MS Amavenita cruised up the Danube overnight and we woke to a cold, misty morning that nevertheless gave notice of another lovely day. After cruising through countryside for a few more hours we tied up at our next destination. Vienna. Capital of the Austro Hungarian Empire from 1806 until 1918. Born in war, and died…
The Amavenita is the latest of APT’s river ships. Our cabin turned out to be smaller than it looked in the brochures, but it was more than adequate, with glass doors out onto a tiny balcony where you can watch the river go by. We had a bed, side tables, a wardrobe and a large…
We woke up to a frosty Helsinki morning* and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Hilton before venturing out to the airport for the flight to Budapest. The moon, just past the full, was setting in the western sky and a few planes were being de-iced on the tarmac. It wasn’t even November yet. What…
I’ve been on a river cruise. Up the Danube from Budapest, then via the Danube-Main canal into the Main, which flows into the Rhine, which empties into the North Sea, but has a canal to Amsterdam. It was fun and I took a lot of photos. But Budapest is not where the journey started. That…
I’ve just been over at Pauline Baird Jones’s blog, where she wrote a post entitled You can go home again. It’s a fun read, that got me thinking. Did I agree? No. No, I don’t think you can. Going home – really going home – is time travel and we don’t yet have a time…
I’ve just finished reading the last Discworld novel. “The Shepherd’s Crown”. The tile of this post comes from the book’s blurb. A SHIVERING OF WORLDS Deep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength. This…
One of my Facebook friends, who writes under the name of Kira Morgana, posted a fun photo on her timeline – a cat sitting on one of her books. “Wow”, I thought. (As you do). “I wonder how she did that?” Photofunia, that’s how. What can I say? It’s a damp Saturday morning and my…
I haven’t written much lately. But I did write this. It’s for you. For free. And it won’t cost much of your time. Christie stepped aside as a few more laughing workers bounced down the steps into the freedom of a Friday night. She looked at her phone and checked the time. Quarter past. It…
Somebody told me on Facebook today that Harper Collins is shutting down its online slushpile, Authonomy, on 30th September 2015. Authonomy. That brought back some memories. Harper Collins started the site in 2007/8 and soon thousands of aspiring best-selling novelists swelled the ranks of members. Authonomy expected authors to load up at least ten thousand…
Whale season is a great time here at Hervey Bay. The whale migration, when the whales swim north from Antarctica up to the warm waters of the Whitsundays and beyond, then back down to the feeding grounds in the icy south, happens every year. The whales appear in late July, with the first arrivals being…