May 17 2026

Canterbury – end of a chapter

This latest three and a half month trip had one main objective: to prepare my mother’s house for sale. I have wondered how much I would share with you in this blog and decided to leave it to a minimum even though a friend recently suggested I could and should write a book on my experiences.

My mother already suffering alzheimer’s then suffered delirium after insisting on getting a general anaesthetic for a skin cancer operation last June. I ended up checking her into a nursing home within 24 hours. Even though Anthony and I spent 2 months last year preparing her home for her eventual return, it was deemed unsafe for her to return with her advanced alzheimer’s disease as she refused any home help. These last 3 months have been spent sorting through a lifetime of memories, clearing her home, getting it repainted then putting it on the market. Within a week, we had a buyer. Sounds too easy?!

My mother didn’t throw anything out. Nothing. Ever since she was a teenager. And as her alzheimer’s progressed, things got more and more mixed up. A slow tedious job was ahead of us. Coming across her letters and notes documenting all her traumatic and unhappy experiences over the past 50 years has been nothing short of soul crushing for me. I did not read everything. Did not want to. But I had to read just enough to decide what was important for my sister to see and what had to be destroyed forever as neither my sister or I wanted to hang onto the memories of certain events. It reminded me of what a brilliant but troubled mind she had.

Everything had to be gone through carefully as I didn’t want to miss precious mementoes or important documents or statements of bank accounts we didn’t know about. Historical photos, letters from famous musicians and authors were all mixed up with official documents, diary notes, book translations, property documents and family letters. And there were books, so many books – most had notes, article cut outs about the author, many were autographed by the author.

The books of hers all packed up for charities to collect

My mother got most of the cricketers to autograph her book

Amongst much sorrow, there were happy memories too, beautiful photos, precious drawings from my grandfather, childhood notes from the three of us as kids and drawings.

My grandfather sent us kids a drawing in every of his weekly letters to my mother:

We had a swing set in the garden as kids

Poor Diane (Mimi) – how perceptive of my grandfather

I found childhood letters from my father’s too and even a lock of hair of his!! And a letter from Maréchal Pétain to my father congratulating him on a drawing my father had sent him in 1940 – I don’t know what the drawing was but this letter is priceless and would have meant so much to him as a 14 year old.

Lock of hair from my 21 month old father

These were fun to go through with my sister.

I came across so many book translations my mother had done over the years which I had no idea about, with correspondence from the authors and publishers.

Our two week-long trips to the west country and Scotland to see family and friends were timed as sanity trips for me. Anthony was brilliant as always, monitoring my wellbeing and pulling me away for a cup of tea or dinner when I needed a break. Emotions are running raw. How could such a brilliant, but sadly for us all very troubled mind, end up hoarding so much, hanging onto every memory possible to end up not remembering anything and often bearely recognising me. I desperately tried to make sense of it all and make sense of my own emotions. I had heard of the “long goodbye”. I have learnt so much over the past three months!!

Anyway, our project is done now and I am glad we managed to achieve what we set out to do in the timeframe we set ourselves. And I am at peace that we have done all done can for her. We will return even more determined to declutter our own home. We did that after our round the world motorcycle trips but I know we still have so much more to part with. I used to keep greeting cards from friends and family. No longer. My birthday cards from earlier this month have already been thrown out. Quite a new experience for me!! (I admit it wasn‘t easy and I will hasten to add that I really appreciate them, I just won’t be hanging onto them forever though). To all of you with kids, declutter now – do not delay any further or your kids will have an awful job trawling through everything!!

Alzheimer’s can be cruel but also kind. After the initial tough months when my mum first moved to the home, she is now the most serene I have ever known her. All that matters is the “right now”. We visited her as often as possible while we were in the UK to give her those short happy moments of seeing us. I used to think it was important to give her happy experiences and memories so that she can enjoy those memories in later years but it has all gone. It is all about the “now” now. It is reassuring to know that my sister and brother-in-law are just down the road from her – they have both been amazing in visiting her on a regular basis. Giving her those short burst of joy is all we can do. They will continue to visit and I will video call her. I am at peace that I have said all I have wanted to her over the years, have quietly said goodbye to her now and have no regrets.

