep.

I started work on Monday (Day job) and today was meant to be a writing day. Alas, dr appointment, tradie, pool walking, Genius appointment because my phone is chucking a wobbly, and then meeting friends tonight, I can’t see where I’m going to slot even a solid hour in.

I am doing a novel crit group thing so I have at least finished this month’s novel and just need to write up my feedback. I guess that’s what I’ll be doing today because that’s not hard.

Jetlag I’ve been okay. I think the stop over in Singapore helped me adjust to Australia again, although I do zone out and get fatigued.

Weight I’ve lost 2.5 kilos since I’ve been back. Most of that would be fluid retention from the flight. But I found this neat and free calorie food diary thing and that’s helping me keep track.

I’ve also am trying a new self mantra. Instead of looking in the mirror and criticising myself, I’m going to say “Hey gorgeous. You look fantastic. You’re awesome.” I’ve read about two celebrities that I really admire and both have talked about how they have hated their bodies (Winslet and Thompson) and how every woman is unhappy with her body. I think this is mostly the body norms that are thrust at us constantly. For years I’ve had body dismorphia and I’ve hated how I looked. Now I’m going to accept it. That doesn’t mean I’m letting myself go. I get sick if I put on too much weight so I’ll keep my goals but I’m going to stop the negative self talk. Try to at least. Not easy.

Next post I’ll put up some photos. I’m currently backing up the phone so can’t right now.

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Travelling with too much to post

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Since Lincoln we have moved around a lot. We went to Newcastle upon Tyne, staying mostly out at South Shields. We loved this place. My Hanson grandfather was born in South Shields and it was lovely to get a feel for the place, where his father and his grandfather live. I went searching for the houses where they lived. Alas, the Long Row had been demolished and the Long Row now is only part of the original with new buildings, but they lived in these tenements along the river. They were seaman, steveadores etc so lived close by. I went looking for two other addresses. Catherine Street I found was now a library and the other place still existed but the house they lived it appeared on Apple Maps in someone’s backyard so no longer existing. We went looking for St Hilda’s cemetery and it is now a car park. I sort of gave up after that. I was going to go and look where my nana was born in Washington but her street didn’t exist and it was a suburb’s name now. Besides it snowed that day. We did one day in Newcastle and did my Vera thing, including Whitley Bay and the Holy Island on our way to Scotland.

In Edinburgh I caught up with a second cousin on my mum’s side. He and his wife were very interesting people. One of the things they do is medieval music. Fascinating.

We stayed in a lovely hotel, Holyrood with views to Arthur’s seat and very handy to the High street etc. They were so lovely. We left something behind and they posted it to us, charging us only for postage. Food was good, room was large and warm. We did a day trip to Perth to visit Farah and Edward and had a lovely lunch, talked about books etc before heading out to walk through the town/city. It’s quite big Perth. It was also quite cold with barely getting to the high of 1 degree C.

It was time to turn south and we stopped in Lancaster for the evening, meeting up with Patrick and Julie for dinner. Lancaster is a place we’d like to come back to as it seemed interesting but we couldn’t really look around as we were headed south.

In Knebsworth we stayed with my cousin and had a fab time. She took us to Windsor for the day and spoiled us rotten. Now we are in Maidstone in Kent also being spoiled, but today is chill day so I can blog.

It’s kind of sad as I have lots of photos but here are a few.

Windsor castle

Windsor Moat

Matthew in front of St George’s chapel, Windsor Castle.

A snap taken in the Undercroft Cafe with my cousin, whose treat it was for us.

The castle ruins in Rochester, Kent. We went for a day to check it out.

Medway River at Maidstone, we did a long historical walk around the town.

A Tudor style house in Maidstone. Then we went to lunch at La Villetta, enjoyed some great food and company.

We went to Aylesford to visit to Friars again and it was misty and moody and very serene. We enjoyed it so much.

The peace walk lookiing back to the gatehouse at the Friars. Note, to Ruby Heart/Emerald Fire fans, this is the priory I used in the book. It was a great setting for a secret society of magicians.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more photos. We head to London for two weeks on Thursday. The sand in our hour glass is running down. Although we are going to Malta and Singapore before we see our cats and family again.

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The downside of renting an EV vehicle in the UK as a tourist

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

We have an EV at home in Australia and we love it. When we planned our trip to the UK we decided an EV would be the right thing to do. Guilt free travel and better for the enviroment.

