When I’m driving and Cath is navigating, even in Australia, I often say that we’ll end up in Cornwall. So, it wasn’t surprising that when we finally got to Cornwall we got lost. The last time we were touring by car in the UK we were visiting the villages of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire where British TV murder mysteries were filmed; Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie and Poirot. This trip the car touring involves some of the locations for Antiques Roadsh...

From our hotel in Bloomsbury we walked to Kings Cross and picked up our hire car at Avis. I had booked the car and so I was designated driver. To add Cath as an additional driver was going to be another £13 a day. In Australia it’s free. To change Cath to the only driver meant cancelling my booking and making a new booking in her name. So I kept my booking as sole driver. Perhaps not the wisest move since I’m not a great fan of driving and Cath is geographic...

The Cathay Pacific flight from HongKong to London was great. Early start but 11 hour daytime flight. Arrived around 2:45pm. Immigration and customs took an hour. Tube direct to Russell Square then walked a few hundred metres to our hotel in Bedford Place near the British Museum. The Thanet Hotel is is least expensive hotel on the street. The other hotels are all owned by the same chain and charge premium London prices. The Thanet Hotel is a family run hotel. No...

Cath doesn’t like crusts. She doesn’t eat crusts. She will leave toast crusts on her plate when we go out for breakfast. She notes that one of the things about being an adult for her is that she doesn’t have to eat her crusts. Obviously this suggests some type trauma involving bread crusts, but I’ve never asked for details. I think Freud discussed the fear of bread crust syndrome. On Friday night while waiting for the ferry from Hong Kong airport to M...

We began this trip with mixed feelings. Cath's father, Vince, passed away at Glen Innes hospital in the early hours of 29 August. He was 94 years old. The family gathered at his side at the end. We were in Glen Innes for 10 days. There was much to do in those days and much emotion: loss, grief, sorrow and worry. The funeral, burial and wake were a great send-off for a country gentleman and a great bloke. We returned home on 3 September just a few days befor...