Last but not least, I am grateful to have such a supportive sister and brother in law. We have gone through so much over a lifetime, keeping ourselves sane throughout our lives and more recently through this process. That is priceless.

Anthony and I will be home in a couple days – we are looking forward to some quiet routine, home cooked meals and catching up with friends. It feels like a lifetime since we left.

– Anne

May 9 2026

Moore to see at Kew

Kew Gardens or to give its proper title “Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew”, is a place we have surprisingly never visited. Located in London on the south bank of the river Thames, Kew Gardens started in 1759 as a nine acre royal garden founded by Princess Augusta and has grown into a world renown Botanical garden and research housing the “largest and most diverse botanical and myological, yes I had to look up that word, “fungi” in the world and is also another World Heritage site to add to our list.

At over 330 acres today, Kew offers an amazing range of plants to see. Again the weather has been beautiful: in all our time in the UK, we have hardly seen a rainy day wherever we have been. We are lucky to see spring unfolding before our eyes as we walk around the gardens.

If you visit before the end of January 2027, you can see 30 of Henry Moore’s sculptures in an exhibition called “Monumental Nature” which we were lucky enough to enjoy seeing being setup during our visit. Opening on May 9th for eight months, these amazing sculptures are on display. Go and enjoy.

“Large Reclining Figure” 1983/4 by Henry Moore

Hint. Note that it is worth getting an annual membership for not much more than the price of single entry and allow for multiple visits.

– Anthony

Mar 31 2026

Spring is coming

As we said previously, “house clearing needs a break”, after three weeks back on the job and with the painters now firmly ensconced in the house, another road trip beckons. Having been West, and noting South and East offering limited travel opportunities geographically if you are based in Canterbury Kent, Northwards it will be for our second road trip.

Similar to our last trip, a mixture of family, friends and who knows what else is ahead of us. While winter still has it’s icy grip, well in the opinion of two sun loving Queenslanders, the first green shoots are appearing as we head north up the M1 for Scotland. After a night in the Midlands where we have our first experience using a PHEV, “plug in hybrid car” for the uninitiated including me . Our hire care is so new that only 6 miles on the odometer and the recharging cables in sealed plastic bags. Given our own car is 28 years old, this was a huge technological leap for us but we survived, managed the app. and charged the battery at a price equivalent to using petrol/gasoline. No savings there.

Just off our route north is Leeming Bar, a small village and home of the Wensleydale Railway. As someone, me, who has an interest in railways, a short detour is in order. The railway is not open but a member of the railway gave a short tour. Thank you.

Onward north and a refuelling stop in Aln, and you guessed it another heritage railway just minutes away. Being winter, the railway is closed to the public, as the others we have visited, however a number of volunteers were working and I was asked if we were interested in joining a train heading out for driver training. What a great opportunity and we were off. At the end of the line, we were invited into the cab of the British Rail Class 11 diesel No. 12088 where we stayed in the cab for the shunting and carriage reattachment, then on run back to Lionheart. Hopefully we both learned a little about driving a Class 11 and the various volunteers we talked to were appreciative of our visit and gave us a unique opportunity.

Interestingly this Class 11 has been fitted for vacuum braking at the last overhaul to allow passenger carriages to be hauled for those railway buffs amongst our loyal followers.

BR Class 11, 0-6-0 Diesel Electric Shunter No. 12088 ‘Shirley’

In the engine shed at Lionheart on the Alm valley railway.

Finally we arrive at my cousin Jeff’s place in Scottish border country after passing through the town of Coldstream, which a famous British Army regiment takes it’s name from. We had not seen Jeff and Fen since we were last in South Africa back in 2016. We enjoyed great hospitality and a glimpse of another part of the world that we had merely passed through on previous occasions when were in Scotland. Trips to Coldstream, Kelso and chilly walks in the country, much chatting, laughing and happy reminiscing filled our days.