Immediately, though, we had issues, the first thing was charging in the suburbs of Brighton. There are a huge number of providers and apps, but some of the key apps can’t be downloaded to an Australian phone. Admittedly I was sick with a lurgy and it played on my mind and I was saying just take it back and get a hybrid, but my partner didn’t want to. If we had we might have found out that UK Hertz charge way too much to drop a car to a site that isn’t the orginal hire site. Like some 200 GDP.

After a few days we were able to charge on the motorway services using Gridserve, which has lots of chargers. However, the cost per kw is quite high in comparision to Australia, even though in Australia it is rising. So on average 79 pence per kw so that’s about $1.60 per kw so nearly what we pay for a litre of petrol at home. But consider I kw is not equivalent to 1 litre in terms of distance. Anyway we were just grateful to just to be able to charge. Eventually we worked out our favourite chargers and also our least favourite. Scotland Charge Place is our least favourite because can’t download the app, and they were everywhere in Scotland! So to charge in Edinburgh it was a hunt and then a long drive to charge, in the opposite direction. We almost always needed fast charging because the slow chargers were not accessible without RFID cards or apps.

The next challenge was that the car we drove a Corsa E did not go as far on a charge as advertised. It would say 219 miles on a full charge on the dash and it barely went 100 miles and so on average one and a quarter to one and a half hours before having to charge. We became very cautious because it was unreliable and we didn’t want to get stranded. At times it was cold and that affects the distance a battery will take you and having the heater on. We tested it without the heater on and it still fell very short distance wise. So when we planned a trip to move from Lancaster to Luton I added an additional three hours for charging. I was very pissed off at this stage. The reason we surmised was because this car was a rental, it had been slammed and only subject to fast charging which depletes the battery. So not only were we paying heaps for charging we were charging a lot more often so it was double the cost. It sucked big time.

Then if your plans change or you don’t want to drop the car at 8.00am at Heathrow try to find an alternative. Phone numbers not answering. Finding someone to talk to and eventually finding out that dropping the car anywhere than Heathrow was going to cost an addition 200 GDP so $400 in Australian money and that is ridiculous. When we picked up at Heathrow they said it was 200 GDP to drop at Marble Arch and we assumed that was because of congestion charges etc. But no, it is what they charged for any drop off other than Heathrow which I assume we are also paying a airport fee. We really like Hertz Australia, so efficient and helpful but alas the same cannot be said of Hertz UK.

We ended taking the car back to Heathrow early the day before it was due to save getting up early, getting caught in peak hour traffic etc. When we dropped it back the bloke assessing the car was not interested in how the battery sucked but he was interested in the scratch on the car which we didn’t know was there. Fair enough, but really he should have noted down and expressed some concern at the crap battery on this car.

Also, did I mention they charged us extra for the electric car. We had found that car at that price in Australia but they didn’t honour it because we didn’t take a screen shot. So lesson learned if you are looking find something but can’t reserve it take a screen shot. We had issues with our Aussie credit card not being accepted on the UK site (various cards over days) that we had to book from Australia using Australian Hertz.

Interesting to note that our last charge on a Tesla supercharger was cheaper than any on the other chargers we used. Go figure that.

That said, some of the charging at services was really brilliant. Ten or so fast chargers and a separate bank of Tesla chargers. Only a select few of the Tesla chargers allowed non-Tesla charging. To do so, google Tesla superchargers UK, then un highlight everything but non-tesla superchargers, then if you are actually at that charger just press on the charger on the map, find the number, add your credit card details and you are away. I found that worked with BP Pulse too, using a map etc, much to my partner’s surprise.

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In the North and Winter is here

Posted in A writer's life, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

We’ve moved on from Nottingham and spent a lovely week in a village just outside Lincoln. Nettleham was so lovely. Lots of quaint stone houses, a beck and great, great company. We loved it.

This photo is Matthew on one of the little bridges over the beck. The whole village was wonderful.

The picture above is Lincoln cathedral. We really liked this and the city of Lincoln was an unexpected pleasure.

The remains of the city wall.

Now we have moved onto South Shields, where my paternal grandfather was born. My paternal grandmother was born nearby in Durham. These next few days we will explore. Today we walk into South Shields and maybe find the house where it began about 200 years ago. There are even some relatives nearby. Not sure I’ll meet them. The people are very friendly.

