I just can’t get enough of this awesome vision of the power of the Pacific Ocean at Watson’s Bay, New South Wales. Stunning!

I was going to say that my book, Charlie Codfish And The Runaway Seal’ has been misplaced, and it has - alphabetically. It’s been positioned among some stellar writers of children’s storybooks, and I hope that’s a good omen!

Publication of Charlie Codfish And The Runaway Seal is officially tomorrow, but I just had to give my wonderful local indie bookshop, Walkers Books of Stamford, a head start. And it paid off, the first sales over the weekend! 🥂🥂🥂

From a life-changing trip to Sri Lanka a little while ago. The photograph was taken in the wonderful botanical Gardens in Kandy. The tree is a giant 150 year-old Australian Kauri Pine. My two and a half year-old grandson wanted me to climb up it!

I’m mighty proud of my first children’s book, ‘Charlie Codfish And The Runaway Seal’ published by Limpopo Press and available in bookshops, Amazon and other online outlets from Monday 30th March. It’s an entertaining maritime novella for kids of all ages.

Sorry! It is extremely frustrating to notice the glaring misuse of the word ‘there’ instead of ‘their’ only after it had been reposted. The damage is done, such is life! I can’t correct it, and It won’t happen again!

A new venture, Limpopo Press. Our initial focus is on re-publishing the works of authors either born in Sheffield or who made there homes there. Juliana Horatia Ewing was almost as famous as Charles Dickens in her lifetime. She died aged just 43 in 1885.

Enjoying gorgeous Indian Ocean sunsets and the beaches of Sri Lanka. Twenty years since I was last here. Far too long! 😃

Quite spectacular sights as the Pacific Ocean crashes against rocks at Watsons Bay near Sydney.

Dawn breaking at 36000 feet above the Pacific Ocean as we approach Western Australia on our journey to Sydney.

JFC. Under Trump, the DoD literally includes two long copies of the Russian flag under their "Happy Flag Day!" post.

On brand, Trumpsters. On brand.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the unpacking of almost forty boxes of our ‘stuff’. I say stuff, because a lot of it is clothing that hasn’t been worn for years, and never will be again. Note to self: next time get rid of as much stuff as possible BEFORE moving!

I haven’t posted for a while because we have finally moved into our new home. It’s in Stamford, Lincolnshire. A lovely old town in a beautiful county. I would have liked to return to Yorkshire, but Lincolnshire’s within shouting distance, and the Peak District is just an hour away.

FFS! Can anyone imagine what was in the mind of each of those boys that awful grey morning. I hope they came out of it!

Reflections after 8 weeks in gorgeous Greece. #5 The realities of the UK are stark in an enforced Visit to Peterborough. An ancient city that once must have been beautiful, but now with a centre that stinks of piss, and weed and seems to have more than its fair share of street poverty. Very sad!

Reflections after 8 weeks in gorgeous Greece. #4 I have always loved Greece, and our recent seven week odyssey has only enhanced that love. I miss it so much, and at a farmers market in Stamford today I almost burst into tears at seeing a Greek stall selling souvlakis and other Grecian favorites! 😥

Reflections after 8 weeks in gorgeous Greece. #3 dining out in Greece is an enormously pleasurable, though far from cheap experience. But on the Aegean islands that we visited (except for Santorini) the pleasure was enhanced by restaurants offering desserts and a small carafe of Raki on the house!

Reflections after 8 weeks in gorgeous Greece. #2: traveling extensively on the Athens Metro and Super-tram network with not a single instance of crime or loutishness. When we occasionally became lost we received unfailing courtesy despite our virtual total lack of the Greek language!

Reflections after 8 weeks in gorgeous Greece. #1: we’re back temporarily in lovely Norfolk, and I’ve seen more people using mobility scooters in 8 hours than I did in the whole eight weeks in Greece.

It’s our last night in Greece and we’re back ‘home’ in Athens close-by the Plaka in hotel that has a roof terrace providing this most glorious view of the Acropolis. We just sat there drinking Raki-on-ice and allowing the view to burn into memory. I’m sad to be leaving. I love Greece. I really do!

Tomorrow we say a sad goodbye to Crete. For we’ve really enjoyed our stay in Chania, a compensation for the nightmarish few days spent in Elounda. There is no denying Chania’s reputation as a tourist trap, but there’s more to the ‘Old Town’ than people realise.

I might be wrong, but I never saw it working. There were no queues.

Prior to Crete we stopped off for a couple of days in Santorini. I’m sure most are aware of the gobsmacking beauty of the fabled Atlantis, and it certainly is an astounding island, but two days was enough! Not a place for the traveler on a tight budget!

Our final destination, Chania-Crete, before returning to Athens for the flight home. Fortunately, Chania is a good way to end our ‘odyssey’. It’s a lively and very picturesque town. A mixture of history and modernity, archeology and hedonism! Prior to this we were in Elounda. More on that later!

One of the many nice things I’ve noticed during our time in the Greek islands is that many dogs are free to go about their business unfettered, and without human supervision. It’s like when I grew up. Dogs would be allowed out in the morning to return when it suited them - when they were hungry.

A Bougainvillea blooming very early in Parikia, the lovely main town on the island of Paros.

We just spent a wonderful six days on the island of Paros. Staying at a hotel that was sooo laid back, it was impossible not to chill right out! But on to Santorini, and it is completely the opposite of Paros. Beautiful, stunning, but definitely not relaxing. Here are the last two sunsets.

Departed Athens after three weeks and headed for the Aegean island of Naxos, where the weather is cool but gloriously sunny, the food is deliciously rustic and cheap, and the people are less flashy and more friendly. Chill time, now! Here for a week, and then off to close-by Paros!

I haven’t posted recently because I’ve had severe tonsillitis. Great timing, getting it when we’re supposed to be enjoying Athens. I must say, though, that the pharmacies here are first rate! Which is good, because I’m a miserable patient, and they managed to cure me quickly, with no need of a GP! 😀

That was not rhetoric. Far from it. It was verbal vomit!