My annual visit to Longreach in late March had to be postponed because Simon and Nicole were getting ready for their ambitious round the world overseas trip, comprising a week in England, a week on the Queen Mary sailing from Southampton to New York, and a week in New York, before returning home on a 19 hour non-stop flight from New Jersey to Singapore and thence to Brisbane and Longreach.

 In my constant experience, the Qantas website is the least user-friendly of all. I tried to book a return flight to Longreach from Brisbane, taking advantage of one of their red-e deals. Somehow, I was prevented from finalising payment until, against my wish, I became a member of their frequent flyer programme. Having done this, I found myself timed out of the transaction and tried again. By now, the return flight had almost doubled, so I gave up in disgust. The travel agent in Barcaldine I regularly used because their prices were competitive, had closed earlier in the year. To be fair to Qantas, they redeemed themselves by sending me an email saying that they were holding my booking at the original price. This had happened once before…. Read Complete Text

LONDON

I was away from Sunday July 7 until Friday August 2. I flew premium economy on Singapore Airlines, enjoying the extra room and better meals on offer. Cousin Sue again met me at Heathrow and I bought a sim card for my smart phone at a shop almost adjacent to where I emerged into the arrivals hall. I was fearful of checking in at my hotel in Belsize Park because of the fifty per cent increase in cost to stay for a day less, at a very run-down property. I was relieved and delighted to discover that I was in fact paying for a complete refurbishment as well as for booking in the peak Summer holiday period. The for me hard to use bath in the bathroom, had been replaced by a spacious shower. The bedrooms benefited from new furniture and décor. The old warn carpeting had been replaced throughout. The public areas were smart and tastefully styled. The one redeeming feature about my last stay was the breakfast, which was good and reasonably priced. It was still good and marginally more expensive than two years ago.

The focus of my time in London was… Read Complete Text

I at last heard from Clive after more than a month of silence. He has confirmed my stay with him and is about to fly to Finland to conduct his retreat. I have booked dates to see the family in and near London. The train journey from Frankfurt Airport to Rot Malsch, was too tenuous, given the limited time to change trains at Frankfurt Central Station. Peter and Gabi Silver offered to meet me at the airport and I reluctantly, but gratefully, accepted.