On BailWe did a big walk today down to Long Row but the house wasn’t the house but a 25 year old one. Later research revealed the Long Row had been subsumed into a wharf/ship building thing and the existing Long Row is just on the end of it. Also, Thrift Street was subsumed too and there was another relative there. We walked to St Hilda’s church hoping to find a cemetery but no graves were there. We walked to the churchyard and it was a car park (apparently the bodies were exhumed and it closed in 1855) and then went to another address but that was weird and I don’t think that house exists either. Then when we got back I did some research and the other place I wanted to find in Catherine Street is now a library. I should write a story about an unquiet carpark. Look, my relatives were poor so their houses don’t exist anymore. I was kind of sad. I haven’t give up hope of finding a grave but we will see.

This is a view of the Long Row but it is a newish construction and only part of the original, the original long row being absorbed into the dock expansion. It did give me an idea of how close they lived to the docks where by GGG grandfather was a stevedore in 1894. There is some historical photos which I’ll buy of these streets that don’t exist now.

A bit of trivia. My great grandfather was Alexander Hanson, but he was born after the other Alexander Hanson, his brother died at 15 months. Alexander is one of those repeating names because Elizabeth Erichsen and John Hanson who married in 1834 both had fathers named Alexander.

The above is the local church I believe my ancestors went to. As discussed, no cemetary.

Also, snow was predicted and we got a short film of it. I think it then turned to sleet but excitement.

A view of Littlehaven beach where we are staying. That’s the head of the River Tyne.

I’m tacking on the trip to Newcastle yesterday. It’s an amazing place. Too short a time to explore and we walked so much. I did my Vera homage, and we went to the castle, the cathedral, the Milenium Bridge and did a M&C cafe lunch.

We walked up the Longstairs on our way back from the bridge.

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Currently in Nottingham

Posted in A writer's life, Climate, Travel, UK, United Kingdom, Warhammer, weather, tagged , , , , , on January 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

There’s been a lot of rain hereabouts. Storm Gerrick while we were in Brighton and Storm Henk while we are in the north. The River Trent is in flood, but hopefully it has dropped from its peak last evening.

We are having a quiet, relaxing time with a few trips out. Matthew’s lovely cousins gave us the use of a room at the top of the house with an ensuite and we are cosy and warm. We sleep a lot but as I might have mentioned it is very dark here in the UK in Winter. Two hours less sunlight than Winter in Canberra. I did a bit of research. The flip side of that is that there is two hours more sunlight in summer in the UK than at home. I am very sunlight dependent I find. At home I’m awake with the dawn.

If we have something on I’m fine with being awake when it is dark, otherwise at 4pm I feel like it’s the middle of the night and I have this instinct to go hibernate. Weird. I can understand why some people get SAD in Winter.

So far we went to the Broadway cinema and watched a Filipino film called Raging Grace. It was a great film screened in a lounge with an eclectic mix of chairs. We had dinner in the cafe first. Then last night we had dinner with Marc at The Botanist restaurant a short walk from where we are staying. It was great to catch up after so many years. I saw Marc in 2019 but Matthew has not travelled since 2014 I think. It is hard when you really enjoy spending time with someone but you live so far apart. Anyway, we ate, we talked and were chucked out of the restaurant as it closed at ten. Hahahaha. We could have gone to the bar but it was late by then.

Yesterday we went for a walk. First to grab some brunch/lunch and then cousin Bob suggested we walk along the embankment next to the river which was in flood. We did do that walk but kept on going until we walked to Warhammmer World. We had a look around and a drink in Bugman’s Bar. I think we are heading there again today. We caught an Uber back though as it was more than 10,000 steps.

Otherwise today I’m not sure what we have planned. Maybe dinner in the pub across the road. As we were travelling in Winter we hadn’t really planned to do touristy stuff. We planned on hanging out getting to know our family and friends more and maybe write and walk etc. This is what we are doing so all good.

We hadn’t planned too much ahead but now I’ve booked some accommodation in South Shields, Newcastle on Tyne, within walking distance of the great, great, great grandfather’s house and other things so that’s kind of cool. Then we head to Edinburgh for a few days, a day in Lancaster to meet up with friends as we break our journey back to Hertfordshire.

Trent River in flood
A quick view of how fast the river is flowing.

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Travelling in Winter

Posted in Travel, UK, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 30, 2023| Leave a Comment »

The things you do for your art. Matthew and I wanted, among other things, to experience a Northern Winter in the UK. Add visiting family into the mix and here we are.

