Those Baby Boomers are at it again! It’s nothing short of unconscionable! A report in this morning’s Australian newspaper trumpeted that “Seniors aged over 70 are spending $1bn of their children’s inheritance each year by cashing out equity in their homes through reverse mortgages, according to a report from credit reporting company Illion.” Dearie, dearie…
Brahmani kites are found all over Asia. They are medium sized raptors and although they’ll catch fish, they are quite happy to take carrion from the beach. There are a number of pairs around our beach at Hervey Bay but the ones I encounter most often range between Torquay and Tooan Tooan Creek. During nesting…
It’s interesting how different threads in one’s life sometimes seem to come together and create… I dunno, a plait or something. That’s happened to me this week. I waste a bit of time on Facebook. I keep in touch with a number of friends around the country and around the world through that medium. And…
Much as I like going overseas I’m fortunate to live in a very special part of the world. It’s big enough to have a couple of hospitals and small enough not to have massive traffic jams. The weather’s usually mild and we’re only three kilometres from a lovely beach. I usually take my camera with…
The trip to Vietnam and Cambodia has been consigned to the archives and we’re both recovered from the virus we contracted, thank you for asking. Just as well we didn’t make our trip In February this year – we would have been held up by the coronavirus police for sure – and I don’t even…
The Amalotus remained at anchor in the middle of the river overnight. After breakfast we all piled into the tenders to visit the town of Sa Dec which is situated on the river bank. Dara, our guide, took us to Cao Dai Temple just over the road from the jetty where we alighted from the…
On this day we went to visit a village in the delta, travelling by tender through waterways that flowed from the great river. We passed fish farms raising the fresh water fish, basa. You’ve probably seen it in the supermarket. From there the channels became narrower. The banks were lined with fields of vegetables and…
We left Phnom Penh and sailed down the Mekong toward Vietnam. There would be no excursions today although guests could join the chef for a cooking class in making fresh Vietnamese spring rolls or attend a lesson in fruit-carving. I think some of these activities were more for the benefit of passengers who joined as…
On our final day in Phnom Penh Pete and I visited the Killing Fields. I’d prevaricated about going but I’d visited Auschwitz and this couldn’t be any worse. For those who don’t know, the killing fields were places where perceived enemies of the communist party were taken to be killed. Cambodia’s communist party, known as…
This morning the Amalotus was moored at a wharf in Phnom Penh. For the lucky folk on the starboard side, that meant sweeping views over the river. At this time of year the water is low, so for those of us in port side cabins we had a rather uninspiring view of the pylons and…