Spring in Brisbane seems to be an overnight experience as we move from winter to summer, the last two months in the UK have seen the gentle unfolding of spring as only a temperate climate can do. While we were surprised to see flowers upon our arrival in mid February, the trees have taken a more traditional path to summer. The stark black outline of the trees along the road as we head along the byways has steadily been softened by the ever growing presence of green as buds become leaves and will soon be a green patchwork quilt obscuring the branches.

Leaderfoot viaduct, disused, near Tweedbank.

Across to Dumfries and another enjoyable afternoon and evening with cousins Richard and Celia. While the online methods of keeping in touch are great, there is nothing like face to face contact.

Teapot row in Otley, Yorkshire built by Anne’s great Grandfather.

Heading back into England as we head south from Carlisle, the low clouds over the lake district have a strange hue, no its snow! While nature is on board with Spring, Jack Frost’s icy grip has yet to be relinquished. What has been surprising is the farming activity. Everywhere we have seen large tractors pulling even larger trailers purposefully moving across the countryside. Don’t get to close to the back of the trailers as I suspect most are filled with some kind of smelly fertiliser.

Anne has wanted to visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield and this trip provides the opportunity. The Park, which was established in 1977 and covers 500 acres with both indoor and outdoor sculptures. Interestingly not all sculptures are on permanent display, with special exhibitions being held. We had a great day just wandering around the park enjoying culture and exercise at the same time.

Daniel Arsham: Unearthed Bronze Eroded Melpomene

Abigail Reynolds’ “Trilobite” features 120 glass lenses that distort the view

“Wilsis” by Jane Plensa looking towards Bretton Hall.

Now that’s a handbag – can hold everything.

Kingston upon Hull Football team nicknamed the “Tigers” sadly was the only knowledge I had of the city. Neither of us had ever visited this part of the country. We are here to catch up with Phillip, my cousin, and his partner Nikki. Phillip and I had not crossed paths in over 40 years. How time flies. It was good to catch up and we have agreed that we should probably not wait another 40 years to catch up again.

The restored 1927 Spurn lightship in Hull harbour

If I had not seen a short segment on the history of “Cream” coloured telephone boxes in Hull a couple weeks ago, I would have had no idea that when all the public telephone boxes operated by various councils around the country were merged under the General Post Office (GPO), Hull decided to keep its network, called KCOM independent. When Red was chosen for all public telephone boxes, Hull kept theirs “Cream” and today they are Heritage listed.

New friends and white telephone box in Hull.

As Anne took a photo of the cream telephone box, carefully positioning herself to crop out two ladies smoking beside it, one cheekily called out – do you want us in your photo? Yes please Anne responded enthusiastically and after a good half an hour chatting with these two best friends, we declined joining them to their next pub gathering knowing we would not be able to get away for hours. Such a fun heart warming encounter.

Our first observation in Hull as we walked in the early morning sunshine was the number of shops with closed steel shutters which felt a little depressing. As we walked back to our hotel after lunch on Saturday, we find every pub and club packed overflowing with people of all ages enjoying the afternoon. So different from the morning. As we found during our week spent in Termini Imerese last June, one cannot make assumptions about a place on just first impressions.

Our first impression of Hull city centre.

Queen Victoria Square and Town Hall in Hull

A great week’s respite seeing cousins and March 2026 is now over (yes this post is very very late), back to house clearing.

– Anthony

Mar 1 2026

Westward Ho!

I have borrowed both the title of Charles Kingsley’s book and the name of a small north Devon town actually named after the book, for this blog, however with good reason. We are on the road heading to the western most point on mainland England. The town’s name is also the only one in the UK to include an exclamation mark.

After arriving in the UK and a relaxing weekend catching up with Diane and Jeremy, we head to Canterbury. The reason for coming to the UK in winter is to clear Anne’s mother house for future sale as she has moved into a retirement home. No exciting exotic locations this time I am afraid, just elbow grease, mostly, for the next couple of months.

After two solid weeks of house clearing/sorting, a soul crushing experience, a break is called for and a chance to catch up with family and friends. We have planned a week long road trip heading west all the way to Land’s End.