My first week was plagued by sickness. I do not recommend. Not Covid. Much worse than my bout of Covid in October. I had a painful fever for three days. I had to isolate and also stressed about getting well enough to eat Christmas dinner, the whole reason we had come to this particular place and our particular cousin host. No runny nose per se, terrible chest and stomach ache. I still have a cough. However, while I was lying about on Christmas morning contemplating going to the A&E about my gut, I thought I’d try one more thing. I had two mugs of hot chicken stock. That helped. Not a cure but I could be normal. I don’t think my appetite is quite back to normal but that’s probably a good thing.

Being sick also induced homesickness in both of us. Matthew because he was worried about me being sick (separate rooms) and we had hired an EV car and couldn’t get the blasted thing charged. Many of the apps required our app store to be set in the UK. We tried doing that but the app store would not accept our Australian credit cards. Stupid, stupid system. I was lying in bed feverish and fretting. I made up my mind we should just take it back and swap for a hybrid. However, at long last Matthew found a place and was able to charge. Once on the motorways it was even easier as there are plenty of charges that just take credit card. No need for apps.

It was very windy and drizzly in Saltdean (near Brighton). We did a walk in the fields where I had walked in the summer of 2019. Totally different with the fields empty and rolling mist coming in from the sea. Lucky I had a down overcoat from Macpac. My daughter urged me to get one and I went the day before we left and there was a sale and I got a great deal. The magic is the squash into the hood so takes up very little room in the luggage.

There was a break in the storm and we went out to the seafront this time. What surprised me was how many people were out and about. It was Boxing Day so I figure public holiday and people had been holed up with their pups and kids. Also, a drop in the wind had made so much difference. The next day the wind was back and we went for a walk along Telscombe Tye (the common on the rise). There we were nearly blown off the face of the earth and the sea was raging. Those lovely seawalks that people were on the day before were crushed by huge waves that slapped and grabbed at the white chalk cliffs. Inexplicably my phone camera would not take shots. My iphone 13 has been a bit dodgy recently. Matthew took some photos thankfully.

On the way back to our cousins we stopped for a coffee at a little cafe called Daisy’s and shared a sticky bun, sort of looked like a Belgian Bun, but not quite.

Our plans for New Year had to change due to a friend’s illness. We had a bit of a brainstorm about what to do. I think New Year can be a hard time to invite yourself to someone’s house on short notice so we ended up in York for New Years. We upscaled to DoubleTree by Hilton and it’s nice, just by the walls and an easy walk into the old part of town. We can either join the fun in town or stay in at the bar on the day.

Last night we went for a walk after we arrived. There were so many people out, going to restaurants and bars and just walking. I knew it was like this in summer as we stayed in the city in 2019 but was surprised that even in the cold and rain people came in numbers. We ended up at a York roast place after walking around for a bit. When the rain set in we went back to the hotel and sat in the warm while Matthew sipped a Bulgarian red.

Compared to Brighton there is half an hour less sunlight than Brighton. I guess they make up for it in summer with more time. However, for me personally the lack of sunlight is such a challenge. I don’t feel fully awake until the sun is up and even when it is up it’s a pallid thing leaking through streaks of cloud. In the afternoon it starts to get dark at 3.30pm and it’s totally dark by 4pm. I feel like it’s very late at night when it’s barely 5 o’clock. We are still taking naps and I have to set alarms to get us out to eat otherwise I fear we’ll just keep sleeping.

I’m on hotel wifi so I’m not sure if any photos will load. Yay!

This is Saltdean Beach as discussed.

Above is the cliff walk, which the next day had pounding waves.

Our cousin fed us the most amazing food. We had this venison roast on Boxing day.

Now this is what I call a bank of chargers. There was also a bank of Tesla charges.At times people had to wait for a spot.

Us driving up to Monk Bar where our hotel is.

This is the first time I’ve switched on my computer so far. This of course translates to no writing. I’ve been sick so I have an excuse. However, hence forth, not much of one. We are about to head off to find some breakfast. Talk again.

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Travel Shenanigans

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on October 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

My friend Glenda Larke calls the chaos that surrounds her family when she travels being Noramlyed. Well we were Noramlyed on our trip.

We started out with a low stress start, getting to Canberra way earlier than we needed to to catch our Virgin run codeshare flight to Melbourne to catch our Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore and then Bali. We were so organised. I had purchased an airside hotel in Singapore so we could nap before taking our connection to Bali.

