Here's some advice for anyone doing one of those cheap day trips to Amsterdam ( Read more... )

"Is this your bag?"

The words every traveller wants to hear.

"What company do you work for?"

What happened to me being asked to open my bag for a search? I'm puzzled.

'What rail company do you work for?"

Very puzzled. We are not on the same wave length, this man and I.

"You've got a train key in your bag."

Wingnut's Leatherman strikes again!

Time for one more little politics post in between packing? About how Labour is coping, or not, with an Independent Mayor of Tower Hamlets? Actually, go read Dave Hill's London blog at the Guardian, he writes about it sometimes.

That was a wafer-thin politics post, that was.

I'm going to make myself some jasmine tea.

The forecast promises freezing temperatures tomorrow so I'm taking the extreme step of leaving the country. Temporarily. It's off to sunny Aotearoa for three weeks, please don't use up all the snow while I'm gone.

It's an unusually short trip for me, so I probably won't be blogging much, if at all. Twitter is more likely, though if you hate the ( Read more... )

By all rights, I should post a nice kitty picture to follow up that last entry. However, I've no time 'cos I'm off to Berlin for the long weekend instead. Maybe there'll be friendly felines there. :-)

It's occurred to me (again) that I need to see more of this country. However, I'm lacking inspiration so I appeal to the knowledge contained on LJ. Where's a good place to go for a weekend in mid-May, a maximum of a couple of hours from London by train? Current inclination is towards history stuff, nature stuff, wandering about, that kind of thing.

Air New Zealand announced its plans to introduce a new seating arrangement called "Skycouch" back in January. Skycouch is three economy seats which can be turned into a narrow bed for two adults, for the price of about two-and-a-half seats. A bunch of us were discussing this on Saturday and while most were enthusiastic about a more comfortable ( Read more... )

A month ago, I promised to write about going to an onsen. However, the next day I got into hot water of another kind and ended up writing about kettles. That subject will be addressed again in the future, but right now, it's time for a bath.

Spending an entire day on various forms of transport sightseeing in Hakone National Park was more tiring ( Read more... )

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How is it possible that two and a half years have passed since I was last in Dublin? It's a great place with great people and it's good to be back ( Read more... )