To collect the car for our trip from Gatwick Airport, we must take multiple trains and in doing so end up with just under an hour to spare in Tonbridge Kent en route. Here I spent my first Christmas with Anne way back in 1974. We walk the high street, but every shop has changed since I lived there, even my local pub where I once worked has become a child care centre! Nothing like getting them started young!

As we cross the South Downs in Sussex, the water running down the side of the road is white! So much rain even the chalk hills are fully soaked.

We spend the first weekend of the road trip with Anne’s nephew Timothy, his wife Bex and two sons near Salisbury, explore the city and have a great weekend with them all. Next stop is my sister Tansy where we are treated royally with as generous hospitality as we were in Salisbury. What can you bring to such people? Well sunshine of course. It seems that the south of UK has been under grey clouds and almost continuous rain since the start of the year. We, it seems as per the photos below, are able to conjure up blue skies and sunshine from time to time although I think our powers do have limitations. We have been referred to as “Sun Whisperers” by one individual, nice title I think but probably a little unrealistic.

With Tansy and John, we visit Wimborne Minster and get a short tour of the Minster of St Cuthburga church by the Canon who Tansy knows. The Minster has a history stretching back 1,300 years and even has a king buried there, although they are not sure where.

We depart Dorset for Exeter, following the same route we took on Streak and Storm back in 2022, but that was in summer. A car in winter is a much more comfortable option. As a child, we always by-passed Exeter on the way to our summer holiday destination in South Devon. I have never visited Exeter, but today, that all changes. We are visiting our friend Sam who lives there.

After lunch Sam takes us on a unique walking tour of Exeter taking us from Roman times, through Medieval and Victorian to the reconstruction after WW2 bombing damage. Roman walls, complete Elizabethan houses moved to make way for roads and much more, Exeter is a fascinating place, and with the right guide such as Sam, well worth a visit. We will return one day for a more detailed look.

Was this house’s shape impacted by being moved?

It has been estimated that there around one million potholes in the UK, about one every 100 meters. Local councils are supposedly responsible for their repair but are financially constrained, who isn’t? As Anne drives across Dartmoor trying to avoid the water filled potholes on the narrow single track lanes, we come across some enterprising local men and women filling potholes. I suggest to them that after the repairs they set up a toll booth as those who maintained roads centuries ago did to pay for the repairs and they do need a Wacker Plate so all donations would be gratefully accepted if you are passing through Widecombe-in-the-Moor.

Enterprising Pot hole fillers in the depths of Dartmoor

Dartmoor with the sun bathing the distant hills

We make our way to the nearby and very quaint Rugglestone Inn to meet Pat and Andy, our friends from Brisbane who have settled in Cornwall. It has been a couple of years since we last met, we were on Streak and Storm then. The conversation flows and it is great to see that they are well and happy. Pity they so far away, but I am sure we will catch up again in some remote pub in the west of the UK.

Our next stop is the North Devon hamlet of Rockford. and a opportunity to take the back roads, the shortest route across Dartmoor. The narrow single track lanes, in places covered in layers of mud and water, make for an interesting journey. At times a 4×4 would seem more appropriate but we reach our destination and enjoy an evening drink with the hosts in the Rockford Inn. A short walk along the East Lyn river showed us the beauty of this area and gave us a taste of the variety of walks available.

A short detour as we head west to the Lynton & Barnstable Railway.

Beautiful 2-4-2T a new build finished in 2017.

As we pass Bodmin, this is the furthest west we have been in Cornwall to date. We are going all the way west to Land’s End this time, and then back to see Tiff, another of the adventure motorcycling world which we fortunate enough to be part of. Tiff lives in Porthcurno, a small village close to Land’s end, known for the terminus of the first undersea telegraph cable and the Minack Theatre, but first Land’s End.

Late in a February afternoon with the wind whipping rain around us and clutching our headgear we made our way to the end of mainland England. Our first time here and judging by the lack of company plus everything being closed, this is probably not the best time to visit, but we do enjoy the outdoor elements and while our stay was brief, we were happy to have seen Land’s End.