Alas, that flight from Canberra to Melbourne was over two hours late. Some weather we were told shut Gold Coast Airport. We sat on the tarmac for a bit too, wondering what was going to happen because we were pretty certain we’d miss our connection. We asked and was told that others were in the same boat and that they would call.

It wasn’t until we landed in Melbourne that we got answers. We arrived 6.05pm and our flight was due to leave 6.25pm. No time for us to get there or our bags. Virgin proudly informed us they had rebooked us on a direct Virgin Flight to Bali. We quizzed them on would we get fed? Of course. What about our flight from Bali to Singapore? Is that okay? Yes, it’s fine.

We had to buy snacks on the flight and it costs us around $70. The snacks were the same as when you fly domestic. We were so pissed off. Well I was.

We go to Bali and relax, get Bali belly, go to an amazing wedding and hang with family.

Then it becomes time to fly to Singapore. Again we get there early. The zip on my luggage is breaking so I have to buy an emergency suitcase. We queue to check in but there’s a problem. Of course there’s a problem. The ticketing guy gets called over and says our tickets were cancelled and the flight is full and we would need to contact our agent. Nothing they can do. I don’t take this well, but they insist nothing they can do. We explain what happened with their code share and rebooking but alas we are left to figure it out.

I get in touch with the agent. He says, your tickets are fine, your flight is confirmed. He’s not hearing me that they won’t let us on. I pass the phone to the ticketing guy. They chat. He hands my phone back and says the agent is going to issue new tickets. Then they ask us to sit well away from them in some pubic seating. I ring my agent back. He gives me the same ticket numbers. He says they are open in the Singapore Airline system from his end. We just sit there and slowly deflate. Eventually the ticketing guy says he will lets us on the flight. We have to sign a form acknolwedging we might not get fed. A lady who is helping said our tickets are fine but our reservations were cancelled because we were a no show. Singapore Airlines said it was automatic when we didn’t show that all our flights were cancelled. Interesting because when I logged on our flights were there so how I could have avoided this is beyond me. They advise us to check with Singapore Airlines at the airport.

We land. We were fed yummy food. We were happy. We checked with the transfer desk who said our flight home looked fine but maybe we should check again before we left. We enjoy our time in Singapore still suffering some Bali Belly and me an occasional cough still.

I bitch about Virgin Airlines on Twitter and happen to mention Singapore Airlines too. Someone supposedly from Singapore Airlines contacts me and asks for information. I say don’t worry. Singapore Airlines are fine. They write back saying “we need to find out what happened” and they friend me. I tell them our story. They ask for a phone number. They contact me on What’s app, ask for my receipts etc saying they want to help. Then I get the phone call and it starts again. My logic circuits are not functioning well. I’m wondering what they want to refund me and isn’t Singapore Airlines nice. We get to the part where he wants me to change the dollars to Kenya dollars and put a code in the field. Don’t worry he says. It says you are paying us but that’s not the case. My partner is listening in and saying “WTF” and I say. Nah not doing this. I’m calling Singapore Airlines in the morning. The scammer dude is like arguing but I just hang up, block and report. On Twitter meanwhile they have messaged me to say. Cooperate with our assistant. I tell them what I think. Then I search Twitter and find the real Singapore Airlines with a warning about scammers pretending to be them. I was so angry at them and at me. I block and report them on X/Twitter.

The morning we are due to fly out, I get the urge to check us in to our Singapore Airlines flight. I put the information in and it says no flights. I think the scammers might have tried to get a refund but that wasn’t the case. Noramlyed yet again. I ring Singapore Airlines and begged them to help us. It took an hour and half. They rung me back a couple of times, which I really appreciated. They wanted to know how we got to Singapore. I explained that Singapore Airlines flew us there. She found that hard to believe and I had to explain the whole scenario again, complete with all the boarding passes we had etc. We could not get on our planned flight and had to stay an extra night in Singapore. We were able to get the same slot on the next day.

This stuff up, not of our making, made us lose the hotel in Singapore Airline of $360 and the extra night in Singapore at walk in rates at our hotel, another $391.74. And we had to pay for shitty snacks on Virgin for $70. No voucher or anything. Stinks right.

And then we got back and got Covid on our trip to Tasmania. The gods they say are smiling on us, or sniggering or rolling around on the floor laughing.

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Highlights from my trip the UK and Ireland Part Two

Posted in Travel, UK, tagged , , , , , on October 12, 2019| 1 Comment »

I thought these posts would be easy! Ha! Blogging about anything was pushed unceremoniously down the to do list, where it has sat pouting ever since.

So to continue on, we spent ten days driving around Cornwall-my first time. Then then three days in Lyme Regis. As it happens the highway from Brighton to Lanner, where we stayed in Cornwall went past this old thing. If you haven’t been to Stonehenge then you may not know that it is visible from the highway. There was a plan to build a tunnel under it but that has not eventuated. Apparently, the traffic jams up as people slow down to look at the stones.

Cornwall is a great place for the physically active, particularly in summer. Walks, cliff walks, beaches and so on. There were a few places we didn’t get to, but here’s some of what we did. We made sure to eat Cornish pasties and Cornish cream teas. My waist still bears the scars of too much clotted cream!

This is me and my water bottle (I got ribbed for not hiding it) overlooking Porthcurno beach. Next to me is an open air theatre on the cliff. For Poldark tragics the bay behind features in the TV series.

That’s the view down to the beach! Eep! Steep.

And that’s the beach proper, with real sand. Nearby is a museum of communication as apparently the cables that connect to the rest of the world leave from here and there’s a WW2 bunker that you can walk through. Well worth the visit.

During our trip to Cornwall we did not go everywhere. The place is alive with beaches and the weather was amazing. We visited nearby Land’s End, who wouldn’t? And that was a bit of a fizzer. It’s now a huge pay car park with possibly entertainment and stuff. We just left. The next trip we took was to north Cornwall. I’m a Doc Martin fan so we headed up to Port Issac where the TV show is set. We had no idea they were filming until we walked into the town and had access blocked. But we did see cast members and scenes being shot from a distance. The crew were amazing. And I got that photo of me in Doc Martin’s doorway.

Walking down to the town.

A shot where the crew were discussing the filming. I’m pretty sure that’s Martin Clunes in the blue T-shirt and sunnies on his head.

This is Ian McNiece heading to the set. I was in the restaurant right by the shooting. He was so generous, letting people take photos with him.

Me at the door to Doc Martin’s surgery. It was up for rent!

Opposite Doc Martin’s cottage.

 

The beach at Port Issac. We couldn’t see much because they were filming down there.

These are some of the shots of filming. I think I got a glimpse of the main cast. You could not believe how excited my daughter and I were. I end with the Port Issac cross. Then on to Tintagel, because it was close by.

Tintagel was a disappointment really. The castle ruins were closed. We did a tour of the old post office as we had National Trust memberships. But otherwise it was touristy, and there was even a gift store to buy dogs souvenirs.

This used to be a house and it’s very old.

This is as close as we could get to the ruins. The bridge was being repaired.

Next we went to Penzance, which was a pretty town.

Some interesting buildings.

We went to drive around the castle. We didn’t go in. But there was a car park with a great view so I took this shot.

Down in the bay, watching dogs play fetch.

Near Penzance. St Michael’s Mount is near here. We didn’t go in but it was very impressive.

Next trip was Lizard Point and Kynance Cove. The track to the cove gave me some cool ideas for a book I’m thinking about. A longish walk but a decent cafe and cute beach. At Lizard Point we went souvenir shopping. Nick’s father was stationed there during the war so he bought a serpentine clock (green type of stone).

 

Kydance Cove

The long, easy walk!

A glimpse!

The beach at Kydance Cove.

 

We also went to Falmouth, a really pretty place.

And this is me in our little miner’s cottage that we rented. It wasn’t big enough to swing a cat in, but the patio was its saving virtue.

Now to Lyme Regis, but first we stopped into a National Trust property called Lanhydrock, Bodmin, Cornwall. It was once a Jacobean house that was refurbished after the Victorian style after a fire in 1881. What’s interesting about this place beyond the 30 or so rooms that are open and the magnificent grounds is the access to the below stairs-kitchens, nurseries, storerooms

 

Some shots of the grounds. The head gardener’s cottage.

 

Then from the inside.

 

And my favourite place, the lady of the house’s boudoir.

Below stairs.

And now for Lyme Regis- I definitely want to visit here again, preferably closer to the beach.

So for you Austen fans, the cobb features in various movie versions of Persuasion as well as in the books. It is the first thing I went to see and walk on. I found walking on the top of the cobb scary and walking from the stone stairs to the bottom even scarier. The other thing it is famous for is that it is on the Jurassic Coast. That’s right, fossil hunting.