We arrange to meet Tiff at the Minack Theatre, not realising that she was cycling there in the rain. As we catch up over coffee, the clouds part and sunshine beams down on us. Tiff suggests we start with the Rowena Cade Museum, she is right. Rowena Cade’s story is both fascinating and a testament to what a single person can achieve. Starting in 1929 she and a few helpers carved a theatre of of the Cornish cliffside. From carrying sand up the cliff to creating carvings Rowena Cade spent decades building what is an amazing clifftop theatre that attracts both performers and over 100,000 visitors a year. I will leave the rest of this fascinating story of a formidable woman for you to uncover when you visit.

Looking down to the Minack Theatre stage

An overnight stop in Torquay and we are back on the job at hand. Three weeks to the next road-trip.

– Anthony

Feb 7 2026

The Kangaroo Route Reimagined

As we enter the Qantas lounge at Brisbane International and our boarding passes are scanned by the friendly staff, I realise that this is almost the first person we have interacted with since our friend Jane dropped us off at the airport. Baggage tags printed by a kiosk, luggage whisked away by an automated bag drop, boarding passes sent electronically to our phones, through Immigration via a kiosk and no interaction with anyone apart from the one person getting us to come forward into the body scanner at the security check. At least we still have crew on the aircraft!, Times they are a changing…

Outbound heading for Singapore on the first leg of our journey to the UK. Previously this has been a one stop 24 hour trip for us in economy with the attendant jet lag, but over the years, we have found this journey harder and harder. Time for a change.

In the 1930’s, Qantas Empire Airways and Imperial Airways, great names, started a 12 day service between Australia and the UK. The service had over 30 stops, some just to refuel, and passengers flew in small noisy aeroplanes with inflight service being sandwiches distributed by the pilots during the day. Nights were spent on the ground with dinner and sleeping in what I hope was a comfortable bed. We plan to emulate the better aspects of this, daytime flights, although only 2 stops over four days in modern aircraft and comfortable hotels. We realise that this will cost more but provides more measured time changes and the opportunity for a little sightseeing en-route. We will have one night in Singapore and two in Doha. Travelling from Australia to Europe the route opportunities are endless and perhaps some of the smaller airlines could work together to create such options for people like us, rather than the one airline through journey, at a reasonable price.

Out for dinner in Singapore: we thought Thai restaurants would be good for gluten free food, but a number of places we tried said no, or just offered plain rice. Possibly because they were not set up for tourists. We settled on grilled fish at an Indonesian restaurant followed by a comfortable night’s sleep.

The “Jewel” at Changi Airport sans water

Free overnight accommodation at Changi Airport

Singapore Passport control outbound does not require any use of a passport as my attempts to find a place to insert the passport are to no avail. I am assuming facial recognition in use similar to Hong Kong airport flight boarding last year. How many copies of my face exist on computers around the world now?

Our Qatar Airways flight to Doha is not full and we have a spare seat next to us, great. Free Starlink provides connectivity to the internet en-route, a first for us. We can see and connect to the world, apart from over India where the service was suspended, for web, emails, messages. I used to enjoy the long haul flights for work without the distractions of emails and messages. No such luck today. Although Anne is happy to continue chatting via Whatsapp or Messenger while flying.

Even the “2slowspeeds”, supposedly experienced travellers, get it wrong: as we pass through Doha customs, an alarm goes off and we are called aside. We have a bottle of Finnish Liqueur that Anne brought for her sister last year and we were taking to England. Confiscated, no alcohol allowed into Qatar: all luggage must have been scanned before getting to us on the luggage carousel and they even x-ray hand luggage on arrival. What a waste and disappointment.

Why I ask myself am I holding 9.75 kg. / 21.5 lb. of dates when we only went out for 50 grams of saffron? Well, as we walked to the Souq Waqif, there was the “4th Souk Waqif International Dates Exhibition”, no not “Dating”, “Dates” the eating kind. Now Anne is partial to these small tasty fruits so we had to go in. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Algeria, Sudan, Palestine and a host of other countries were showing their wares. Tasting opportunities abound and we take full advantage, hence the packages in my hands. An unexpected opportunity as the exhibition only opened in the afternoon and some stands were still setting up.

Being Friday our second day starts late. Nothing is open until 12:30 at the earliest so no rush to get out, plus the temperature is a cool 19 degrees celsius. Anne has noticed that Art Basel Doha opens to the public today. An opportunity to see what is happening in the art world here in Qatar. Anne spends a couple of hours there.

In today’s of world of instability and wars, it is not surprising that there is an overwhelming message and representation of environmental and political pressures and human displacement embedded in many artworks.

Continents in Gestation (2024) is a large-scale, shimmering tapestry by acclaimed Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui, crafted from repurposed aluminum bottle caps and copper wire.

Fascinating detail of El Anatsui’s artwork

Khalil Rabah – Transition, among other things

Beautiful people posing in front of artworks

Bouthayna Al Muftah
Living: Architectures of Memory

And the finally some colour to lift the mood …

Perfect photo bomb as Anne was about to take a photo

We had previously been to both The National Museum of Qatar and the Museum of Islamic Art in 2025 but had not been to the Heshrap Modern Art Museum. Time to remedy that. The museum is accessible by Metro and Tram some 16km from our location. The Tram here was likely built to transport fans to the World Cup football matches at the 44,000 seat Education City stadium. Today we are the only passengers apart from the Kenyan security guard with whom we talk about Nairobi, where we lived back for a couple of months in 1982/3, Mandazi (Kenyan doughnut), Matatu Kenyan minibus/taxi and Mzuntu (foreigner), some of words we all know come flooding back. We had a good time in living in Nairobi. Each of the Kenyans we met asked when we were going back. Good question. After so much time has elapsed, would anything we knew still be the same?

Coming out of one gallery, we are greated with this intriguing display:

Walid Raad and Pierre Hughebaert installation

In the middle of it is a notice with the following:

“Commissioned by Mathaf, we (Walid Raad and Pierre Hughebaert) set out to create a mixed media installation for this corridor, assembling headlines and statements by artists, curators, and others working in the arts about the wars in Palestine-phrases we wish were ours, and ones we would never claim. After shipping our materials to Doha, we arrived six weeks ago to find our assigned corridor arranged in an odd way. It quickly became clear that someone, most likely a technician or staff member, simply aiming to be helpful, had organized our materials to make installation easier. We abandoned our plans and decided to leave space as it was. Needless to say, we spent weeks trying to identify the culprits who had freely yet fastidiously laid these “facts on the ground.” But to no avail.”

We wonder what the artists’ original intention was

Palestinian Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara depicts massacres and family displacement

Using the Metro and Trams is easy and cheap. A day pass for six dirhams (AU$2.5) allows unlimited travel on both. Very good value and need to be brought from the staff at offices at each station, not the machines I think.

For dinner we are back to our favourite Philippino restaurant Shore Time where they do a grilled chicken and steamed vegetables for the troublesome coeliac. Nice to have eating places I can return to. One more night’s sleep and we will be heading to London.

Spend US$40 on a limited edition strawberry flavoured Toblerone, only 15 left “even comes with a numbered certificate to remind you of what you ate” the salesman espouses. Much as I love Toblerone, gluten free and all, I will pass on this one. Smoked salmon for brunch with a glass of bubbly in one of the many Qatar Airways lounges will have to suffice.

Relaxing in the Qatar Platinum/Gold lounge in Doha

Seems that the days of wearing masks on plane is over. We appear to be the only people wearing masks. While waiting to board our flight to London, the coughing around us sounds to me like an orchestra tuning. Never heard so many people coughing, but no one seems to care, we are keeping masks on and bugs out! We will let you know how that turn out.

London in 3 hours but no planned motorcycling on this trip, too cold and wet amongst other things. We have enjoyed taking this travel approach, only daytime flights and spending time sightseeing en-route: I think this will form the basis of our travel to Europe going forward.

– Anthony

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