My first view of Lyme Regis from the top of the hill, where our accomodation was situated. Then a walk down the hill.

A walk through the park to get to the cobb.

A view of the beach at Lyme.

A view of the marina, from the cobb.

A view along the cobb. It slopes down so it’s scary to walk along.

A view down the stairs. I couldn’t do it. I got dizzy.

The next day we did walk along the base.

 

Along the beach front. And next the jurassic cliffs. The mud between the layers is millions of years old.

Me fossicking for fossils.

Me at nearby Westbay.

I’ve got more but there’s too much already. Next post is the trip home from Lyme Regis via Jane Austen’s cottage at Chawton and also some pics from London and Harry Potter world.

 

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Highlights from my trip to UK and Ireland part one

Posted in A writer's life, Travel, UK, United Kingdom, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 16, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I was away for two and a half months. I cannot put all the photos I took on the trip here. Maybe if I had blogged the trip I could. Alas, I did not do that. I put most photos on Facebook over the period.

So without much blather about this and that, I’m going to put some photos up here. We were located in Saltdean for the first part, not far from Brighton. We did a short trip to York and Nottingham, as well as a few places around Sussex, such as Scotney Castle (Kent) and Tunbridge Wells, Charleston House (Bloomsbury set), Monk House in Redmell (Virginia Woolf’s house) and the Burlington Gap.

We’ve stayed in Saltdean before but had not explored the bridle paths behind the suburb. The weather as you can see was amazing and I believe that is linseed/linen growing behind me.

 

It was so peaceful walking in the bridle paths and it seemed like we were alone forever. Here are some views of the fields and to the sea. See the poppies growing wild? I love UK for the wildflowers.This was a short kind of wheat growing here.

A lovely shot of the linseed, looking across to the rear of Saltdean, not far from Telscome Tye (the common).

A look along the bridle path. If you don’t know what a bridle path is, it’s a public right of way through private lands brought about by the historic use of these paths for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Some are just walking paths. This one you can ride horses.

This is a shot from Burlington Gap of the Seven Sisters. It is being eroded at a fast pace as the cliffs and most of the Southdowns are made of chalk with flint in it.

 

The next is a shot of my daughter and granddaughter as they went down the stairs to the beach. We had good tea and cake here in the cafe. The rocks are the flint from the chalk.

A view along the coast from our walk to Brighton Marina along the footpath.

Just to break the monotony of these gorgeous landscapes! This is the largest internal waterfall inside a mall at Singapore. The mall is attached by a walkway to the airport. We broke our journey from Canberra in Singapore and stayed at the Crowne Plaza. We were totally spoiled and hung out at the pool. Sadly just one night.

A few local places we went to next.

A very old pub in Alfriston, the George Inn, where they serve the most amazing Welsh Rarebit. And next, Monk House in Rodmell Village, Virginia Woolf’s own room.

A bust of Virginia Woolf that was at Charleston cottage and Monk House.

A short trip to York, which was so great. Our apartment was right in York, near the river. We thoroughly recommend Jorvik and we also saw another place, Barley Hall. Here is me in a kids’ dress up.

Here is me at the York Assembly Rooms, which is an Ask restaurant. Ask is very similar to Zizzi’s so not overly expensive.

Here is the obligatory shot of the Shambles in York.

Two shots of Scotney Castle, near Tunbridge Wells. My second visit. This is an iconic shot of the ruins.

Scotney has a Victorian house and then the old castle was ruined to make a folly. This is a view from the front of the house down through the amazing gardens.

Nottingham. I don’t seem to have a lot of photos from Nottingham. I did a tour of the caves under the mall. My daughter got claustrophobia and couldn’t do it. This was my second visit. The tour guide was great.  The photo is from the caves, which contain the oldest tannery, from about the 12C or something. Nottingham was visiting friends and family and a spot of shopping.

After leaving Nottingham we went to Southwell for the morning. There is a cathedral there, a minster actually and it is said the least well known. We fell in love with this village. So quaint and lovely.

The Southwell cathedral is famous for a gargoyle that looks like Donald Trump.

There are a few walks around Southwell, one that takes you to one of Lord Byron’s houses.

Near Southwell, actually within walking distance, is the first workhouse. In later years it was for assisted housing, but this workhouse served as a model for others. It was seen as a way to save money in looking after the poor.

 

These are some of the highlights. Part Two will have to be Cornwall, Lyme Regis and a few great houses.

See you later for the next instalment.

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